Hi,

having done a 3 month summer tour, i now know that want to do a longer tour, maybe a few years. However I am concerned about coming back after tour. I mean getting a normal job, and settling back into life. I am now only 23 and have just graduated, everyone seems to be all about getting a job. I am a bit concerned that I will have trouble finding a job in say 3/4 years time, as employers will think I am a bit mad, plus surely after traveling a crappy office job will seem boring, i mean even know I can not really hold down an office job- I need to do something active.

i'm in the same boat. i haven't toured yet but i dont want a crappy office job either.. and i'm thinking about setting off on a long tour when i've got enough money.

unless you want to work for a big corporation i don't think your CV is all that important. just apply for jobs that you're interested in. even if you're inexperienced and not qualified, if you go in there with the right attitude they'll see that you're serious about it. just be positive, and work hard. i think that'll make a bigger impact on most employers than if you have a really good CV.

if i'd travelled for several years i'd definately put it on my CV. it makes you look interesting and adventurous. they'd probably even ask you about it in the interview.

yeah, let them know that you've been traveling for a couple years, if you're not applying for a pure desk job, they'd probably like that. If you weren't going to go on tour, what job would you apply for right now? Just apply for that job when you get back.

Many people have more respect than you might think when it comes to someone your age taking some time to do something like this. It can even be a plus.

You might be able to find some work that isn't inside an office, if you keep your eyes open. There are quite a few possibilities for working outdoors. You could probably even google it, and find some new possibilities out that way.

Temp work. Go to your local temporary employment agencies and register with them to pick up temporary jobs. That's what I've been doing for the past 5 years and it's great!! You can pick the time period you want to work (until this date, for the next 6 months, or whatever) and when you leave, you leave with good feelings all around.

Most temp agencies also deal with a variety of employment. Most have an office/administrative area as well as a hands on/labour area. Some temp agencies in certain areas will also deal with agriculture ... temp help with harvesting etc.

Temp jobs can lead to permanent jobs if that's something you want, or you can remain temporary as desired.


But here's a thought you might consider ... you're still under 30, so you can do this. Here in Australia there is something called the Harvest Trail. Basically you start up in Queensland (very soon, some areas may have started already) and work your way south helping with harvesting fruit. Some people can make quite a bit of money doing this sort of thing, and you get to travel and see different parts of Australia.

it's a good man who know's what tomarrow will bring.I reckon if you have enough money saved for this journey then go for it buddy your only here on this earth for a short time and if it's what you really want to do 100% certain well the best of luck.

+1 ..and if it means you don't get a job at the end of it, then it probably wasn't the right job for you anyway. it sounds like you don't want to work somewhere so formal that they'd reject you for having the desire to travel in your twenties. do what you really want to do. be free.

People fear their CVs too much. I doubt a long trip like that will do yours any harm, and even if it did...what is life for, finding a job, or living?

There are plenty of jobs waiting for a man or woman with the intelligence, guts and ingenuity to travel the world on a bicycle. Under the right circumstances, many employers will have great respect for what you'll have done and will make a spot for you. It'll all work out and you'll be just fine.

Be interesting to know how you plan to support yourself on this long sabbatical.

Thanks for the replies, all positive.

I am now planning to head to korea for a year or so to save a good amount, whilst teaching english there and hopefuly 12 months time i can leave for a longish tour

Having just returned from our world tour, I was forced to think about resumes and bike tours the other day while writing mine up. Here's what I came up with...

How to make bike touring look good on your CV

The point is really that bike touring requires a lot of skills that can translate into the workplace and if the employer sees it as a negative thing, maybe it's not the job for you anyway! Of course, I still have to prove this theory by getting a job but we went to a job fair the other day and the response to our trip from recruiters was quite positive. Everyone was impressed and no one mentioned the gap from 'real work' on our CVs.

some really good points there, will bookmark that page

took me a little while to get back into the working word after my tour 2 years ago. I ended up getting a job building bicycles to help ease my way back into the real world (where i work on computers and databases).

Worked well enough.

While everyone here, who probably has an established career and a good job already, is telling you to "go for it" allow me to inject a dose of reality...

Having no real-world work experience in your chosen field 3-4 years after graduating will make it more difficult to find a job. Not impossible, but definitely more difficult. At larger companies, your CV will end up in the HR department where someone will note the absence of relevant experience and dump it in the trash. You'll probably have better luck at a smaller company, like the one where I work. Still, if I had your CV and wanted to interview you it might be a tough sell to other employees and managers. They'd want to know whether your knowledge was still current given how long you'd gone without work in the field, whether we'd put money into training you only to have to disappear on another tour, etc. I think you'd have to be an absolutely stellar candidate to erase the doubts that that would come up.

Of course, much depends on your chosen profession. In some fields, there's less need to "stay current" than in others, for example. Still, I think you'd find things much easier if you worked for a few years and established a reputation before you went on a long tour. That's the route I took: worked for about 5 years, then took six months off to travel (with a ton of money in the bank, I might add). When I was done traveling, I came back and had a previous co-worker hire me within 5 days of stepping off the plane...

you make a good point there. even now i was rejected from a job because the employer looked at the fact that i travel a lot as negative, contacted my referees and they confirmed that i tent to go away to travel several times a year months on end. however i have the urge to travel now not when i am 30, i met people who are in their 40's saying how they wanted to save 1st and now they end up having a family and other comitments. so i think its time to seize the day and not live in the future

Yes ... definitely travel before you're 30. Before you're 30 you can get jobs in other countries on "working visitor's" visas. As I mentioned, you could come over to Australia and pick up any sort of job over here and stay for a year or so ... before you're 30. And I believe it is the same in many other countries.

Once you hit 30, the door for that sort of thing slams shut.

If I had realized all this way back when, I would have made a much greater effort to travel the world before I was 30.

Well you will have lots of skill being a homeless person. You might like it. I opted for a 90 day tour. I have been struggling for the last year to find a full time job. Soon to be homeless. Yet I still tour alot

That is also the route I've taken on a sequence of longer tours of 3 months, 12 months and 10 months. These trips were separated by a number of years of working and then taking a leave of absence for touring. In between, I worked hard to establish a reputation and contacts for the work I did, so that if I needed to come back to somewhere else I could do that.

I think it does depend on the field you are in. If you can show you are still "current", then I've also found that having the experience touring can be a positive in the interview process.

Not if he opts to work while touring. He mentioned teaching English in Korea as an example of something he might be interested in doing. Depending on his area of skill, he might also be able to pick up work in that area. If he is, for example, in accounting, he could very likely pick up temporary accounting or bookkeeping jobs in many different countries.

While he is still under 30 he can do that sort of thing. Once he arrives at the magic age of 30 it will become very difficult to work in other countries.

I strongly encourage people to travel while they can ... and to travel outside their own countries.


But as for finding a job after an extended tour ... I quit a good, stable job to do a 90-day tour ... returned to Canada at the end of the tour, contacted three temp agencies, and about a month later had an even better job than the one I quit. Full-time temporary work ... it's the way to go!!

I did my first long international trip at the age of 27 after having worked for 5-6 years. I had a ton of money in the bank so I didn't have to fret over every sandwich and cup of coffee, plus I had the professional contacts necessary to ensure that I was employed when I returned home. Not minimum wage employment, mind you, but six-figure salary employment. It all depends on what your priorities are. I, personally, had more fun and adventure between the ages of 30 and 40 than I did between 20 and 30...