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My job IS travel, basically. I leave early in the morn on my 'monday', and I don't see my own home again for up to 6 days later. I then get 1-3 days off, and leave again for another few days. But this changes monthly. I partially got into this field for travel, but reality is not what I had expected. First, the workdays are very long, and our rest periods short. So even though I'm in a different town each night, I don't have the energy nor the time to venture out of the hotel. All I see of most layovers is the airport, the drive to the hotel, and the hotel itself. And hotels - they are my home away from home. Dirty, loud, smelly, too hot or too cold, uncomfortable beds that lead to sleepless nights - they are a way of life for me. I am typing from my laptop in a hotel right now. All this travel is also fatiguing. You know how you feel after a cross country flight? Well I do this a few times each day, day after day, and I'm damn tired all the time because of it. So what few days I get at home, I mostly sleep away. Not the best way to keep a family going!
I could go on and on - but traveling for work has killed whatever joy I used to get from it. I've learned it stinks to travel for work. I still like to get away on vacation, but to travel for work/career sucks. To the point, all this travel and the lifestyle it requires and the price it has exacted upon my relationships with loved ones has me scrambling for a way out this career entirely. Rest assured if I do succeed in jumping ship, I will not be traveling any more!
My husband traveled for work. At first, before we had kids I just complained I was lonely. Then our daughter was born. During her first few months he was on one trip or another for 1 week out of the month. After a week away my daughter didn't recognized him. So he asked for a transfer where there would be less travel. Less trips but longer. Right after my son was born his boss told him they would want him to travel to Asia every 6-8 weeks. He said no and started to look for another job. We are now moving to California for a no travel job. I am dreading the move but happy he will not travel anymore.
So if you are young it could be a good way to get your career started. If you have a family, don't do it.
Years ago, when I was in my mid 20's, I had a job working in a Stockroom, but got the opportunity to be a Summer Sales Relief Rep (taking over Routes for Sales Reps during their vacation) for the same company. I was married at the time and my wife was pregant with our first child. For the first few weeks, the Routes were local, but then the company flew me to Arizona for a week and a couple of other out-of-State Routes. The pay was better than the Stockroom and I wound up getting my own Route, but the whole thing (in the end) did hurt/ruin my marriage. I wasn't with my wife when my daughter was born! My marriage wound up in a divorce one year after my daughter was born. After that, I decided that IF I ever took a "travel job" again, I would have to be completely single to do it. I never got (or took) another "travel job" again!!
Some couples can handle a "travel" type job very good for different reasons, while other couples can't and the marriage can end up in a "cheating" situation or even divorce. Men and women can/do get lonely when a spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend has a "travel" job and that "loneliness" can turn into terrible things. There can be/is very good money in a "travel" job, but some of the reprecusions of it aren't worth the money.
At age 59 now, I absolutely would NOT take a "travel" job and my wife agrees.......for no amount of money!! If you are single and want to travel, take a job like that. But, if you are married (with or without kids), just be careful taking a "travel" job.
Business travel....YUCK!!! I've had jobs that required lots of travel before. I was gone on average 3 weeks each month. I don't travel nearly as much anymore, and so I don't mind it as much now. But like others have posted....it gets old fast especially if you are traveling a lot. Super long work hours, no time to sight see. It's definitely not glamorous.
Typical day while on travel is:
6:00 am - Wake up, get ready and check email at the same time (I live on the west coast, and if I'm traveling to the east coast, this is like getting up at 3:00am). Get some work done before heading to meetings and/or conference. Get a super quick breakfast, and head off to work.
8:00 am - 6:00 pm - non-stop work
6:00 pm - head back to the hotel and check email and get some work done.
7:00 pm - head out to dinner with co-workers/customers for a work dinner where you end up talking about work some more, as if all day were not enough already. Dinner with the co-workers and customers is actually a good thing. I can't tell you how many times I've had to have dinner by myself downstairs in the hotel restaurant or in a nearby restaurant.
10:00 pm - back to hotel. Check email and work until midnight. Next day it repeats all over again.
It's super exhausting. No time to yourself. It's hard to maintain a life back home. Can't make personal commitments during the work week because you don't know if you'll be in town or not. It's so not fun.
There's travel and then there's traveling. You can travel to a location, stay there until you finish your work, come home and then go again. Or you can leave home working your way thru the day spend the night somewhere get up the next morning and start again. My last job was the latter. I sometimes woke up and didn't know where I was. I got tired of it in about 6 mos.
My dad has been in sales my entire life, working for the same company for 35+ years. Until I was about 16, my dad traveled all the time. I remember being very young (4 or so) and crying because I missed him so much. He would generally leave Monday and come back Thursday. I can remember him packing every Sunday, grumpy that he would have to leave the next day VERY early (4am or so). As I got older, he traveled a bit less (maybe stay over for one night or so, mostly in destinations where he could drive rather than fly to) and it was a nice change. Now that I am out of the house, he travels once every other week. Recently, he had to go to a sales meeting in Germany, which he does every so often, and I told him how I always dreamed of going there since I was little, and knew he was going there. He told me that it is awful and he would never want to go there. I now live very far from home and he doesn't want to visit me because he hates traveling so much. I guess I feel very lucky that he would much a sacrifice of his time to offer a better way of life for the fam, but we made do.
I wanted to find out MORE information about travelling jobs. Has anyone had a travelling job and loved it or hated it?
How long does it take for a person to become "burned" out from travelling?
I was offered a job that pays OK, but it involves travel throughtout the US. Some months I might only travel 6 days a month and other months it might be more. If you work a job that requires travel what do you do on the days that you arent flying across the US?
I did it for a long time - a week out and a week in, sometimes 2 weeks at a time, a few times for a month. I did this for years. You do burn out, how long it takes is all relative to the individual and the type of job. Also important is if you are married or not, children, etc. I wouldn't recommend a 50% or over travel job to anyone that is married, if they want to stay married. 25% isn't bad. In fact, I personally get bored if I don't do any travel for a month or so.
I'm talking jobs that you are out 3 weeks out of 4, including weekends. If you are a single person with alot of energy, it works for a couple years. You can have fun and see the world. You can do some sight seeing over the weekend, clubbing at night, etc. You get older, you are married, things change - you're life is working late, because you have nowhere to go, eating dinner alone or with co-workers you don't particularly like, and going back to a 4 walled room to collapse on the bed and watch TV, wake up and repeat the process. And don't even get me started on air travel. You try to deal with domestic issues from 1,000 miles away - it just doesn't work. After a few years it seems you have no life, or that life is going on without you around.
There are a few perks - expenses are paid for, I've got connections in alot of cities, it usually helps the career. Frequent flyer points - I've been to Europe on vacation, with free business class FF travel, more times than I can count.
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