Do you love to travel? Looking for jobs that allow you to travel on someone else’s dime? A career that will take around the world? Keep reading. We’ve assembled the ultimate list of jobs with travel. In this report, you will find a list of both travel careers and travel jobs that will allow you to travel on a regular basis.
Specifically, we will examine:
- What jobs allow you to travel the world?
- Is there a job that pays you to travel?
- How do I get paid for traveling?
- How can I get a travel job?
- And more!
Travel Jobs – Explained
I’ve divided this list of jobs with travel into two categories for easy consumption. First, we have careers with travel. If you are looking to find a long-term job that you can turn into a career this is the list for you. For example, a professional salesperson is a career that likely includes travel.
The second category of travel jobs is just that: jobs. A job is not a career. It’s simply a j-o-b. If a professional salesperson is a career, a guest service operator for a cruise ship is a job. It’s likely something you will do for a while, see the world, have some incredible adventures, and then you will settle into a career. More on this later.
So if you have a passion for travel. A desire to see the world, or even just see more of your country, then keep reading as you will likely find several great careers or jobs with travel that are right up your alley.
Careers with Regular Travel – aka a Travel Career
There are many careers with travel where regular travel is incorporated into your ongoing duties. Many are even open to entry-level candidates, while some tend to be more suited to employees with a few more years of experience under their belt. Whatever stage you are at in your employment history, there’s like several careers with travel that can be both lucrative and fulfilling.
Here are a few careers with travel:
- Sales
- Become a Technical Sales Engineer
- Consulting Career
- Become a Project Manager
- Become an Installation Engineer
- An “Executive”
Sales – a great travel career
Sales remains a top contender for jobs with travel. If you can sell something, you can make a lot of money, and unless you are selling cars or work retail sales, it’s likely you will be traveling.
At my company, for example, salespeople cover their assigned territories or geographies. We have a Western US sales team that has reps that cover 2-3 states in their assigned territory. Their job is to be in front of customers every day of the week and that means they are on the road.
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It’s a mix of air travel and driving. Of course, there are regular conferences and trade shows they must attend too. Their sales manager supports those reps across the entire territory. A career in sales is not only lucrative (if you are good at it), but very fulfilling – and it can take you on the road! Sometimes as much as 75% of the year!
And as a sales rep, you will likely get to stay in decent digs…like Hilton’s or Marriotts.
Become a Technical Sales Engineer
Each of those sales reps I mentioned in the previous section likely has an assigned technical sales engineer that often accompanies the sales rep on their journeys. They assist with demonstrations of products, answer technical questions, and support trade show setup and tear down. If you are a techie who’s good in front of customers and is looking for careers with travel, a technical sales engineering role might be the perfect fit for you.
Consulting
Consultants use your watch to tell you what time it is. Or so a crusty old executive I once worked for told me. All joking aside, consulting can be a very rewarding career for those who like to “fix” problems.
As a consultant not only will you travel pretty extensively (I was on the road about 90% of the time – all over the USA), but you will find yourself involved in all kinds of different projects and problems and with unique clients.
I once had a client in the State of New Mexico that had me traipsing all over that great state doing cyber security audits as part of our consulting contract. I tasted some delicious food in Santa Fe, saw Balloons during their annual balloon fest, visited some great Breaking Bad set locations, and visited the Zuni Indian reservation where I stayed in a hotel that was out of the back of the local grocery store (you can read that story here in Obscure places (Part 1) I’ve traveled for business (or Magic City, Monk Fudge & Zuni, NM) ). What an experience!
Typically, the best consultants are those who’ve been there and done it and thus have the experience (or “quals” as we call it) to be credible with the customer. However, many large consulting firms like Boston Consulting and Gartner hire fresh-out-of-school consultants in analyst-type roles. You will be placed on a team of consultants and get to do the grunt work. But it can still be very rewarding.
If you are looking for a serious travel job, then perhaps consulting is for you!
Become a Project Manager
The world is desperately in need of organized people. And project managers – especially good ones – are just that. The robots may take our jobs, but they will never automate project managers! haha. Although………
In all seriousness, Project Management is not only a credible and lucrative vocation, it’s also a job that in the right domain can involve a good deal of travel. For example, at company’s I’ve worked at, our project managers were responsible for coordinating the implementation of large systems at our customer’s sites.
These multi-month, complex projects required them to travel to the customer’s locations for many weeks at a time. And they usually managed multiple projects. They were some of the busy road warriors our company had.
Now, it’s worth noting that not all project managers travel. We have some internal Project Managers who never set foot in an airport. They are software development project managers, responsible for managing the internal development of solutions.
The people and projects they matter are inside the four walls. And while they may still occasionally travel (e.g. to a conference or large meeting somewhere), they are largely NOT on the road.
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So be careful with this field, but if you can find the right domain to apply your clever organizational skills, Project Management can be a wonderful field that also includes decent travel!
- PS…if you become a project manager you likely need to get the PMP cert. Here’s a great study guide.
Become an Installation Engineer
Someone has to turn the wrenches. Often, projects need engineers who travel to the customer’s location to install and configured systems. My company has a cadre of people we call “field engineers” who travel every week to a new location. Their job is to rack and stack our systems for customers and then configure them, test them, and cut them over to live production systems.
I have a friend who works for a laser eye surgery equipment manufacturer. His team of installation engineers travels the country each week to install new laser eye repair systems.
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If you are technical in nature and don’t mind getting your hands dirty, a career as an installation engineer could be a very rewarding travel job. One downside to this travel job is that you often have to bring tools with you — tools that you likely cannot carry on to the plane. That means you are violating the Number 1 Travel Hack of All Time – and checking bags (like this cool Pelican hardcase luggage for tool kits). This means you will travel a bit slower than the rest of us – but that’s not the end of the world.
An “Executive” – definitely a job that will allow you to travel (probably more than you want!)
This is what I do. The “big boss” as they say. LOL…
An executive (aka Sr. Manager) these days is going to spend a LOT of time on the road. Yes, we use Skype and Hangouts and conference calls, but a seasoned exec will spend more time in airport lounges and Hilton’s than he or she does in his hometown (although in this post-pandemic world, it’s a heckuva lot less these days).
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You can be an executive in just about any field. Maybe it’s tech like me. Or sales. Or maybe operations. Whatever the role or vocation, an executive is a great career for those who want to travel.
Speaking of executive life, this book about executive presence has been a game-changer for me. Worth a look!
And here’s an interesting video about how to find an executive job:
Other interesting Careers with travel
There are quite a few other careers with travel, but I simply couldn’t go into them in great detail. However, we have provided a brief summary of some of them for you:
- Join the Military – See the world! Get shot. Etc. Truth be told, service to one’s country is a very honorable thing. I spent 4 years in the Marine Corps and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. And in the military, you get to travel! Sometimes all over the world. This may be the noblest of all the Jobs with Travel and you can make a career out of it if you really want to.
- Become an oil rigger / roughnech – I see these guys from time to time when I am out on the road. Ran into a bunch of surly-looking fellows at a Hampton Inn in North Dakota. They make good money, work hard and follow the oil. I have an uncle who works on the Alaskan pipeline. He spends a month in Alaska, then a month at home. Rinse and repeat. Makes GREAT money. He’s also spent time in the fracking industry traveling to exotic locals like North Dakota and Western PA.
- Become a Travel Blogger – I am not sure if this is really a career. But I suppose you COULD technically make it one as have some of the big-name travel bloggers in the industry. Folks like Nomadic Matt. Here’s a list of some other Travel Bloggers you might want to follow. For me, Travel Blogging is more of a side hustle. Or an obsession. But not a career. #ChangeMyMind.
- Kobe Beef Insemination Specialist – True story. I sat next to a nice young lady once on a trip whose job it was (I swear to god) to match female cows up with high-grade Kobe steers for the purposes of making the BEST steaks. She was a cow matchmaker. Made GREAT money too. And she traveled ALL over the world. I have no idea what her actual job title was, but I will never forget it. So yeah, there are some weird ones out there too!
- Flight Attendant – Your job is literally to travel! Pay’s not great, but you get to stay at nice hotels and literally travel just about every single day. Learn how to become a FA here.
- Photographer / Videographer. I had a coworker once whose best friend traveled the world filming TV shows. One week he was filming an MTV special in San Diego, and the next week shooting Bear Grylls in Africa.
- Here’s a bunch of other careers with travel too: Professional Rodeo Clown, Rodeo guy, Pop star/Music legend, movie star, stunt double, TV host, be in a band, a roadie, be the manager of a band (I once sat next to the business manager for Insane Clown Posse…real nice guy actually), carpenter (travel where the work is), and so on…
What careers with regular travel did we miss? Join the conversation by leaving us a comment or hit us up on Twitter. And if you take the route of landing a Career with Travel, get yourself educated by learning some of the important travel hacks and travel tips that anyone who travels for work needs to know.
Jobs with Travel – let’s talk about some J-O-B-s
Sometimes a full-blown career doesn’t make sense, and you just want (or need) a job. There’s nothing wrong with taking a job at any point in your life and for any reason.
Frankly, if you are at a point in your life where taking a job is something you can do, I recommend it. And by can do I mean you don’t have a family or substantive bills that require a more substantive lifestyle. I know many people with full-blown careers that wish they could take a simpler job, but that mortgage and those auto loans simply won’t allow it.
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Here is a list of jobs with travel:
- Work on a cruise ship. Here is a website with current jobs on cruise ships. (note, this is also a potential career path for folks looking to work in the cruise industry full time for the duration of their career, but many use it as a job – for time).
- Become an Expat. I almost took a job as an ex-pat in France for 2 years. As an ex-pat you live in a foreign country, on behalf of your company. Great experience and you likely get paid good money! Depending on your field, this could actually be a career with travel instead of just a job. Here’s a website that provides expat jobs.
- Vagabonding. – Rolf Potts “seminal” work on the becoming a Vagabond describes life on the road that may be very appealing to those not constrained by life’s common burdens (like a family, or bills). Vagabonding could be a very fun way to live, but honestly, it’s about $10.00 a week away from being homeless… (and for some, maybe it’s a career?!?!?).
- English Teacher (Teach English in a Foreign Country) – English is the language of business and everyone wants to learn it. A job as an English teacher abroad could provide just enough shekels to support your wanderlust. Here’s a website with some teaching jobs, abroad.
- Tour guide (scuba guide, etc). We’ve all met a guy name Sven or Massimo who runs a tour in whatever place you are visiting on vacation. Many times they are locals, but often they have relocated Americans who live simply, and love to show people around. You can find some tour guide gigs, here.
- Activity Instructor (Yoga, Surfing, Snowboarding, etc). Want to learn how to surf? Or snowboard? Then “Evan” can teach you (seems like they are all named Evan or Dirk or something…haha). I know people who rotate into places like Breckenridge for snowboarding season – work as an instructor, then down to San Diego to teach surfing in the summer. Must be nice to live so freely, but it could be a great summer or winter job that gives you a chance to see some cool parts of this world.
- Become a sailor (I don’t mean navy or cruise ship). Like a yacht. Or a merchant marine. Boats move most of our merchandise around the world. Big giant boats (like the one that Captain Phillips was in charge of…).
- Missionary / NGO Worker (you could argue this could turn into a career, by the way). Go join the Peace Corps, or volunteer with your local church to be a missionary. This travel job will give you a sense of purpose and the ability to truly help! Here are some missionary jobs.
- Travel Blogger. As I said, this is really a job, or maybe a hobby instead of a career, but, if moderately successful, it could bring in some extra side hustle income.
- Digital Nomad / Travel Influencer. Check out LayerCulture’s explanation of how to become a Digital Nomad. Or watch this video below and see what a travel influencer does:
- Au Pair. Nannies are ever so popular right now. My daughter worked as a nanny for a while and it was financially pretty lucrative while she worked her way through college. My brother-in-law had an au pair from France for a few years. She traveled everywhere they did, and she got to see a lot of the US this way. Here’s how to get an Au Pair job.
- Seasonal Jobs (oil, farming, fishing, construction, mercenary…lol). I had a friend who used to leave for 3 months to go work on a Tuna Boat. Made a TON of money doing it. There are lots of seasonal jobs with travel for those willing to work hard and travel far. Work a farm, catch fish, strip mine for Gold in Alaska’s frontier and so on.
- Hit Man (Grosse Point Blank anyone…). Haha…definitely a travel job, but I don’t advise it. Although…man what an interesting blog you could write.
- Check out Weird Travel Jobs – our recent collaboration about the most unique travel jobs folks might take to travel the world
So there you have it. As you can tell there is no shortage of jobs with travel. Whatever or wherever you are in your life, if travel is important to you, you can likely find a job with travel that suits your fancy. And maybe it turns into a full-blown travel career! Or maybe just a J-O-B! A travel job…
Final thoughts on Travel Jobs & Travel Careers – what did we miss?
So, what did we miss? What amazing travel job or travel career did we omit? What jobs that allow you to travel interest you? Maybe a career move? Let us know. Drop a comment, below!
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