Anyone travel a lot for work?

One of my job opportunities is sort of a field engineer for software and would involve a lot of travel and going to different clients and teaching them to use the software or doing demos, that sort of thing. The position would involve 25-50% travel. Anyone here have experience with that and what is it like? Did you get tired of traveling all the time and never really feel "at home." I am also going to be a new grad with no wife or anything so worrying about family time isn't really a concern. One thing I would also be worried about is since I would be traveling all the time I feel it would be hard to make friends.

So GRM whats your experience?

If I didn't have a wife and kid it wouldn't bother me one bit.

If I didn't have a fiance, it would have been a great experience all around when I traveled.

Important question, but not a deal-breaker: Will you be traveling with someone, or just by yourself? Follow up question, and a potential deal breaker: Who is that person, and if you get stuck in Waterloo Iowa in a snowstorm, unable to get out, would you enjoy each others company without any alcohol? With alcohol?

Last thing, if you take it, be sure to watch what you eat and to work out.

I've been both a field sales person and a field service person. Both required a lot of travel.

A lot of it depends on your territory and does travel mean go drive to a place and then be home that night or is it go fly to buffalo and be back in 3 days.

I really enjoyed it when I was younger and was single. When I went back to the road in my 30's with a wife, it was less fun. It also depends is it really 25-50% travel or is that code for we expect you to be on the road all of the time but don't want to put 100% travel to possibly scare candidates away. A week a month is ok....3 weeks out of 4 gets a little old.

As MTN said, it's really easy to eat like crap on the road and before you know it gain 30 lbs. Also, find out what their policy is on a car. My last job paid a monthly stipend plus mileage with a catch that it couldn't be over 3 years old. The problem was, the stipend was not enough to cover the payment and I burned through cars at the rate of 30K + miles a year.

In reply to bmw88rider:

Runzheimer?

It can get old very fast. 50% of the time is code for "pretty much all the time". The other unspoken bit is that while they expect you to do a fair bit of work on scene, they also expect you to do reports or other paperwork in the evening "because you don't have anything else to do with your time and you are on salary".

A regular route where you visit regular customers is not so bad since you can be dealing with known situations and the travel logistics become routine. If it is new appointments all the time, then you are constantly planning the job and the travel. Don't underestimate the travel component when it comes to job stress.

It depends. At my last job I had maybe one flight a week. Most of it was on a company plane and I was home for dinner: no problem!

Other trips were to interesting cities. I would plan something fun to do/see in advance, and it made it fun. I typically was able to get direct flights to these places.

When I was visiting a place where I could not get a direct flight, and there was nothing fun to do there tolerating it was the best I could do.

My biggest gripe about being away from home is that I like to work on my automotive projects, and they don't really fit in my carry-on.

One thing that will be great about traveling "all of the time" is that you will not have a lot of chances to spend money. Rent a cheap room in a house rather than an apartment, and save a ton of money for a few years.

Also, racking up tons of airline miles, hotel points, and rental points, is that you will be able to go on free vacations. I have a friend who spends more nights in hotels than at home because of his job, and he has more airline miles than he would ever want to use.

I fly maybe twice/three times a year but easily do 36k in my car and another 30k in rentals. I like it but am almost always home weekends and 40 weeks a year am home pretty well every night. I have wife and 3 kiddos so I couldn't do out all the time and never home. Never gets old, I junkyard and craigslist in new places every couple weeks, lol.

I would ask if you could talk to someone currently in that position. HR is usually reading off a sheet and doesn't have a realistic idea of what's going on. Managers always seem to think that the work/life balance is easier than it is. The people that do the work should be able to give you the scoop. If they won't let you speak to someone, it's a bit of a red flag.

Pete,

I was a Field service Tech for GE working on primarily Electronic Air Brake systems on locomotives and then a Field Sales for APC, A data center infrastructure company. So I was selling the Racks, Cooling, and Power conditioning for everything from Big data centers to small control panels and wiring closets. Both jobs advertised 25-50% travel but in reality became 80-90% travel.

I spent years traveling a lot as an SCADA/automation systems engineer then after that a big software/database vendor. I can honestly say in hindsight I preferred it to being more stationary. I had to curtail it when I had little kids and I miss it now. I still travel - but it's always to the same few places/customers and the same problem set. I'm bored to tears half the time. When I find myself an empty-nester but too broke to retire I'll push that button again gladly.

I won't say it's always awesome anymore than being a cube farm dweller is but I am the sort of person who can't sit still or do the same job day in/day out. I love the variety and the unpredictable nature of the whole thing. You meet all sorts of interesting people, solve their interesting problems, eat weird local stuff on the company dole, and get craploads of free flights and hotel rooms for personal use that you will be too sick of to ever use. Every new gig is an opportunity for a bit of adventure - every flight an opportunity to read a great book. Even if that book happens to be "(insert customer technology) for Dummies" ;)

The one thing I'd do over is to schedule some time before/after a job to explore some of the places I ended up. I've seen a lot of airports, cabs, highways and office buildings in the US, and EU (they are all the same mostly) but not a lot of what makes a place special. "How can you go to London and not have seen the White Tower?". "Yeah... didn't have time. Had to be in WV the next day." An extra day or two here and there would have made conversations about my trips a lot more interesting to talk about. I'd also ride to stuff that was reasonable when I had the extra travel day just to avoid the hassle of flying. I never get anything productive done on an airplane anyway. It's where I do all my reading. (Buy a Kindle!!!). The TSA have berkeleyed the joy I used to take in arriving just as the plane boarded so I didn't have to slow my stride to walk onto the jetway.

Another tip... if you need tools or equipment ship it FedEx to the hotel and travel light. That includes golf clubs. They are much better than the airport at getting stuff where it needs to be, on time and unmolested.

There were a few time when I was flying that I was gone 20 nights/month. It wasn't too bad when I was single, but once wife & kids came along, it really, really sucked. It was impossible to get any kind of routine, especially for exercise. And it sucked to get up in the night to pee, and walk into a wall because you thought you were in a hotel room in Rochester, but it turned out you were in one in Boston. Like GPS, I've been to lots of cool places, but never left the airport. Still miss the flying part, though.

As others have said, I was gone a lot when I was young and newly married. It wasn't a big deal then because I was young and she was working too. Now that we have kids I WANT to be home, but I still have to travel for work some. My work travel isn't too bad as it is usually planned in advance, but it might be 2-3 weeks straight. That makes it tough on the kiddos to not have dad home on the weekends. I don't mind the travel, but given the option I'd rather be home.

I still travel enough that I have a "Room Number" contact on my phone, so I don't forget what room I am in... I can usually remember what city and hotel thankfully.

Also, real work travel can take a toll on your body. You eat out a lot, if you don't have will power you eat like crap. You may drink more because, you are on the road and nothing else to do. Once work is over for the day you will get bored. Staying in hotels all the time gets BORING. If you workout it will have to be flexible. Not every hotel has a gym, and not all hotel "gyms" are equal. Running outside might not be an option depending on where the hotel is, beside the interstate, in a bad part of town, etc. Work travel really took a toll on me until I started making myself get in a workout and try and eat right.

Lastly, I find that driving is easier for me, because I control the travel, for example when we leave; when we stop; when we eat, drink, and pee, etc. With planes and flights, you are at the mercy of the board. On time, delayed, cancelled, sitting on the tarmac waiting, sick people coughing as you are trapped in the tube, smelly people, baggage, rental cars, etc. I HATE flying now. I'd drive all over the country if it were an option.

Ditto what GPSM said. I fly once, sometimes twice a week. It could get old real fast, dealing with all the crap dished out at airports, if I didn't consciously try to adopt a zen attitude to get through it. Working late at night after an exhausting day in a different time zone is tough too. But the upside - if you're someone whose soul is stifled in a cubicle farm, is the constant exposure to new cultures and experiences. Bring workout gear - really. It's crucial to being able to enjoy travel, rather than just endure it. I'm a mess if I don't at least get in some stretching and core work - we weren't built to sit all day. And on-road meals aren't always ideal.

In reply to Lesley:

A HUGE plus +1 to "bring workout gear". You will be eating a lot of junk and sitting for long periods. All hotels have atleast a crappy treadmill. P-90X is a good way to stink up the carpeting with sweat and stay in shape without needing weights. A couple rubber resistance bands and a mpeg player are all you need if you are trapped in a flea bag with no way to get anything better in.

When you fly west as an east-coaster, you wake up at 4am-5am naturally with lots of idle time before the world wakes up. I love to go for a long run around around San Fran while the bums are still asleep ;)

I travel at least once a month. I go to the same place so it is routine. Take the same flights. Even get the same rental car sometimes. Stay in the same motel and eat dinner at the same places. I don't mind the work part of it at all, in fact I like it, but I find it boring hanging out in a motel room and would much rather be at home. If I got to go to new places all the time it would be more fun, since there is always something to do or see no matter where you go. I suspect that 20-25% travel means you will be gone more than you are home. That seems to be how job postings work. I once interviewed for a job that said 20% travel and after I spoke with the incumbent, I found that he traveled from small town Iowa to China, Korea and Indonesia all the time and would frequently be gone for a couple months at a shot. I turned that one down as that was not what I was looking for.

A jump rope is a great travel workout and easy to pack. Plus it makes you feel like a kid to jump rope again. Like riding a big wheel. Ok that might just be me...

I've put together a "hotel room workout", actually led a group of about 4 colleagues during one 4-day event. You can do hamstring curls using a cylindrical wastebasket, your belt or a towel is great for shoulder stretches, and a book or laptop makes a decent weight while doing crunches.

I think we just found the subject of Lesley's podcast.

Haahaa... I could market it, and give up all this travelling E36 M3!

I spent about 7 years doing a lot of travel. I was married but no kids. Via driving, I would be gone about two nights a week (just enough to miss the other person.) On average, I would fly-away for about a week every two months.

My flights were often to HQ in Orange County, CA. I added sailboat racing to every trip that I possibly could. It was because of this that I managed to race sailboats on all 4 coasts of the US, every year, for 4 years.
Though I lived in Ohio, I became sort of a "regular" aboard a Farr40, fourty foot sailboat out of Long Beach, CA. I have done weeknight, short races after work as well as stayed the weekends for races to Ensanada Mexico or San Diego or Newport or Marina del Rey.

In recap, find some personal reward or pleasure out of the traveling or it will kill you. Contrary to the perception, there is no glamor in business travel.
Other difficulties are the toll on the marriage.
Wife gets jealous of your adventures while she goes to the same school every day to teach the same kids and eat another lunch-bag lunch. I found that it was best if I did not talk much about the fun parts and rather play up the hard parts.
Another toll is what does "vacation" mean. As a traveling man, my idea of a week off is staying home for a week. As a school teacher, my wife's idea of a week off was to travel.

I did 80-100% travel for about 10 years. As others here have stated, when I was young and single, it was fantastic. I didn't have a house, so I just had mail sent to my friend's place and banked the savings. I got to see a lot of very cool places, and do a lot of cool things. Monterrey Historics. British Grand Prix. Daytona.

Once I got married, bought a house, and settled in, it was a massive PITA.

If you DO undertake a job with a lot of travel, try to find time on the weekends to do something fun. It's easy to fall in to the trap of getting home on a Friday evening, spending all day Saturday and Sunday doing chores (laundry, bills, mow the law, etc.) and then Monday morning it's back to the airport. If you can figure out a way to either outsource some of those tasks, or manage to get them done during the week, it will free up your time to relax a bit and have a life.

My life is a gazillion times better now that I am not traveling 50% plus of the time.

When you are in a hotel room away from home, that is WORK IMO. Very few companies compensate an individual the loss of their "free time" in the evenings for it to be worth it. It was for me, as I am salary but get paid hourly OT. 14-16 hour days with 8-9 of those hours as double time was worth it.

If I have a choice, I'll never do that again unless I am single.

Edit- Also note that it makes it even harder to meet new women.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I spent years traveling a lot as an SCADA/automation systems engineer then after that a big software/database vendor. I can honestly say in hindsight I preferred it to being more stationary. I had to curtail it when I had little kids and I miss it now. I still travel - but it's always to the same few places/customers and the same problem set. I'm bored to tears half the time. When I find myself an empty-nester but too broke to retire I'll push that button again gladly. I won't say it's always awesome anymore than being a cube farm dweller is but I am the sort of person who can't sit still or do the same job day in/day out. I love the variety and the unpredictable nature of the whole thing. You meet all sorts of interesting people, solve their interesting problems, eat weird local stuff on the company dole, and get craploads of free flights and hotel rooms for personal use that you will be too sick of to ever use. Every new gig is an opportunity for a bit of adventure - every flight an opportunity to read a great book. Even if that book happens to be "(insert customer technology) for Dummies" ;) The one thing I'd do over is to schedule some time before/after a job to explore some of the places I ended up. I've seen a lot of airports, cabs, highways and office buildings in the US, and EU (they are all the same mostly) but not a lot of what makes a place special. "How can you go to London and not have seen the White Tower?". "Yeah... didn't have time. Had to be in WV the next day." An extra day or two here and there would have made conversations about my trips a lot more interesting to talk about. I'd also ride to stuff that was reasonable when I had the extra travel day just to avoid the hassle of flying. I never get anything productive done on an airplane anyway. It's where I do all my reading. (Buy a Kindle!!!). The TSA have berkeleyed the joy I used to take in arriving just as the plane boarded so I didn't have to slow my stride to walk onto the jetway. Another tip... if you need tools or equipment ship it FedEx to the hotel and travel light. That includes golf clubs. They are much better than the airport at getting stuff where it needs to be, on time and unmolested.

^^^This pretty much sums up some of my past lifes; ever wonder were the NOHOME moniker comes from?

I get sick of it after a while and then go away and then find that I need to get back into it.

I travel occasionally. I like the adventure, especially during the summer. I take my bike with me, typically finish work a few hours early (drive time counts as hours) and hit the trails for a few hours before heading home or to the hotel.

I love the change of pace, but I wouldn't want to be staying a few days every night. A few days every month would be ok. Your mileage may vary.