Will Travel Affect My Career?

Last week, one meeting included a senior consultant with five years' experience who had just come back from almost a month of travel abroad.

The time away had invigorated him but the return to work, while he was excited for it, was accompanied by longing to travel more and see the world.

The six weeks away wasn't enough. And in his time travelling, there were many fellow explorers who were sightseeing for 3 months or more! This raised a concern for the :

Will travel, outside of allocated leave, impact your career in the long-term?

The answer?

It depends.

In this context, travel is recreational and for the purpose of a sabbatical.

I want to acknowledge that the personal and financial freedom to travel is a privilege not everyone is afforded.

Here's My 2 Cents

To preface my perspective I'll reference Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher and scientist, who speaks about virtue in "How to Flourish". He describes that virtue can be divided into two lines:

1. Virtues of Intellect: such as being learned or discerning with good judgment.
2. Virtues of Character: such as generosity and self-discipline.

I'm of the opinion that professional development correlates to the virtue of intellect, whilst personal development from travelling builds virtue of character.

Recently I found myself in a boardroom with a successful entrepreneur discussing his career and one important aspect of his development referenced was....travel! He felt his travel to South America, Asia and the Middle East grew his integrity as a person.

Some stories he relayed:

• Not speaking English for 3 months and using a lot of sign language.
• Having to speak in your third dialect to negotiate safe travel.
• Understanding and accepting risk as part of the journey.

Travel by all accounts develops the Virtue of Character and for lack of a better term, establishes more worldliness in an individual, opening up their view of reality.

More related to the professional scope is the below well known quote:

Being easy to work with is a massively underrated career skill.

Travel is great however, if not managed with organised planning, can have detrimental affects on one's career.

Three Ways to Reduce the Impact of Travel on Career

1/ Integrate Travel with Professional Development:

At the start of this year I went to India for 3 weeks (and taking a break was hard for me!).

Whilst recreational, this trip also aligned with my professional domain as in the Australian data & analytics industry there is a large number of Indian migrants.

Travelling to India was a great way to understand the culture of country and use that understanding to improve communication in my work.

Heck, there was even someone from LinkedIn who I caught up with for dinner!

Himanshu Bansal

2/ Use the Gap Between Jobs:

Use the time between jobs as an opportunity to travel.

This is an incredibly unique period where there are no deadlines, no client calls and no stakeholder relations needed - you're also not chewing into your leave. This essentially increasing the amount of time you'll have off in your lifetime.

The impact on your professional career here is minimal. This is best done when you've got a second job lined up for a delayed start date or are on gardening leave from your last role.

3/ Align with Periods of Natural Slowdown:

December-January, depending on industry, is routinely the quietest business period in Australia. Whilst this is a more popular time to travel (and therefore more expensive) it decreases the impact on your professional career. If you're coming back in February then the job market will also be looking especially hot.

With running DR Analytics Recruitment , December-January is almost the only time possible for me to take extended travel so you can bet I'll be doing it this year!.

Words of Caution

• The safest bet before travelling is to establish strong career foundations to come back to if you're planning on quitting your job. The reintegration back into the workforce will be harder without this. What this may look like at least 2+ years in a specific domain and strong relations with industry contacts.
• I've seen this happen and I would thoroughly advise against quitting your job while overseas already! This is obviously not viewed favourably by an employer and has no organised planning behind it meaning unknown effects - possibyl damaging!
• You don't want to end up as an unskilled 30-year old who has spent the last 10 years travelling. It's much harder to start a career at 30-years old rather than in your 20's.

Noteworthy Interest: Contracting

A friend in the data & analytic industry has been taking 6 month contracts for the past few years and between contracts finding extended vacation time. This works well due to the short nature of contract work and the high remuneration point!

So will travel affect my career?

Yes - in a good way only if managed effectively.