10 Exciting Careers for People Who Love to Travel
/“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” Anonymous
Travelling expands my world. When I go to new places, not only do I learn a lot about how other people live, it also helps me to see my own life in a new way. Though my travels have through yearly vacation time, I have imagined what it would be like to have a full immersion into another totally different life.
Many of us do not have the financial means to travel beyond vacation allotments. What if you got paid to do your exploring? The idea of combining work and travel is intriguing. When I talk to people on airplanes who are frequent flyers, I often ask what they do. I have met sales reps, account executives, pilots, CEOs, and importers.
Travelling for work is not only about working for airlines.
Below are 10 occupations to consider if you would like to add travel to your job description.
Tour Guide
Tour guides are often experts in describing to others the history and attractions of a travel destination. Some of the specializations in this field are group tour guiding, corporate guiding and nature guiding. Though tour guides are typically residents where they provide the tours, they can also lead tours to destinations. The most important qualities that a tour guide must have are the ability to work with a variety of people, enthusiasm and knowledge of the particular destination. Being able to speak more than one language is an appealing skill for an employer.
To learn more about being a tour guide check, check out this National Geographic article.
Travel Nurse
Nursing is a career in demand all over the world. The length of time for travel nursing contracts average between 8 and 26 weeks, often including accommodation, benefits and transportation. To find out more about nursing assignments across Canada, check out TravelNurse.ca. For more information on travel nurses, FAQs and Resources, check out this website.
In addition to the technical skills required, qualities that are integral to the position are flexibility, a positive outlook, excellent clinical skills, easily adapt to change, and a quick learner.
International Aid Worker
If you are interested in working with some of the world’s poorest people and travel to remote places, you may find international aid work might be a good fit for you. You would work in developing countries to set up long-term solutions to problems, which may include disaster preparedness, human rights, environment, education as well as many other types of work.
Approximately 250,000 people around the world are working in aid positions such as engineering, medicine, training, fundraising, research and advocacy. There is currently a demand for doctors and water engineers. To learn more about becoming an Aid Worker, see this article.
Field Service Technician
A Field Service Technician is a general term for someone who travels to a site to troubleshoot equipment problems. Field service technicians can work for the government, equipment manufacturers, computer repair companies or construction and transportation businesses.
The best way to enter this field is by having a natural preference for working with equipment. Training programs typically include courses that deal with subjects such as technical mathematics, gear theory, transmissions, hydraulics, welding, engine theory, pneumatics and electrical systems.
Truck Driver
When you think of truck driving and travel, you may be imagining long hours in the middle of the night on some interstate. In addition to long-haul trucking, there are lots of other positions for you to see the world: household movers, container haulers, ice road trucking and driving trucks in other countries.
There has been a shortage of truck drivers for several years so the demand is high. You could also consider a career as a bus driver. Traits of a good driver include reliability, self dependency, alertness, and courteousness. For more information on being a truck driver and international positions, check out Job Monkey - Truck Driving.
Au Pair
Working as an au pair is a foreign exchange where childcare is provided for room and board and the opportunity to experience a different culture. The actual tasks vary with each placement. Other potential benefits may include learning another language and travelling with the family.
To do this type of work, you need to have a keen interest in working with children and all of the responsibilities that come with it. For what it means to au pair including drawbacks, check out this article on au pairing around the world.
Travel Consultant
Travel Consultants provide services to individuals and groups and include meeting management, travel arrangement and guided group tours. Some specializations include: wine tours, cruises, adventure, business, luxury and destination travel.
People who enter this field love exploration and adventure. The best people in the field spend significant amounts of time travelling each year to stay up to date; often they are specialists in a certain sector or part of the world. This article explains the world of a Luxury Travel Advisor.
Teaching English
English is the third most spoken language in the world (the first two are Mandarin and Spanish). With the English language spreading rapidly, there are more opportunities to teach English, both at home and abroad.
As a TESOL (Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages), you might be working with companies to help their employees learn business English skills, students or Academic English for individuals who are writing entrance exams.
There is lots of learn about this profession if you want to teach English abroad. People who experience success in this field have a passion to help students learn and grow. Personal qualities include patience, warmth, creativity, humour and outgoingness.
Dave’s ESL Café is a well-known on-line resource to begin exploring the TESOL world.
Cruise Ship Worker
Working on cruise ships is a way of seeing the world in a unique way, in that you will both work and live in the same environment. An assignment is generally from 4 to 9 months in duration; staff work 7 days a week with shifts off but not likely entire days.
Since a cruise ship is self contained, there are a wide variety of positions including doctors, nurses, engineers, chefs, food servers, entertainers, cleaning staff, hair stylists, casino workers, masseuse, bartender, servers, trainers, human resource managers and more.
Employers look for the following characteristics for cruise ship positions: good teamwork and communication skills, customer service driven, strong work ethic, and a “can-do” attitude. To get a sense of life on a cruise ship, check out this Matador Network article.
Roadie
When a band goes on tour, a roadie provides the technical support. Setting up at the beginning of the gig, looking after the instruments during the show and then packing up when the event is finished are the basic tasks for the job.
Qualities for the position include the ability to keep calm under pressure, work well with a team, reliability, able to follow instructions and an interest in music, technology and electronics.
There is no set way to enter the field but it does help to know how the live music business works. Check out How Becoming a Roadie Works.
Never before have there been so many opportunities to travel and work. Though many of the positions offer a low wage, you may find the perks of the job rich and rewarding, with experiences that you may not be able to have any other way.
To get an idea of living, working, studying, traveling and volunteering abroad, check out these extensive websites:
Job Monkey – The coolest jobs on earth
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