Job Description: Travel

January 27, 2006 8:20 PM

What jobs are out there that pay you to travel?

Not so much jobs that let you travel or has a major travel component (for instance, my cousin works in fund management and gets to travel a lot), but rather things where travelling is your job.

Ones I can think of: travel writer/journalist, travel TV show host, road staff for a student exchange program, UN ambassador.

Is there such a job that involves going here and there and exploring places?

posted by divabat to Work & Money (14 answers total)

U.S. State Department Diplomatic Courier
http://www.state.gov/m/ds/career/c8857.htm
posted by frogan at 8:23 PM on January 27, 2006

Guided tour leader. Bus driver. Pilot. Stewardess.
posted by smackfu at 8:27 PM on January 27, 2006

Roadie...Air marshal...Truck Driver...Cruise ship anything... Container ship anything...Ferry Anything..
posted by duck at 8:30 PM on January 27, 2006

US military :-(
posted by onalark at 8:34 PM on January 27, 2006

Nurses can travel and do pretty well financially.
posted by justgary at 9:06 PM on January 27, 2006

Professors can travel for purposes related to their "academic work" and usually get reimbursed for it by their departments. So get your doctorate. :-)
posted by BrandonAbell at 10:18 PM on January 27, 2006

Travelling and Exploring:
Movie/TV location scout
Adventure travel guide
On-location news reporter
Agent for musician/athlete
Photographer - National Geographic, world news
CIA handler

Travelling, not so much exploring:
Security detail for President
Safety inspector - food, drugs, aviation/airport, industrial/OSHA, environment, mine
Bank examiner
Food critic - Europe (Guide Michelin, GaultMillau; American food critics are geographically limited to their newspaper's reach)
International executive recruiter
posted by junesix at 11:27 PM on January 27, 2006

Field worker in anthropology or similar field.
posted by nomis at 3:02 AM on January 28, 2006

A third way is to have a career that lets you work for short spells with gaps and pays you well enough to travel in the interim. Teachers, contractors, medical locums, etc. Pure travelling jobs tend to have lousy pay so you could actually be better off with this route.

Consider also the international portability of a particular job: for example somebody qualified as a nurse, chef, electrician, etc could find it easier to get work abroad.

Finally consider academic jobs: vulcanologists, art historians, marine biologists, epidimeologists, etc. These people go on expeditions as part of their job. Have a look at some of the people speaking at London's Royal Geographical society for example and work out what they do.
posted by rongorongo at 5:18 AM on January 28, 2006

What do you mean by travel?
International travel? or local area.
Travelling salesmen can cover a huge area depending on the size of their territory / area. It could be a state, a country, or a continent.
posted by adamvasco at 7:20 AM on January 28, 2006

Travelling salesperson?

(ie., as a customer representative for, say, a biotechnology company that sells tools to science researchers in various fields)
posted by PurplePorpoise at 11:50 AM on January 28, 2006

Field work- surveyors, geologists, biologists, technicians.

Be warned: the thrill wears off pretty fast after the 10th time you break up with someone over it or come home and find your car was broken into and all your pipes have burst..
posted by fshgrl at 2:20 PM on January 28, 2006

Consulting. Granted, you don't see a whole lot outside a conference room or cubicle. But, you build up the frequent flyer miles.
posted by pencroft at 4:04 PM on January 28, 2006

I know someone who helps to manage a touring dance troupe and travels all over the world with them. So, find a job with something that tours regularly.
posted by A dead Quaker at 4:43 PM on January 29, 2006