Youth of all generations have entertained the same thought – “What will I be when I grow up?” One thing is for sure, you’re reading this because travel is a part of your life (or it will be). At Jetsetter Jobs, we help youth travelers pursue the travel life experience. On a side note, I use “youth” as a state of mind with no numeric age definitions.
After this great travel/work experience, many will ask:
“How can I do this forever?”
If you’ve already taken the plunge, and want to do your overseas job forever, then you’re already set! However, many people do overseas work as a temporary measure to extend their travels, without the intention of doing that particular line of work as their career.
With a little research and planning, you can ensure a lifetime of travel with a career you love.
First, it’s important to determine what lifestyle you want to have for the rest of your life. Do you want to be a constant nomad or have a home base? Is your home base in Anchorage, Bangkok or Tokyo? Will you always stay in a room at an Airbnb or a suite at the Hilton? The answers to these questions will narrow down potential career choices.
I’ll cover some careers which enable you to either live and work in a foreign country, and/or travel to your heart’s content. The focus will be on permanent and long-term careers with good upward mobility potential. The ideal career type for frequent travel and flexibility involves telecommuting, otherwise, you might be looking for something where travel is required for the job type.
Telecommuting:
- Content Creator – Articles, videos, social media management
If you write or speak well, then writing articles or making videos for website content might be for you. It might take a while to become reputable, but this career is in high demand and constantly growing. - Online Marketing / SEO
If you can help get things sold online, then you’ll be valuable to countless companies. - Administrative – Accounting, virtual assistant, research, etc.
This field usually involves a wide range of work involved in business operations, and spans all industries worldwide. - IT – Systems Administration, Software/Web Development
If you do not focus on maintaining hardware or making on-site visits, this career path can be done from anywhere in the world with reliable internet access. Average income is higher than most other careers. - Graphic designer/illustrator
It can be very difficult to just learn this skill, but for those who have this artistic talent, it’s a great telecommute career. - Securities trading
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_market
There’s a lot of talk about wanting to “be your own boss”. Rarely is that ever true in the sense that you don’t answer to anyone. A company owner answers to customers, and/or shareholders – there’s still a “boss”. Independently trading securities is one of the few careers where you answer to no one. Be warned: This is one of the riskiest and difficult careers to master. - Online Tutor
Students have a constant need to understand topics better. As an online tutor, you’ll need to understand a topic well, and be able to effectively communicate with those you’re tutoring. - Translator
Countless websites and documents need translation into other languages. This career can be coupled with any number of content creation jobs.
On-site, based in a foreign country or with required travel:
- Language teacher
This is probably the most certain way of securing employment overseas. The job in-itself rarely involves travel, but it allows you to have a home base of travel in a foreign country. - Sales and/or Marketing
For decades, the end of travel for sales and marketing personnel was predicted because of innovations like teleconferencing and video conferencing. So far, they’re traveling more than ever. Perhaps virtual reality will change this, but for now, people in these careers are still banking those frequent flyer miles. - Consultant
There’s a constant need to experts in all fields. Selling consulting services involves marketing yourself as an expert. This is usually a good career path for someone who has already established themselves in a career. For example – A blogger who has written hundreds of articles and has been featured in top publications can sell consulting services to help companies improve their readership. - Air Crew – Flight Attendant, Pilot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircrew
Most air transportation employees enjoy flight benefits, but choosing to become a Flight Attendant or Pilot will give you obligatory travel and flight benefits. - Nurse
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travel_nursing
Nurses are in high demand in most parts of the world. In these parts of the world, it’s easy to find travel nursing positions, or just accept positions as an independent contractor.
This is just a small sample of potential career paths. Many of these can be attained in short average time frames of 1-2 years! Make sure to keep your expectations realistic, as you can’t plan to make the average salary of those sub-fields when you first start.
What about my work visa?
If you’re hired to work overseas, your company will usually take care of everything. Otherwise, the answer to this question depends on your work situation, the country you derive income from, and the country you’re living in/visiting. All countries have their own definitions for “work”, “income”, “tourist”, etc, so I can’t concisely cover this topic here. In general, the issue of a work visa is most important if you’re deriving income from the country you’re staying in. Things can become more convoluted if you are a company stakeholder (including freelance), deriving income from your home country, while developing business income in the country you’re visiting. This is not a simple topic and requires country-specific research. A good starting point is: https://www.justlanded.com
In general, if your home country is your home base for travel and you telecommute for work to your home country, then you can get by on tourist visas when you travel. Countries’ visa rules are designed to protect their citizen’s economic opportunities, none of which are affected by you earning money from your home country’s economy.
If your passion is traveling, use your career to make it last a lifetime!
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