Pros and Cons of Jobs with a lot of Travel
I’m in the pipeline for a gig that has ~50% travel. Has anyone ever been in a travel heavy job. What are pros and cons. How sustainable is it long term? What questions would you ask the recruiter/HM to get a good gauge of what life is going to be like. The HM said that this will potentially be a lifestyle change and I should consider that. What are things I’m not thinking about. Advice appreciated. Thanks!
Traveling within US or around the world?
US travel across random cities
US travel only is really boring after a couple months. Food is the same everywhere. Cities are almost the same. US airlines are becoming the worst airlines. Since you traveling, you tend to eat less healthy food. Watch what you eat.
If you plan to start a family or have a family it would be tough. If single it is fun.
Not sure if it matters to you but it will be tough to maintain a healthy diet and workout routine with a heavy travel job.
100% right. I plan every single part of my trips nowadays and plan meals. Also, exercise bands and 7 min workout app help.
50% travel can be great and you will get what you give. I traveled 3 weeks a month for 8 years and learned what not to do. 2nd time around I did it right.
It's tiring if you can highly function on 6 hours of sleep it's better.
For two years I worked.a job with a lot of international travels. Those were fun as I was young and single. I would go for 3 days to Japan for a conference and would stay from Saturday to the next Sunday everything paid by the company for only 3 days of work. Basically if you can manage it you get free holidays all over the world. Domestic travel though is complete shit. I would not go to a job that is only domestic travel. The rule of thumb is also to never travel on your own time unless you want to spend more time at the place. Also be strong to pushback on travel when you got important things planned at home.
100% regarding the not traveling on private time
Your health will potentially get jacked up and depending on your commitments, it’s hard to see a doctor right away. Also, be careful if you have elderly/not healthy parents.
No pro, you think you will see the city. You won't. All you will see is the airport and hotel rooms.
I did 80%+ travel at a previous company. Complete burn out after about a year. be careful and understand what you can handle. The job you are moving into likely won’t change in terms of travel in the future so if you don’t like the travel your options are often very limited... further the roles outside the company that you are most qualified for will also likely require travel. In my experience, once you start down the travel centric roles, you kind of get stuck. Maybe not true for others.
I did it. My gal had the friends and I had the points! What’s your current role and your future role? Not saying no, but judge if you have the autonomy to say yes or no to individual trips. Oh: Always. Always. Always travel on company time only.
I’m currently a manager at a startup doing consulting/client strategy. The new role would be similar in scope but larger scale and more face to face vs phone.
Do you have family and kids?