Travel and Career Choice/The Trades
 

Hi All,

I've been on HU for a while but haven't needed to post due to the volume of helpful information already discussed in depth, I appreciate this. I do want to gather some insight about switching to industries that accommodate travel a bit better, the trades seem to do this better than white collar work. I'm also very interested in any input I can get on your work and how you marry up travel with it. Mind that I've read damn near every line of Touring Ted's "do you like your job / careers?".

For Everybody
Has your particular industry and region allowed you the ability travel when you see fit? If so, what kind of qualifications is needed for your profession? Pros and cons? If you love your work arrangement, I want to hear from you.

For Folks in the Trades:
I've got friends that are union carpenters and electricians. It would appear that one needs to be very dedicated during the apprenticeship program, but once you're topped out, you can work for a while and pull yourself off the out-of-work list to travel periodically. Can anybody speak on this? Even if you're based in the US/Canada or not, please do tell. I may join the union millwrights in the PNW where I originate from for interest and flexibility, strong unions.


My Background and Preferences:
I'm 27, currently an engineer at a company that builds large concrete structures. I engineer the temporary framing that keeps buildings standing while they're not completely built and strong. I've begun project management as well, so I consequently work 50-60 hours a week since I'm both slow and overloaded. I'm simply clocking in miles at this point, I want want a balance of work and travel, not just slavery. Past jobs: wildland firefighting, ironworker, engineer for EVs.

Happy planning everybody, don't sneeze :shifty:

Terry

I worked in engineering in the UK which due to the shortage of skilled workers allowed me to come and go as I pleased, either returning to a previous employer or finding a new one. I did an apprenticeship as a toolmaker and did a variety of jobs including many types of manual and CNC machining and as a machine and engine fitter.
This work is not union controlled as some trades seem to be in North America, although I was a member of a trades union in a couple of places and once you started an apprenticeship which was usually straight out of school at 16 you would be expected to finish it which would take 4-5 years.
In the UK at least any apprenticeship in a skilled manual job would lead to regular and possibly flexible employment, the building trades were particularly in demand but what the economy and jobs market will be like after covid has done its danmedest is anyones guess.

OP, what's conspicuously missing from your description is any indication what sort of work you really enjoy, thrive on, could commit to. That matters, particularly if you're hoping to work for a bit, then take off to travel, then return to the same job in a different setting. This would be much more difficult if you're working begrudgingly. I'd suggest finding work which suits you, then setting it up in a way which allows you to do whatever else you want with your life. Is should go without saying that this may change in time--both the work itself, and your other priorities.

You also seem to think that unions are the key, at least when it comes to skilled labor. I've done a lot of traveling over the years, from weekends thru multiple yearlong trips, and I've done most of it by virtue of self-employment. It's worth thinking about...but there again, it's a difficult prospect unless you're fairly passionate about what you're doing.

I've had several career phases, including a number of building trades and my current (self-employed) work in counseling. Each had its own barriers to entry, often involving massive outlays of money spent in education and training, but at other times requiring nothing more elaborate than willingness to abase myself doing unpleasant work for very little money. No unions were involved, although I did spend some time agitating for a union in a right-to-work state.

Hope that's helpful.

Brits have an advantage here I think.
All young travellers I know, weather they’re overlanders or backpackers, get a work visa for Australia, which is conveniently half way round the world. They leave the Uk and slowly head for Oz, either going east or west.

By the time they reach Oz their money is almost gone but they can work legally for a year and save up. Then they continue their slow journey home, continuing in the same direction - usually.
The Uk and Oz have reciprocal qualifications in place so that healthcare workers, teachers, trades and many other professions are free to work.
There are plenty of other jobs for non-skilled labour in Oz too, it’s the work visa that’s the important thing here.

I’ve always thought that there are 3 ways to do it.

1 - Digital nomad

2 - Have a profession that is well paid and has a strong agency supply history - in the UK that would be healthcare, teaching, lorry driving, IT, also trades such as bricklaying - many more I suspect. Work for a few years, save up , big trip then back home and repeat.

3 - Have a profession that is accepted in other countries, move to and work in different countries and use them as a springboard to travel in that part of the world. I suspect doctor or nurse is the best, perhaps IT but I know very little about that

My thoughts from the UK - not sure how helpful it is to an American though
Good Luck
bier

You might be able to make that work?
By training/qualification I was originally a Quantity Surveyor (Contruction cost management) but managed to drop out of the industry for two years of travelling and then step back into it without too much difficulty. Subsequently I too moved into Project Management with something of a specialisation in construction projects that were going wrong and which wasn't as stressful as it might sound, due to the breaks between. It enabled me to get very well paid working freelance for 4-5 months (one project) each year and then travel for the other 7-8 months; I quickly managed to build a reputation (it's a small industry really) so I'd almost always agreed & secured that winter's contract before ever returning to the UK.

Terry, I'm really sorry (and embarrassed). I think I just accidentally deleted your post. I'm working on retrieving it, but I don't know whether that's possible. They never should have entrusted me with the keys to the kingdom.

So far, I've found only fragments of it, as follows. Damn.

Thanks for the insights guys. Turns out HU is good for career counseling.

I get the feeling that it's a little easier to return to white collar work in Europe than here. Most people i know seem to think I'm screwing myself for planning a tour for a year. This has made big picture planning a little bit more stressful.

markharf
That's a good point about enjoying work. I'm working begrudgingly. I think enjoyment is an important factor, but I also largely view employment as travel money. Jobs are evil.

I spend most of my free time building furniture or fabricating, might be a good fit. Going union is appealing for the simplicity and wages but I'm not opposed to go the other way.

Well speaking as an UK trained Electrician who moved down under, your UK qualifications DO NOT fully count, you need to have local licence (local regulations) which requires learning the local reg`s & sitting exams (its long & painful & costly) and until you have that local licence you cannot work as a 'qualified' Electrician.

In NZ you can apply for a temporary licence if you are a fully qualified electrician but you can only work under the supervision of a licensed electrician (bit like being a spotty apprentice all over again).

NZ & AUS qualifications are reciprocal in either country (ASNZ standards).

Mezo.

"Going Union" wont count for much in the UK or down here in Australia or New Zealand, it will not open any magic doors for you.

Mezo.

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?

You laid it out nicely. I think I'm aiming for number 2. I do wonder about number 3, maybe trying to get engineering work abroad. Applying for work is a pain in the ass here let alone internationally. What route have you gone yourself?

The work your describing sounds pretty interesting. How long were you able to take off for? One option is to try to transition to a more hands on position with my mechanical eng. degree, although it might make more sense to to press the reset button completely.

Fair enough. If you do stumble upon a magic door, you should definitely send me a pm.

I actually did look seriously into being an electrician. The hang up is that I'm color blind so no wiring for terry. Have you been able to do some long trips in between work?

Yep the colour blindness test is the very first thing they do before you start training, and no long trips for me as such, unless you count moving here to Australia?

On my fathers gravestone it reads "Happy is a man who`s work is his hobby" focus on the kind of work that would make you happy doing.

Mezo.

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.

I think you'll get a similar response pretty much everywhere. Most people have a linear approach to life, particularly at the younger end where you're told endlessly that it goes school, uni / apprenticeship, a job based on your qualifications and settle down. Any deviation from that is frowned upon. We encouraged both our kids to take a gap year between school and uni. Take some time out, get some experience of the wider world and then you'll have a better idea of what you want to do. I lost count of the number of people - including their school tutors - who told us they really shouldn't do it, it was indulgent and they'd never catch up.

Out of my daughter's peer group she was the only one to take the year out. And the result - they both came back much the better for what they did, with better formed ideas of what was possible /what they wanted to do and far more drive to go and do it. 6/10yrs on what they're doing now comes far more from their gap year knowledge than their (somewhat naive) school ideas. You need to look closely at 'don't do it advice' and see if it comes from experience or simply fear of the unknown.

Having said that I don't want to bias you one way or the other - it's your life and go or stay has to be your decision. The only thing I would say is that if you have the sort of personality that'll take on a year of solo travel you'll probably not be fazed by the job market when you get back. You might want to consider though (you probably have already) how you're going to sell that time to prospective employers when they ask you what you've been doing.