Working sitautions that allow you to spend a lot of time abroad

[jm21-2]

So, one of the big problems guys on the board have is finding enough vacation time to travel and really get to know their girls. Over the years I've thought a lot about and read a lot about jobs which allow you to take very large amounts of time off without many repercussions. My GF and I both love to travel and it would be nice to just bum around half the year, right? I thought I'd put some up and see if anyone else had some ideas.

RN, EMT, and many other medical professionals are in high enough demand they can find jobs that are fairly short term (3-6 months) and then take off for a few months.

Most people in the trades and construction seem to be unemployed for several weeks or months at a time as part of the construction cycle. During winter here in particular they're off work a lot, which would be an ideal time to travel to warmer countries. Taking a few weeks or months, or really even years, doesn't seem to have much effect on their employability.

Seasonal tourism jobs: my thought would be to work the summer tourism season in a northern clime (usually about 6 months, with subsidized housing but low wages) then take off for a poor country during the winter. This seems like a really enjoyable way to do things but the pay sucks. This is the latest option I've checked out and would be pretty good if you didn't make much money at your current job. You could probably save enough during the summer that you'd have $1,000 or more per month to live off of the rest of the year, which would be sufficient in poorer countries...mainly it would allow you 6-months being unemployed to cultivate some sort of online business.

Some people who work on large ships seem to get one day of paid vacation for each day they're on the ship...so work for x months, take off x months. It seems like the education requirements have gone up dramatically in the past couple decades though.

All sorts of different ideas for online businesses, from cyber-begging to blogging to different service-oriented jobs.

Some obvious ones like writing a book that just aren't going to turn much of a profit for 99% of people.

Teachers and especially professors get large vacations.

TEFL provides an opportunity to work in many Asian countries full time. Or get a 6-month contract and spend half the year off.

Any other jobs people can think of where you could take a significant part of the year off for several years, make enough to survive, and still be employable?

[Capstone]

IT related jobs currently have a lot of short term contract opportunities available. Because of the economy my company, as well as many others, have been hiring on a contract rather than regular basis so that no long term benefits (insurance, 401K, etc) need to be paid out. We have a lot of programmers, analysts and PMs who are currently working on a contract basis - usually 6-12 months in length. In fact, I spent the better part of the day today interviewing candidates for a Business Analyst position that I have open on my team and I am going to offer the finalist a 6 month contract to begin with followed by 6 month extensions if everything works out.

[Woody]

I'll be doing 6-12 month contracts soon, the Afghanistan and Iraq type. Pay is good, work location sucks, good amount of paid vacation as well as plane tickets paid for.

[jm21-2]

I'll be doing 6-12 month contracts soon, the Afghanistan and Iraq type. Pay is good, work location sucks, good amount of paid vacation as well as plane tickets paid for.

Should have remembered that. The wages seem awesome but not sure about the working conditions. Met a guy who said the building he worked at in Afghanistan was mortared almost every day but he was signing up for another contract....could have been BS'ing though I guess.

Good luck with that one. It really does seem a good way to go.

[Woody]

Should have remembered that. The wages seem awesome but not sure about the working conditions. Met a guy who said the building he worked at in Afghanistan was mortared almost every day but he was signing up for another contract....could have been BS'ing though I guess.

Good luck with that one. It really does seem a good way to go.

Same work I do now(Army), I just get paid substantially more. More than likely he ment that his base (FOB) got mortared every day. If so, believe it.

[Ray]

US Military.

While serving in the Navy, I got to travel extensively, live overseas while getting paid for it, 30 days paid vacation per year, and free travel while on vacation.

That’s how I got a flight from Hawaii to the Philippines for 55 cents. That was for the optional box lunch.

Merchant seamen can get at least several months of paid leave every year also.

Ray

[michaelb]

US Military.

While serving in the Navy, I got to travel extensively, live overseas while getting paid for it, 30 days paid vacation per year, and free travel while on vacation.

That’s how I got a flight from Hawaii to the Philippines for 55 cents. That was for the optional box lunch.

Merchant seamen can get at least several months of paid leave every year also.

Ray

Isn't that why they call the U.S. military "The world's largest travel agency"?

[AsphaltVoyager]

RN, EMT, and many other medical professionals are in high enough demand they can find jobs that are fairly short term (3-6 months) and then take off for a few months.

I don't recommend this. I have friends who are RNs and can't find work right now. Taking a hiatus may prove disastrous in the economic times we face.

All sorts of different ideas for online businesses, from cyber-begging to blogging to different service-oriented jobs.

The problem with anything internet-based is always going to be the millions and millions of other webpages that deal with the same topic as yours. Finding your specific webpage is the proverbial needle in a haystack. doing what would get you to the top of the search results on one search engine will kill any chance of a high results ranking on another search engine. Just something to think about...

TEFL provides an opportunity to work in many Asian countries full time. Or get a 6-month contract and spend half the year off.

This can provide a decent income in many countries, but in some would only serve as secondary cash. It's not totally necessary to work for a school. You can always advertise to teach conversational English without having to be employed by someone. It IS preferable to know that you won't have to depend on your own efforts to find students (read as... INCOME), but not an absolute necessity. However, there is a lot you have to do before you can get actual employment by some company to do this. Check the TEFL and ESL certification costs and requirements in terms of both time and money before you take any steps toward this goal.

Any other jobs people can think of where you could take a significant part of the year off for several years, make enough to survive, and still be employable?

Project management is another great job for taking you to other countries once you have established your credentials and have the certs to back them up. Many projects that corporations want to accomplish have timelines that exceed 6 months and some are as long as 5 years. If you can't succeed in finding the One you want in that duration, there's always time in some other country coming right up once your current project is completed. Increasingly, however, SIX SIGMA and LEAN are becoming requirements for finding employment as a senior project manager. Just one more thing to keep in mind... : )

Nothing that you really want out of life is going to come easy. It's either going to take a lot of work or a lot of time, in most cases.

[Jeff S]

doing what would get you to the top of the search results on one search engine will kill any chance of a high results ranking on another search engine. Just something to think about...

I disagree completely. All of the search engine robots have similar algorithms, and doing what gets you to the top of Google (that gets 78% of the searches) will also get you the #1 or 2 spot on Yahoo (12%) Ask and Bing (most of the rest.)

There are dozens, perhaps approaching 100 search terms that my online business sites come in the top 1-4 spot on all the search engines. 

[AsphaltVoyager]

I would love to know how you accomplishd that since one search engine gives you a higher ranking for using a certain term more often and another search engine gives you a worse ranking for it, but gives yo credit for how many other websites link to yours.

[Jeff S]

I don't know where you heard that but it's not true. All search engine robots evaluate keyword density and all evaluate incoming links. The exact keyword density considered optimum may vary search engine to search engine, but it is simply incorrect to state that your rating is degraded for a keyword to be used many times.

Now if you're talking about keywords in the meta keyword tag in the header, theres something to what you say. Google ignores them while some other search engines still use the first 120 characters. This is because of past abuse of keyword stuffing. If you write a small novel in your meta keyword tag in the header, the robot will look at the site with a jaundiced eye - keep it under 120 characters.

I sent you a PM for more info.

[jm21-2]

Agree with Jeff on the internet search engines. I have a web page for my firm that ranks very high for local searches relating to my practice. Probably 80% of the traffic is google and the rest almost entirely from paid advertising. Even if Yahoo used a very different algorithm than google I wouldn't worry about it too much...I would just optimize for google.

I'm thinking more and more about converting my office to a virtual office, but taking the plunge is a bit difficult. I think I'd want 6-12 months where I didn't have to worry about paying bills to really focus on building the online aspect of my firm. I think I'd have to charge a lower rate and when I have a lot of business expenses associated with my brick and mortar office that's difficult.

[robert angel]

There's a lot of military guys around where we live and a lot of them work in the Middle East on a private contract basis when they get out. The money's great and they say the tax incentives are too. The ones I see though, don't get much more than a couple weeks a year off when they're in a contract. They do come home and buy bigger houses and nicer cars, that's for sure.

Oh--Google is a real monster in terms of growth and aggression. Not slamming them--that's capitalism epitomized. Don't I wish I sunk a bundle of money into their initial public sale of stock! I don't know all the particulars, but they've been accused of sort of 'making a deal with the devil' to expand into China, but that's settled a bit, I've heard. It's interesting to watch their cell phone program. The big GPS makers are not happy about all the GPS apps. being put into phones these days.

[kojak]

There's a lot of military guys around where we live and a lot of them work in the Middle East on a private contract basis when they get out. The money's great and they say the tax incentives are too. The ones I see though, don't get much more than a couple weeks a year off when they're in a contract. They do come home and buy bigger houses and nicer cars, that's for sure.

Oh--Google is a real monster in terms of growth and aggression. Not slamming them--that's capitalism epitomized. Don't I wish I sunk a bundle of money into their initial public sale of stock! I don't know all the particulars, but they've been accused of sort of 'making a deal with the devil' to expand into China, but that's settled a bit, I've heard. It's interesting to watch their cell phone program. The big GPS makers are not happy about all the GPS apps. being put into phones these days.

Actually Robert I think there are many companies that have "made a deal with the devil" when it concerns China. Only difference is that those company like GE, GM, FORD, ect....don't make their deals in public.

I had a friend that was banging groceries for whole foods when they first went public. After many employee stock options he retired years later a multi millionaire. Nowadays you got UT business majors trying to bag groceries at whole foods.

[robert angel]

Quite a few of Home Depot earliest  employees went from rags to riches on stock options and then almost back to rags. Nowadays, it's hard to even find someone to help you at our local Home Depot. It's an irritating and depressing shopping experience.

I remember when they first opened and how I marveled at what a great business concept it was and how at any given time, they had 2 or 3 certified 'Expert Gardeners' in the store. Now they have one part timer. I buy my 3 dollar wood tomato stakes elsewhere now...

[jm21-2]

Just wanted to clear up one thing regarding TEFL: you typically need the teaching job to sponsor a work visa. It's typically not possible to just do private lessons.

[throwawaydad]

How about a job that allows you to work/live semi-permanently in the real world environment...

I have ZERO relationship whatsoever with these companies.


ThomsonReuters
Japan:

http://jobs.thomsonreuters.com/go/Japan-Jobs/207113/?utm_source=careersite&utm_campaign=wherewearejapan

Philippines:

http://jobs.thomsonreuters.com/go/Manila,-Philippines-Jobs-at-Thomson-Reuters/207167/?utm_source=careersite&utm_campaign=wherewearemanila


Navteq
Japan:

No open positions

Philippines:
http://corporate.navteq.com/webapps/careers/openings_results.jsp?regionName=95&funName=Select+Job+Function

Think about it:
Total Immersion
Usually assisted housing.
Company-paid travel back to the states AT LEAST 1X a year.
More-than-reasonable salary.
Health Insurance.

Most corporations really struggle finding Americans willing to not just travel, but actually move internationally.  The spouse doesn't want to go, the kids don't want to go.

You could find yourself in the right place at the right time, with the right skills, and you could be:

JUST THE PERSON WE'RE LOOKING FOR.