Oaxacakid

I'm just a sophomore in high school, but I have also had the opportunity to travel and live in different countries since my parents are missionaries. With this background I would also be interested in a job that had a lot of travel involved.

One job that would appeal to me would be a world missions coordinator for a church organization. I know it would not be the best job for everyone due to the religious ties, though. I've always thought it would be fun because I hear a lot about our "director of world missions" making trips all over the world to visit places where we have missionaries. In contrast to most of the jobs described in this thread, he doesn't spend most of his time on airplanes. He goes places to see the mission work that's being done there so he really gets to see a lot of the country he's in (not just the inside of an office/hotel/conference room that happens to be in that country. And since he functions as director for all our world missionary work he gets to travel to countries all over the world.

Now that I think about it, there are probably similar jobs in other charitable organizations such as the Red Cross.

ContinentalFan

Welcome to FT, Oaxacakid!

Back to the OP: two other professions that may require a lot of travel would be investment banking (perhaps not as much) and working in the venture capitalist industry. I think that the latter could command a lot of travel.

PresRDC

It took me a little while (3 years after law school graduation), but I finally have landed the job that is perfect for me. I am a lawyer for a large aerospace company, where I provide legal support for our sales force on sales campaigns with airlines based in northern Asia (northern China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan), Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East.

Since April 1, I've spent 10 weeks in China working on a joint venture deal with a Chinese airline. In addition to flying First Class to China every few weeks (upgraded from J), on my way our meetings, I get to drive across the tarmac at our partner's home airport. That doesn't get old (although getting nearly runover by a LD3 loader is not all that much fun).

My advice is to pick the career track that you are most suited for, work hard, be mindful of opportunites that may arise and good things will happen.

Internaut

Dare I add that it helps to be a little flexible? I like the travel part of my job but I've had a planned two week assignment turn into being stuck with a cutomer for 2-3 months on more than one occasion. Also, I love the amount of miles and hotel loyalty points I'm earning this year but I haven't a clue when I'm going to find the time to spend them on some serious premium travel.

Also, when going for a job interview where the job involves a lot of travel, don't be afraid to grill them in detail about travel policy. A lot of smaller US companies are no strictly Y only for anyone below VP level.

PresRDC

Indeed. On one of my trips, I was asked to cover another matter that took me from Shanghai to Beijing to Haikou in a week's time. By the time that was resolved, the team for my original project was coming back to Shanghai. I ended up there for five weeks total . . . with four days of clothes!

Absolutely. I wouldn't work for a company that didn't allow J travel for long haul international flights.

Dave8481

Still being fresh out of college there are 5 areas that truly interest me and that I know I could 100% devote myself to 1) Portfoilo/Fund Analysis and Management; 2)Securities Analysis; 3)Investment Banking/Private Equity; 4)Health Systems Management; and 5)The Finance/Marketing area of the airline industry...If I was single I would just move to New York or Chicago and see what I can make happen for myself, but being married now I need to take into account what effect my taking a job will have on my wife and that is why I am hoping for a lower level job at a consulting firm to get some good experience hopefully with the Financial Services Industry and then decide which direction I want to go with my MBA...I am confident that by the time I am 30 I will be doing what I really want to be doing...I wish I had 1 thing I really wanted to do and I knew what that 1 thing was, but I don't think its such a bad thing that there are several things that greatly interest me and I hoping I can work it to my advantage.

Dave8481

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone out there for all of your suggestions, feedback, and individual insights...Probably the most valuable thing I have taken away from this discussion has been questions to ask a potential employer who is going to want me to travel a lot about their travel policies and how the trips are paid for. Do they provide company credit cards? Does the individual have to front the expenses and get reimbursed? How does their reimbursement process work? Do they allow business class travel on longer flights? And just other questions about their policies...Some of these questions I already knew to ask, but some of them I hadn't even thought of and I know having this insight will prevent me from making a big mistake somewhere down the road...Again I appreciate all of the suggestions, feeback, input, and personal experiences everyone has contributed and I am also glad to see others out there in a similar situation to that of my own taking advantage of all of the valuable information which has been provided here...Thank you everyone!

VickiSoCal

Along the military lines, if you have no desire to join the acutal military you could apply to companies that contract with the military. My husband is currrently working on a Army contract and has been traveling about 70% of the time. Granted, Army bases are not always in the most glamorous locations, recently he's been to Fort Jackson, Fort Hood and some place I can't spell in the middle of nowhere Arizona. A minus of traveling on a government contract is that the low per diem and always having to fly the lowest available fare makes it hard to rack up points/miles.

WRCSolberg

Fort Huachuca?

VickiSoCal

Yep.

cstead

I knew that I wanted to go into financial services consulting, despite my BS in Aerospace Engineering, because I knew that I wanted to work with banks and solve money problems. The job requires a good deal of travel. I've been here for 5 weeks now, and things have been slow. I am not very patient when it comes to this sort of stuff: I want to work, I hate waiting, and I can't wait until I have enough expertise to be solving some really cool problems in far off places.

My advice is to be really patient, build up your skills, and accept that you might be flying to somewhere less exciting than NYC or LA every week. The big payoff will come, like it eventually will for me, but the waiting is tough!

BNA_flyer

This topic prompted me to finally register and post my comments after reading FT forums for a while...

My wife and I both travel on a weekly basis as consultants for healthcare organizations. While we both get to stay in comfortable accommodations and are compensated well for our hard work, we've both come to think of our jobs as involving long (extremely long) commutes, rather than travel as one might tend to romanticize it. We're both on long-term projects, so we fly through the same airports (on the same planes, usually; I recognized the loose seatback tray on this week's DC-9 because I was sitting in the same seat on the same plane last week), stay at the same hotels, and work in the same cubicles week after week. I essentially have two home cities between which I divide my time.

Having these jobs and accumulating the perks and points that go with them has allowed us to have some interesting experiences, like the occasional all-but-free weekend trip, but it hasn't always been glamorous. Sometimes the coolest thing about commuting to, say, California for work every week is being able to tell the folks back home that you do it, not the actual commute. That can get to be a grind. If I were you (the original poster) I would think long and hard about what exactly you want to get out of your travels--you may want to focus on something in the travel industry, rather than a job that just coincidentally requires you to travel.

travelmad478

Since the OP asked a while ago for security analysts/PMs to ring in, I might as well. I manage an emerging markets equity portfolio--have been in this job for 8 years. I have the letters BA, MA, MBA, and CFA after my name, but I came to this line of work in a fairly roundabout way...so someone who really knew what they wanted at an early age could probably skip at least one of those qualifications.

Anyway, on to the travel part: I take probably 6-7 overseas work trips per year (anywhere from 1-3 weeks at a time, all over the globe), plus shorter trips within the US to do marketing and go to conferences. All of that is in business class, and it generates a healthy pile of FF miles which I then burn assiduously on vacations, tickets for my BF/friends/family to join me, and so on.

I travel somewhat more than most people on the buy side, partly because my universe of stock coverage is very broad-based, partly because I enjoy it and have no family obligations. But I've found that most private (i.e. non-government) buy-side firms will let you do pretty much whatever travel you feel like. Just don't work for a state or nonprofit pension fund!

The sell side analysts, at brokerage firms, do somewhat less travel than I do, and theirs tends to be a lot more grueling. They are doing up to 10 meetings a day and generally never get to eat because they have to make presentations over breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I wouldn't pick this job, but it's a way to break into the business for many people. The brokerage firms do a lot more entry-level recruiting.

One position that might interest you is being an institutional salesperson at a brokerage firm. These folks do more travel than analysts because they have to accompany the analysts on their trips, the clients (me) on theirs, and company managements on roadshows. Their job requires a good amount of youthful energy because the travel can be very heavy, and because they are often required to keep up with and entertain those clients/company managements who might want entertainment. They are also at the beck and call of brokerage clients (me) and corporate clients, so they don't get to plan their lives ahead like I do.

thegeneral

"A lot of smaller US companies are no strictly Y only for anyone below VP level."

Large companies have the same policies. Do you really expect shareholders to pay for you to sit back and eat champagne and caviar? Last time I checked business operate to make money, not give vacation type perks to employees while working.

I'd check the travel policy for realistic things such as what kind of hotels they allow you to book (Hilton/Marriott types would be a good baseline), whether or not they make you buddy up at conferences (smaller companies do this at large trade shows), whether or not they give you a paid mobile phone, whether or not you have any lattitude in booking fares (I don't mean booking first class, but buying the $420 fare over the $397 one). A good way to judge this is to ask if you can talk to some of the people who work there and travel.

Other good things to check for is if they actually let you call someone to make reservations for your travel vs using a corporate website. The former is MUCH better. Also, companies that offer a per diem vs. having to submit receipts are much better. It works out to be the same cost to them/the client in the end and you end up saving a bunch of administrative work.

luciouzqban0916

Hello There,

Im Probably way younger than most of the people on this website communication system but i recently graduated high school cluelessly to what i wanted to do when i grew up. Thats why my question is what career should i get into that allows me to travel alot but still have time for a family and friends? Ive heard about consultant and sales???