On the road van/work life
July 3, 2018 1:06 PM Subscribe
My boyfriend and I are looking to buy a van and live on the road for the next 6 months to a year. He sells vintage clothes for a living, and I currently work as an HR Coordinator for a University in Virginia. I’d like to have some sort of stable income, although we will be traveling while he looks for vintage clothing to resell, which will also bring in an income.
My question is: What is a way for me to have a part or full time telecommuting job while traveling and living on the road.
Our lease ends July 31st, so we are looking to get things moving along pretty quickly.
I worked throughout high school and college as a cashier about 36 hours a week. I was hired at a major car insurance company in a call center/customer service right out of college and worked for a year in that position before moving up within the same company to work in HR as a hiring specialist for 3 years. I then moved cities and was able to get another job in HR as an Operations Analyst (which was really a lot of data entry) along with working in a “welcome center” and just answering general questions about Human Resources to employees and applicants. I was recently promoted in December to an HR Coordinator for the college. I’ve been working at the same employer for the past year and 7 months.
My skills/experiences include:
Multi-tasking
Customer service
HR/Hiring
Interviewing
Running background checks
Administering drug screens
Administering placement testing for jobs
I-9s
VISA info
Processing hiring paperwork
Onboarding
Answering phones/questions
I’ve used:
Excel/Microsoft
Adobe
Outlook and gmail- all the google docs/sheets, etc
Applicant tracking systems
PMIS
Banner 9 & 10
Any and all ideas would be appreciated! Basically looking for any type of 100% teleworking job, customer service or HR based with a set pay. I’m open to any hours.
I currently work from home about 1-2 times a week, but certain parts of my job require me to come into work. I’d love to stay with my current position if I was able to work from the road 100% of the time but unfortunately it wouldn’t be possible.
Thank you in advance!
Our lease ends July 31st, so we are looking to get things moving along pretty quickly.
I worked throughout high school and college as a cashier about 36 hours a week. I was hired at a major car insurance company in a call center/customer service right out of college and worked for a year in that position before moving up within the same company to work in HR as a hiring specialist for 3 years. I then moved cities and was able to get another job in HR as an Operations Analyst (which was really a lot of data entry) along with working in a “welcome center” and just answering general questions about Human Resources to employees and applicants. I was recently promoted in December to an HR Coordinator for the college. I’ve been working at the same employer for the past year and 7 months.
My skills/experiences include:
Multi-tasking
Customer service
HR/Hiring
Interviewing
Running background checks
Administering drug screens
Administering placement testing for jobs
I-9s
VISA info
Processing hiring paperwork
Onboarding
Answering phones/questions
I’ve used:
Excel/Microsoft
Adobe
Outlook and gmail- all the google docs/sheets, etc
Applicant tracking systems
PMIS
Banner 9 & 10
Any and all ideas would be appreciated! Basically looking for any type of 100% teleworking job, customer service or HR based with a set pay. I’m open to any hours.
I currently work from home about 1-2 times a week, but certain parts of my job require me to come into work. I’d love to stay with my current position if I was able to work from the road 100% of the time but unfortunately it wouldn’t be possible.
Thank you in advance!
Will you be staying in the USA?
How many hours a week do you need, want or expect you can work?
Are you looking for work within a certain wage range (or min $X/mo)?
Will you always have a wifi connection and be traveling with a modern laptop?
Realizing this may be very difficult to answer, but perhaps it's part of your plan: What happens after this trip to the job(s) you end up doing from the road? Will you stop doing those? Try to return to the college job? It all depends?
posted by AnOrigamiLife at 1:39 PM on July 3, 2018
How many hours a week do you need, want or expect you can work?
Are you looking for work within a certain wage range (or min $X/mo)?
Will you always have a wifi connection and be traveling with a modern laptop?
Realizing this may be very difficult to answer, but perhaps it's part of your plan: What happens after this trip to the job(s) you end up doing from the road? Will you stop doing those? Try to return to the college job? It all depends?
posted by AnOrigamiLife at 1:39 PM on July 3, 2018
I'm not sure from your tone that you are 100% excited by the prospect here. Do you want to this, and what is in it for you?
The way to do this is for both of you to become obscenely good at budgeting every dime, and to figure out how expenses will be split when your partner's income will be inconsistent, and he's driving to every thrift store in the state to source goods. Tools like You Need a Budget are good for the math and structure, but projecting unknowns like fuel costs and 'oh shit the engine blew now what' are super variable.
If you'd be just as happy staying near your friends at your current job that you got promoted in 6 months ago, and having stability and health insurance, and he will do this plan of vanlife regardless, perhaps your move is a compromise to find a cheap sublet for 6 months and throw him in a Prius and keep your job. Perhaps you telecommute with that job for Mon-Tues, and go on the road with him for 4 day jaunts. Perhaps he bartends wed-fri to get health insurance and a steady income. This will give you a consistent place to shower, cook, and sleep.
If you want to change it up, embrace the unknown, and make this a life changing adventure, you need to source a vehicle to live in and kit it out, and sell or put into storage all of your stuff, give notice at your work, and find a new income stream and health insurance in quite short order. You can find telecommuting friendly jobs a lot easier if you have a more specific skillset: there's a lot of project based opportunities for those who can code, do web development, graphic design, or write well. Perhaps August is all about you figuring out what kind of career you would enjoy that you do that has you typing while in the passenger seat while your partner digs through his fourth thrift store of the morning. Traveling the US can be expensive.
Perhaps your landlord would be open to your extending your lease for 3 months while you figure these things out.
But first, you want to get him to show you how the numbers work, and how his business makes a profit factoring in his time and fuel and assorted overhead costs.
relatedly, the folks over at /r/digitalnomad might be good to learn from.
Best of luck wherever the adventure leads you.
posted by enfa at 3:25 PM on July 3, 2018 [16 favorites]
The way to do this is for both of you to become obscenely good at budgeting every dime, and to figure out how expenses will be split when your partner's income will be inconsistent, and he's driving to every thrift store in the state to source goods. Tools like You Need a Budget are good for the math and structure, but projecting unknowns like fuel costs and 'oh shit the engine blew now what' are super variable.
If you'd be just as happy staying near your friends at your current job that you got promoted in 6 months ago, and having stability and health insurance, and he will do this plan of vanlife regardless, perhaps your move is a compromise to find a cheap sublet for 6 months and throw him in a Prius and keep your job. Perhaps you telecommute with that job for Mon-Tues, and go on the road with him for 4 day jaunts. Perhaps he bartends wed-fri to get health insurance and a steady income. This will give you a consistent place to shower, cook, and sleep.
If you want to change it up, embrace the unknown, and make this a life changing adventure, you need to source a vehicle to live in and kit it out, and sell or put into storage all of your stuff, give notice at your work, and find a new income stream and health insurance in quite short order. You can find telecommuting friendly jobs a lot easier if you have a more specific skillset: there's a lot of project based opportunities for those who can code, do web development, graphic design, or write well. Perhaps August is all about you figuring out what kind of career you would enjoy that you do that has you typing while in the passenger seat while your partner digs through his fourth thrift store of the morning. Traveling the US can be expensive.
Perhaps your landlord would be open to your extending your lease for 3 months while you figure these things out.
But first, you want to get him to show you how the numbers work, and how his business makes a profit factoring in his time and fuel and assorted overhead costs.
relatedly, the folks over at /r/digitalnomad might be good to learn from.
Best of luck wherever the adventure leads you.
posted by enfa at 3:25 PM on July 3, 2018 [16 favorites]
How’s your professional network? Are you in touch with previous employers? And do they ever hire freelancers with your skillset?
I ask because, especially when you are starting out, most of your work will come from people you’ve worked with before. I started freelancing this year, and I’m projecting that about 75% of my income will come from projects directly with previous employers and/or previous colleagues. It may be possible to find work on some of those online freelancer sites, but those gigs tend to pay a lot less because you’re competing against more people and there’s less to distinguish you. For instance, when I was in the position to hire freelancers, I always preferred to hire known quantities and I was willing to pay a premium for that.
One other thing: my impression is that there are a lot of networking and professional development resources for HR professionals. Could you tap into those networks? I work in a much less well-developed field, but even here, there are Facebook groups for freelancers to ask each other advice, listserves where, among other things, people send out RFPs for freelancers, and other things like that. This might be a good avenue for you to explore.
Finally just because it has to be said: make sure you have some sort of financial cushion before you do this. Some will recommend 6 months. I left my job with two months savings and a promised gig and it worked out (so far!) but I was pretty lucky. If you don’t already have solid savings OR a lead on a gig, take the time you need to get yourself set up. Maybe you can go month-to-month on your lease? I mean, if you’re raring to go, then go! But have a Plan B.
posted by lunasol at 7:19 PM on July 3, 2018
I ask because, especially when you are starting out, most of your work will come from people you’ve worked with before. I started freelancing this year, and I’m projecting that about 75% of my income will come from projects directly with previous employers and/or previous colleagues. It may be possible to find work on some of those online freelancer sites, but those gigs tend to pay a lot less because you’re competing against more people and there’s less to distinguish you. For instance, when I was in the position to hire freelancers, I always preferred to hire known quantities and I was willing to pay a premium for that.
One other thing: my impression is that there are a lot of networking and professional development resources for HR professionals. Could you tap into those networks? I work in a much less well-developed field, but even here, there are Facebook groups for freelancers to ask each other advice, listserves where, among other things, people send out RFPs for freelancers, and other things like that. This might be a good avenue for you to explore.
Finally just because it has to be said: make sure you have some sort of financial cushion before you do this. Some will recommend 6 months. I left my job with two months savings and a promised gig and it worked out (so far!) but I was pretty lucky. If you don’t already have solid savings OR a lead on a gig, take the time you need to get yourself set up. Maybe you can go month-to-month on your lease? I mean, if you’re raring to go, then go! But have a Plan B.
posted by lunasol at 7:19 PM on July 3, 2018
OK I just got back from living on the road for 7 months. WiFi is not as omnipresent as you might think. Once you get out of the major cities, you’re super unlikely to find decent free WiFi. Can you use your phone as a hotspot? I had a Verizon MiFi hotspot that cost $85 a month and sort of worked in some places and not at all in others. How much data do you have? I went through data at alarming rates. In short, I found that it was much much harder to actually telecommute than the #vanlife people make it look. So if you are going to do this, you’ll need to really plan out how you’re going to stay connected first.
posted by mygothlaundry at 8:36 PM on July 3, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by mygothlaundry at 8:36 PM on July 3, 2018 [6 favorites]
Came back to see if you’d responded so I could offer more ideas based on your answers... another thought: if you are valued at your current job, is it possible they’d let you keep the two remote days per week?
posted by AnOrigamiLife at 8:00 AM on July 13, 2018
posted by AnOrigamiLife at 8:00 AM on July 13, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
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posted by theora55 at 1:31 PM on July 3, 2018 [2 favorites]