I do think things have changed in the UK - I don’t think it’s just looking back with rose tinted glasses.

I’m 57 and nearly everyone, my age, I know went travelling when they were younger. Even the ones who didn’t do the whole SE Asia backpacking trail went inter-railing round Europe.
Thinking about my family and friends’ children, who are now between the ages of 19-30, very few have done it - in fact, sitting here right now, I can only think of 2.

Once I was talking to a friend about doing something that would take 3 years. My friend asked me what was my life like 3 years ago - ‘much the same as it is now’ I replied. ‘Well then’ my friend said ‘if you’d have started that thing 3 years ago your life would be different now’.

When I went off travelling in my early 20s, I came back a couple of years later and nothing had changed; I went back to work, back to the rugby club and back to the same social scene - but those memories of travelling 35 years ago are still as vivid as ever and it feels like yesterday. Oh and I was a much better rugby player

Yes, I remember it well - the hippie trail to India, the secret beach in S.E. Asia etc. Being even older than you (late 60's) it was the background to my teens and 20's. Someone I knew back then built a business bussing people to India to find 'nirvana'. Because of the number of factory jobs around it was possible to go off for a while and find some kind of work fairly easily when you got back. University was very much a minority route.

Times, as you say, have changed. That's why my experience of the path through life; trying to balance work, 'family' in all its definitions, and travel will be of minimal interest or help to Terry, and it's why I mentioned what my children have done over various bits of the last decade. You're right that gap years have gone from being time out to find yourself to being seen as a year of hedonistic indulgence - sex and drugs in the sun. That's bad enough before uni but to go off afterwards can be a hard sell to future employers in more conservative industries. We thought the risk worth taking with our kids, and its worked out. They came back far more rounded and self reliant individuals and that's stood them in good stead when dealing with people - employers for example.

The reality is though that taking a year out in your late 20's is lost in the noise a decade or two later. My brother in law even took five years out of his high end professional career (medicine) to be a tv presenter (corporate stuff, not public broadcast) and 20yrs later he's been back exactly where he would have been for some time. There may be some people who regret taking time out to pursue a passion - where it didn't work out for them - but the vast majority of people I know who've done it have benefitted long term.

Just out of curiosity, do you think this observation has more to do with the finances or something else?

I'd die immediately.

So I'd say there's some real value in what you've said here.

First off, what I should disclose is that I've got a permanent mental disorder called wanderlust. See source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dromomania
So that year or so is got to happen, on a medical basis.

I'm curious how you or your children played that travel? I post here a bit mixed; I'm not entirely fulfilled by my work (that's up to me to sort out) but I also would like to create a skill set that enables travel in a more sustainable way. In a perfect work, returning from travel wouldn't be such an ordeal.

I would describe my job in engineering as just that a job not a career, I qualified and got on with my job albeit with several different employers as I came and went from my travels, I did not try climbing any career ladder or gain promotion I just updated my skills as the industry progressed. I did cheat a little on my CV in that I pulled to ends of employment periods together sometimes to make a continuous run without the time away showing, I left work to travel on probably 10 occasions but my employment record only showed twice and I was not caught out, not that it would have mattered.


The only child of friends that I can think of who has travelled is an electrician of which there is a shortage, no pun intended, in the UK, he gave in his noticed after finishing his apprenticeship and was told come back and see us when you get back, your job will be here. Those who have gone to university seem to have to climb on the career ladder and keep climbing straight away.

This whole thing about travel - why we do it, why we want to do it, what we get from it, what we give up for it, has been rolling around in the various parts of my mind for many decades. Recently (about 3yrs ago) I started planning a project to try and explore it in more detail but Coronavirus has stretched the timescale out somewhat. I'm planning (eventually) to write it all up in book form (partly written at the moment) because, as the saying goes, 'I don't know what I think until I read what I wrote.'

I came to travel both early and late. Early because as a child the only real travel we did was from our various homes (we moved around a lot when I was young) was to visit my mother's relatives in Ireland. That wasn't so much a trip to another country as a voyage into the past - about 50yrs into the past (or that's what it felt like anyway). That would be really interesting now but then, as a young child, I found it depressing. It wasn't until I started travelling with my peer group in my late teens that it (and bike travel in particular) became a passion. And at roughly the same time I had to try and balance that with the world of work.

My planning for a working future started early - probably around the age of 10, when my parents started 'hothousing' me for the 11 Plus exam. Anyone (of any age anyway) in the UK will know that as being one of the fork in the road moments. Pass and you'd go on to an academic school, fail and you'd go to a technical one. Out of my class of 33 that year, 3 of us passed... So for me the route then went O levels, A levels, Uni and a professional career as a biochemist in a research lab. That, on a generational basis, was a considerable step up from my parent's world of hire and fire low end jobs with tied houses and no certainty beyond the end of the week. So how do you say a few years later, I'm giving it all up to travel. Right through the 70's (and my 20's) I had to wrestle with that.

So when, years later, I could see my kids exhibiting the same desires we encouraged them to face it head on and at least do something substantial. My son spent a year in China. Part of his time was spent teaching English as a foreign language (he got a qualification part time before he went) in a couple of cities, the rest of the time doing whatever he wanted. The teaching part filled in the blank on his CV - and was seen as a considerable positive by subsequent employers. He came back quite relaxed about living in other countries, chose to do his Masters in Amsterdam and his Doctorate in Stockholm. His PhD supervisor told us last year that he was very impressed by his Chinese experience and that he could speak (fluentish) Mandarin. Travel as a positive rather than something to try and cover up.

Ok, that's one person's experience but the point is that we tried to anticipate what problems might come along down the road and do what we could to head them off.

I'm a mariner by trade, which has allowed for a lot of time off for travel time. It's not for everyone for sure, but without a degree you can work you way up to healthy six figures and 3-6 months off a year. This is for the US, it varies a lot by country.

The industry is highly variable on schedule, pay, skills required, etc., depending on whether you go for passenger vessels, river tugs, coastal tugs, oil and gas, deep sea or specialty. Union and non union are available. Covid has made thing weird/bad, but hopefully that will be resolved sometime sort of soon.

Working at sea on most vessels requires a myriad of certifications, but most can be obtained piece meal as needed, making up front training costs not too bad. Or you can go whole hog to a maritime academy and they'll push you out the door with licensing to get a solid start.

Not sure if this was mentioned in the other jobs thread, thought I would throw it out there.

I think having a usable skill set is key here, no matter what industry your in, if you want to find work easy & have the ability to walk back into a job on returning, you need to be skilled to stand out above the rest, & also be in a industry that pays well so you have surplus of income to afford to be able to take time off....

I’m a electrician, in a field that is very specialised, VERY! I get job offers all the time, even my current job was a call out of the blue basically asking when can I start & name my salary, & I have weeks off at a time, paid. BUT, I worked for the same company for 11 years during my 20s to build up a skill set, experience, contacts & a name for myself. So that’s what it took me to get me where I’m at, but along the way I got married & had kids....so now I have money, & the time to adventure, but kids are school age so long term travel is not for them

After many years of working for a few very large railway organisations 5 years ago I bought a business and went self employed. I am now tied to the business until such time as I get a manager in - it is not a complicated business but it needs attention on a day-to-day basis and the willingness to get your hands dirty. The business provides an income and we can sell it if it becomes a burden releasing cash.

Anyway, I am now developing a second, separate, business that will employ just a few people but it can be manage to a very large degree - if not totally - from the road and at least one of our children will be involved directly on a day to day basis. This will mean that I will be able to travel and still have an income.

Taking on the first business opened my eyes to the world in a completely different way of thinking so that now I see business opportunities - as well as traps - I suspect that I will see opportunities when I travel but whether I bother to take up the opportunities is unknown - I hope that my income from the businesses will be sufficient to finance the travelling on an ongoing basis.

As a sideline I am hoping to give technical talks to foreign railway organisations whilst on my travels - I am a specialist in a couple of niche technical markets. I would hope that this will also provide an income for me as I am be able to act as an agent for a supply companies related to the technical areas.

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You will have to do without pocket handkerchiefs, and a great many other things, before we reach our journey's end, Bilbo Baggins. You were born to the rolling hills and little rivers of the Shire, but home is now behind you. The world is ahead.

That sounds like a solid arrangement, I imagine it took some dedication before you went freelance. So you're a PM in general construction or something more specific?

Well - in 2019, I finally met a self-set target of going abroad at least once per every month in the calendar year. The region certainly helps, in that I live in a small country with meaningful travel targets all around me. Some of the months were just going to the neighboring countries for a weekend.

Being in an industry where a labor shortage has resulted in a culture of care about employees' wellbeing, I could take the time off, and occasionally fudge a bit with Friday evening departures and Monday morning returns. That's lucky. My country also mandates 28 calendar days of paid vacation per year for everyone, and I am smart about scheduling around national holidays to maximize that even more. I travelled around the 2019 Christmas/New Year's holidays, and my 28 days turned into an effective 33.

My industry is IT - I'm not a programmer, but one of those many ancillary jobs that are necessary to make a large software development company run - and I've been working from home since March 2020. I think it's now firmly established that people *can* work remotely in my industry, and that is unlikely to ever fully go away. (We can always point out to employers that it saves on the cost of office space for them!) So, when things go back to normal, there's a better than even chance that I will be able to continue my fulltime employment out of a laptop in a saddle bag.

To answer this specific question:

Now, I'm a consultant in engineering, HSE, Leadership, and project management (and a few more bits and pieces). Until the pandemic we travelled a lot, mainly on business, with a week or three tagged onto each trip to explore the places we went, all over the world.

How did I reach this point? Experience in engineering and management for many years, also in many parts of the world, in Mining and Energy.

How did I get into these industries? Degree in Engineering, post-graduate in business administration, then jumped into the most interesting work opportunity I could find, which was a mining contract in Botswana.

We're now into a routine of a year working and a year travelling...

Terry, I've skimmed through this thread briefly and have an answer. It's only my 2 pence worth but it has worked for me.
At 27 there is only one direction you need to look and that's working offshore. Your an engineer of some sorts yes..? Well there's an offshore industry that will welcome you, serve you and outlast you. It will fill your bank balance, give you free time off, allow you to plan your life ahead.
Wind Power Generation is now currently and will be 'the future'..!! Look at taking your GWO's as a start into it. If you can get a position as a first level Wind Turbine Tech to get the ball rolling you could go places within this industry. You have the most powerful asset already, YOUTH...!!! I started working offshore almost ten years ago, been a sparky all my life and now I'm into HV cable jointing/ terminating. My biggest life regret is I didn't take this up earlier in my 20's or 30's.
Money they say is the route of all evil, I've found money gives you choices and freedom.

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