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[Dilbert]

I know the demographics on this board tend to run young, but I'll throw this out anyway, since I could use some advice. It's probably easiest to fire off a couple of questions:

1) How much do you travel for your job? (Frequency of travel, average length of trips, longest trip duration, how often you have to travel at night/on weekends in order to be ready for a business commitment the next day)

2) How do you feel about travel? Exciting? A pain in the ass? Just a necessary part of the job?

3) Would the amount/kind of travel be a factor for you in deciding whether or not to accept a different position or job? If you ever declined a position or job based on travel considerations, what were the consequences for your career?

4) Has business travel affected your personal life? If so, how, and what did you do to try to fix the situation?

Thanks...this info will be very helpful.

 

[darscot]

I don't travel allot on business. I spent a year in Japan, and a few weeks in Europe. Probable heading back to Europe soon. I love it! Business travel is always allot of fun. It really pisses me off when people bitch about it. It's the typical you don't know how good you have it thing. I don't do it allot though. It's always super hectic and stressful but always worth it in the end. As far as my personal life goes it is completely uneffected. My wife is a flight attendent so it's normal for her. Plus whenever I travel on business the perdiums always are more then I need so you end up with a few extra bucks in your pocket.

 

[Nerevar]

I travel almost constantly for my job as a software consultant, so I guess I'm pretty qualified to answer your questions ...

I know the demographics on this board tend to run young, but I'll throw this out anyway, since I could use some advice. It's probably easiest to fire off a couple of questions:

1) How much do you travel for your job? (Frequency of travel, average length of trips, longest trip duration, how often you have to travel at night/on weekends in order to be ready for a business commitment the next day)

I travel almost every week, from Monday - Thursday. Usually I'm on project for 4-6 months. And, as usual with consulting, travel is pretty much dependent on the client. If they demand you're in the office at 8 AM Monday morning, you might be travelling the Sunday before to be there. Most of the time though, people just travel to location Monday morning and from location Thursday night. Longest project I've heard of is currently approaching almost 2 years at 1 client site, but that is pretty rare. Once again, it all depends on the client in consulting.

2) How do you feel about travel? Exciting? A pain in the ass? Just a necessary part of the job?

Travelling is exciting at first, but it eventually becomes a big pain in the ass. It depends on how you're travelling. If you're flying every week, dealing with airports gets to be a major headache. However, I'm currently on a site about 2 hours away from where I live, so I drive to the site and I'm enjoying it. It also depends on your home life - I cohabitate with my girlfriend and it can get in the way of the relationship. The really nice thing about travelling though is all the rewards you get. Hotels have points, airlines have points, credit cards have points - and all your payments are reimbursed, meaning you get the points for free. My supervisor is flying to Taiwan first class and staying there for nearly 3 weeks - and his flight and accomodations are free. Stuff like that is a big bonus.

3) Would the amount/kind of travel be a factor for you in deciding whether or not to accept a different position or job? If you ever declined a position or job based on travel considerations, what were the consequences for your career?

it didn't affect me - as long as they don't send you to Iraq it's not a big deal. There's a lot of software consulting work, and if you don't travel you won't get a job in that industry. It's pretty much that simple.

4) Has business travel affected your personal life? If so, how, and what did you do to try to fix the situation?

Yeah, it makes having a relationship difficult at times. It all depends on the people. I view my girlfriend as somewhat needy, which is what stretches it, but we're still ok. However, I know a lot of guys in my company who travel almost all the time and are very happy with their relationships. Hell, one guy I know says that the constant travelling is what keeps him and his wife together.

 

[CaptainABAB]

I'm a month away from 30 and have been working with the same company for 7 years, a consulting company that specializes in custom software development.

1.) My "travel" is usually Monday-Friday at the client. So I'm back home only on the weekends.

Of the 7 years I've worked at this company, only 1 has been at client(s) close enough to drive back and forth home.

It might seem terrible, but I've spent 3-4 of those years in Manhattan rent-free
And that was a 3 hour train ride away from my place in Connecticut


2.) After 2 years of flying to projects in Colorado and Lousiana, I am definitely tired of the weekly plane trip thing. The worst part is that I always had a connection for these, so my commute at the start and end of the week was 8 hours total each way. It gets tiring after a while.

Now that I'm back in the city, trains (Amtrak or MetroNorth) are so much more convenient and relaxing in comparision.

On the other hand, I got to go skiing in Colorado a good many times, and then there was New Orleans

3.) Yeah, I can't do the weekly flying thing anymore and since I now got a family, I want to be local.

In my company, being at the client is one of our biggest selling points and so, not ever wanting to travel can probably limit my advancement. I have enough seniority that it won't get me fired but it could hamper raises or whatever.

4.) Yes - I've become better friends in some ways with co-workers then some of my old college and high school friends. It also helps that we were all in our twenties and single, in the same boat, etc.


What I will add is this: When you are on a team where everyone travels and hangs out together, those have been some of the best work projects I've ever been on. The bonding, communication, productivity, delivery was some of the most amazing shit I've ever seen.

 

[demon]

It would depend on what kind of travel (to Indiana or Japan?) and how stable of a life I had back home.....like if I didn't have much of a social life or friends around where I lived and didn't care to see my family much (hey sounds like me), I'd probably be more inclined to take a job that involved traveling to interesting parts of the country/world, at least for a while.

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

I consider my business travel lifethreating.

 

[marko]

Pretty much no travel for my job. I might accept a job that had travel requirements if I had no job, and that was the only job option, even then I would be hesitant to take it.