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The Importance of Travel In Your Career
July 8, 2009 | Comments Off
Few things have propelled my career more than my willingness to travel. I think there are many reasons why you might want to become travel-flexible. And when I mean travel flexible I do mean the less glamorous parts of traveling: being away from family a few weeks at a time, having to wake up at 3 am to catch a plane, arriving home on a Saturday morning, sleeping in less than perfect accommodations, eating food that is not always to your liking, frequent harassment from TSA and immigration officials, and all of the other travel situations that do not contribute to a pleasant experience.
Why you might want to travel:
- Quality Time With Colleagues and Superiors – You have to be known for what you can do, not only for what you are doing now. All of those business lunches and dinners give you time to express what you can and want to do, and your career aspirations. People do remember. People may call you later to ask you to help them on a new project.
- Paid Networking – Some people pay to attend to networking events. Others just meet new colleagues while performing their job.
- Captive Audience – You travel because you have to perform some task, normally with an audience. It can be a presentation, or a proof of concept. It may be just fixing something. Due to the actual cost of traveling, someone is expecting to see measurable results: someone will notice your success. You want people to know what you can do, and the more people who know the better.
- Cultural Exposure – It is amazing to discover what we did not know or didn’t understood… until we met that group of people from a different culture. Even within the same country you can find different variations in culture or ways of seeing things. Understanding them helps you in your business relations. It also helps you understand life from a different, maybe even better, perspective. It helps you.
- Offer and Demand – Many people dislike traveling. When faced with the harsh decision of having to downsize, your manager may prefer those employees willing to go the extra mile.
- It Comes With The Salary – Top level position require traveling. It comes with the job description. If you do not like to travel, chances are you will never get those positions. Think about the end goal. Is your end goal to stay on the Individual Contributor Trap? To become a top level Executive? There are other options, of course: small, localized business, which may earn even more than other choices. Also early retirement, even if it is with less money but more free time to enjoy life. However, if you are still following a traditional career — keep the end goal in mind.
What are your reasons for business travel?
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