It’s a common held belief that if you want to build a successful career, you need to be willing to commit to one location and one company. Far from it. Although building a career as you globe trot won’t be easy, and that’s a fact, it isn’t impossible either. By harnessing the power of the internet and social media then life sat in an office, typing away on a computer, staring at the clock, could be a thing of the past.
There is an alternative to spending each hour at work sat in a small confined office – you can travel the world and move up the career ladder at the same time, enriching your cultural horizons as well as your job prospects. Read on for 5 IDEAL ways to build a career while you travel the world.
Select a career that’s a good fit for traveling
The fact is if you want to build a career while traveling the world, you need to be realistic about your career path. There are some careers that are a fantastic fit for travelers, and others that being on the move is just not fit for. While a career as a journalist, a medical professional, or a chef tends to pair well with a life on the road, a career in hair and beauty, accounting, or childcare, does not. Serious about making a go of things on the road? Then you need to be selective about the type of career that you choose to undertake. Don’t just think about your passions – though these are the best place to start – but also think about the job that will pair well with a life spent exploring every corner of the globe.
Study on-the-go
Don’t fancy spending years at college getting a degree? Consider learning on the road. Thanks to the internet, learning remotely has never been easier. From courses about digital marketing and business management to degrees in nursing, you can learn almost anything remotely and getting a qualification at the end of it. You can learn a new skill from scratch, or you can expand your knowledge in a certain area. For instance, say you are in nursing and want to improve your skills, you can. Want to Do Something Unique with a BSN? Check out your choices by having a browse online. You can learn almost anything over the web, which means that you can travel and learn as you go. Ideally, if you are going to do an online degree or course while traveling, it’s best to choose one with recorded lectures and seminars, so that you can fit studying around your lifestyle.
Speak a second (and third) language
Can you speak a second or even a third language? If the answer is yes, you will find building a career as you travel much easier. The fact is that getting hired abroad is much, much easier if you speak the local language. Of course, you can’t learn every language in the world, but one or two additions to your mother tongue stand you in good stead across the globe. According to research, the three best languages to learn are Spanish, French, and Arabic. If you can master even one of these, you will find that working abroad and building a career becomes that little bit easier. For anyone that wants to work abroad, being able to speak a second language can be a vital skill and one that can propel their progress.
Build a global network
What does having a global network mean? It means having contacts all over the world in a range of industries. The fact is that you never know you may need to call on, which is why it’s so vital to build a global network, made up of all manner of contacts. What you want to do is find a contact for every possibility. So that should you want to move into commercial banking in Dubai, you have a contact for that. Or, imagine you want to break into the photography industry in Paris, you have a contact for that. Say you want to work in medicine in India, you want to have a contact for that. The more hooked up you are in terms of the contacts you have, the better. Once you begin traveling regularly, you will need a global network, so it pays to take the time both building bonds and cultivating new ones.
Create a blog
Building a blog isn’t for everyone, but it’s a great option if you have the skills to write about and photograph your travel. Not only can a blog showcase what you are getting up to in each area of the world, but it can also be a great second income source. Build your blog up, including its concurrent social media channels, and you can earn money from your blog and its social pages. Yes, really – you can earn a good amount of money from blogging, some people even live (and travel) purely off of their blogging income.
So, it is possible to build a fantastic career while you are traveling, it’s just a case of knowing the steps that you need to take to do so. It won’t always be easy, of course, but being able to work and travel at the same time, doing something that you love, makes all the time, effort, and hard work that goes into building this kind of career worth it.
