Recently, I had a discussion with a friend (34 year old) who has one of the more interesting jobs I’ve personally ever heard about. What he does for living is he travels around the world and gives presentations for his company. The kicker? He gets paid quite a bit of money to do so. I think he said something around 100K per year. The craziest part of all this is he gets a budget every time he travels for food and lodging, so he has no out of pocket expenses any time he’s on the road. Sounds like a pretty cool career.
Which kind of got me thinking…how does one FIND one of these amazing cool jobs? Like how do you even begin to think, “In life all I ever want to do is travel the world and get paid 6 figures to give presentations!” I don’t know about you guys, but I thought that if I didn’t become a doctor, lawyer, accountant, or engineer I was a failure. Which pretty much means that as of right now, I am a failure at life. Sigh.
I told the guy that I write blog posts for post graduates, and asked him if I could interview him. Here’s our conversation:
Me: “How did you find such an amazing job opportunity?”
Friend: “Honestly, it’s not like I was hoping or planning to go down this path in life. The only reason why I started working this particular job is because I first started working for this company in the HR (Human Resources) department. That first job was incredibly boring, and I wasn’t really getting paid a lot of money. However, because I kept working hard, eventually I made the right connections and the right doors opened, so here I am.”
Me: “What exactly do you do?”
Friend: “I go on trips across the nation and give presentations. They’re basically presentations on money management. When I’m not on a trip, I don’t have to show up to the office, and they send me on about 7-14 locations per month depending on how busy things are. There are some weeks where I don’t even have to go anywhere, so I get to just chill at home and do nothing. It’s pretty awesome. During busy seasons, however, I do a lot of traveling. There was one week where I went to a different city every single day, Mon-Friday.”
Me: “What did you major in while you were in undergrad?”
Friend: “I was actually a math major in college. I originally wanted to go into accounting, but once I actually started working as an accountant, I realized I absolutely hated it. I became really unsure of what I wanted to do, but one of my friends hooked me up with a job at this firm. It was actually supposed to only be a temporary job while I thought about my future. However, because I really didn’t know what I wanted to do, I just stayed at the job even though there were times I wanted to quit. Obviously, I’m very glad that I didn’t [quit the job].”
Me: “Did you go to grad school?”
Friend: “I was considering it, during the time I quit PWC, but once I got this job there was no real reason for me to go to grad school. I guess it’s possible that I’d go at some point, but for now, I don’t really see much of a reason to go.”
Me: “What would you recommend to post-graduates who are wondering how they should expand their own personal careers?”
Friend: “My best advice is this: one door opens another. Like I said, I didn’t even know I was going to be working this job. However, since I started working at the firm, I was able to make the right connections and impress the right people so that they’d offer me a position as wonderful as this.
When I was 23 and working at PWC (Pricewaterhouse Coopers an accounting firm) I was miserable and hated what I was doing. When I left PWC, my new job originally paid me 20 thousand less per year. There was a lot of uncertainty, but because I consciously made an effort to work hard no matter where I was at and I was willing to walk through doors and take a bit of risk, good things happened for me.”
Me: “Any last words?”
Friend: “Just a few cliche-ish and redundant statements: you cannot hope to get to where you want to be, without first starting somewhere. And, great opportunities are out there for those people who are willing to work hard and invest in their social networks. I really got this job because of my friend, who referred me to the company. Then, once I got there, because I made key relationships with the right people, I was able to land this amazing job. Last week, I went International for the first time. They sent me to Australia to give a lecture. Needless to say, it was an amazing experience.”
My Final Thoughts: I think a lot of us feel stuck at our current jobs. However, don’t forget that the only way you’re ever going to expand your career is if you keep investing in it. Most people don’t START with a job like this. I don’t think many people even know jobs like this really exist! Once you start working, as you increase your experience, exciting opportunities/doors will open up to you. Keep it up!
