Travel Careers: Are They Worth It?

A person who has a career which requires travel will find it difficult to change careers back to a non-travelling career. Pay, lifestyle, and time are the main contributing factors that lead to the need to stay in a travelling career. Inevitably as a people get older and personal lives changes, different things become important to individuals and a travelling career can suddenly be a burden more than its worth. I have heard many times that you should be careful what you ask for ...you just might get it.

There are many reasons why a person chooses a travel career in the first place. It is exciting to be able to travel the world, see new things, meet new people, and get paid for doing it. Imagine waking up in a new city every day and getting to enjoy a celebrity life. Meals made for you, your own security team to keep you safe, and first class amenities all along the way. Now all travel careers do not get the first class treatment. A truck driver that travels for a living does not get the same treatment as a person working for a rock band on the road, and an airline pilot gets different amenities than a traveling nurse. All travel jobs have their benefits and the benefit levels vary from job to job.

As an example, Nashville, Tennessee, or "Music City" as it is known, many people can relate to a travel career in music. Musicians, crew for a band, acting, and dancing are all jobs or "gigs" as we in the entertainment industry call them. "Gigs" that require travel pay more than non-travelling jobs about 81% of the time according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. This may seem like a high percentage at first, but here is an example of why it is so high. A band that is touring may only stop in a city one time a year. So it is considered a special event and more people will come out because they don't usually get this opportunity which translates to higher pay for the touring personnel because of the higher revenue made at the shows. A band that is from Nashville may not even get paid for a show in Nashville, but when they travel outside of Nashville, they can make several thousand dollars. This does not mean that if a band is from Nashville they can go to Gallatin and make a bunch of money. Outside of Nashville refers to cities outside of Tennessee. Even a no-name act can get paid several thousands of dollars in far away U.S. cities for the simple fact that they are from Nashville. A place in upstate New York will pay big money for a Nashville band because they are from "Music City". People everywhere have a desire to travel, experience new things, and to meet new people. So if people in upstate New York can bring a bit of Nashville to them, it is more appealing than listening to a band that grew up down the street. As a respected person in the field of music with over 20 years of professional touring experience, I have always said "if you ever want to be famous in your home town, leave and get famous somewhere else first".

Once a person has been working successfully in a travel career, retiring from the road into a stay-at-home career can be difficult to achieve due to many factors at play. The first is pay; a person that tours in the music business as a professional can get paid anywhere from three hundred dollars a day up to one thousand dollars a day. Yes, that is not an error, one thousand per day. The same type of gig locally might only pay five hundred a week if that. That is a huge difference in pay, lifestyle and everything else. So what would the benefit be to stay at home? Well, for starters it is family. Many people who tour have children and a spouse. It is not easy to say goodbye to your little ones for months at a time just to give them a higher standard of living. When a parent is absent from the home, regardless of the reason, the household is considered a single parent household to the child. Single parent homes have a 13% higher risk of psychological damage to children compared to those children who have both of their parents present in the household (Burtkett). This is a big number when you think about the number of military personnel that are away from home. The American Psychological Association shows that when a child lives more than an hour drive to the other parent, they are significantly less well off on many children mental and physical health matters compared to children in a household where both parents are present.

The time it takes for a person to find a new job or career equal or close to the salary that they currently have can be difficult if you already have capped your salary for the line of work that you are in. If you are just starting out in a career, it is much easier to change jobs as pay is not as big of a factor because you are not making top money yet. When the need arises to leave a career in travel behind, a good choice may be starting a whole new career all together. At a younger age, people are less motivated to do well in school or to stay in school long enough to have a career as a doctor, lawyer or similar high paying career. A person must choose your career wisely and be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.

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