You might hear a friend or a family member say they are starting a new job or a new career. When they tell you they will be traveling frequently for work, do you find yourself wondering if a career with travel might be for you? I used to be a national trainer traveling the country, staying in new hotel rooms each night, and living out of a suitcase. How many of you just thought, “Man that would be a great job?” There are a lot of perks to it, but there are more negatives than you think. Yes, getting all the hotel points and airline miles is nice, but are they worth what you think? Yeah, seeing the country and meeting all sorts of people is nice, but who are you not meeting at home? This type of job is harder than you think it is.
Points, points, and more points! One great perk about all the travel is you don’t have to pay for a hotel room on vacation since you can just use your points. What many people don’t know about hotel points is that at any time the hotel company can devalue your points and change how much it costs in points to stay at a certain hotel. For example, Marriott just made a change where 75 percent of their hotels are now more expensive than they were before.
It’s always nice to meet new people with different backgrounds. While traveling I have met some great people who still to this day I call close friends. I’ve met some famous people, such as Lynn Swann from the Pittsburgh Steelers and Ozzie Smith from the St. Louis Cardinals (one of my idols). It was always exciting to meet famous people, but who are you not meeting at home? What about all the family gatherings you are missing? Did your son or daughter have a tee ball or soccer game you missed again? Did you miss that first step or first word? What about your spouse working late hours, coming home trying to fix dinner, and getting the kids to bed on time? So it’s not really who you are not meeting at home, but what quality time are you missing at home?
To summarize, traveling the country is nice but are you really getting all the perks that you are promised with hotel points? What about what you’re missing at home – first steps, first words, birthdays, anniversaries, not to mention bedtime stories and hugs before and after school. From my point of view, being home each night, having dinner with my family, tucking my daughter into bed, and not missing any more first anything is much more lucrative than sleeping in airports and different hotels each night and earning points that might not be as great as they promised.
Josh Wigginton
Josh has been an Account Manager with AurStaff since July of 2015. He enjoys building relationships with his clients and candidates. The best part of this career is helping candidate who are down on their luck find a great job. Outside of work Josh spends all of his time with his five year old daughter, Leah, and his beautiful wife of nine years, Amanda.
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