If “home” is the next destination on your list, you’ve got the travel bug bad! A lot of my clients want to travel but don’t believe they can find work that either allows them to travel or pays them to travel. 

While it might be a bit more challenging to land that perfect job in a tourist destination immediately after COVID, there are still plenty of jobs that require travel and pay well. 

1. Traveling Nurses take positions where they’re needed most. Because of the growing demands on healthcare with the boomers reaching maturity, there will always be a need for skilled nurses. Many traveling nurses work for an agency. Some work for organizations like Doctors Without Borders. Some areas with the highest need for nurses include destinations in Australia, New Zealand, China, and the Middle East  

Salary expectations: $73,300 – $100,000

1. Medical Device Sales Representatives sell medically needed devices to doctors, clinics, and hospitals. Medical devices include defibrillators, insulin pumps, pacemakers, artificial joints, machinery, and more. Successful reps conduct presentations, stay current with medical trends, are adept in contact management, and have exceptional interpersonal skills. The advantage of selling medical devices over selling anything else is that doctors cannot do their jobs without the appropriate device. The highest paid reps work in biotechnology. 

Salary expectations: $149,544 – $165,028

1. Construction Managers handle all aspects of a project including planning, coordinating, budgeting, and supervising. Construction managers typically work for large companies. They are assigned to projects and stay with that project through final inspection. Depending on how large the company is, international travel is possible. However, most of the time you’re limited to the country where you live. Projects can be almost anything from residential and commercial development to public buildings, industrial buildings, and hospitals. As well, construction managers work on road, tunnel, and bridge projects. 

Salary expectations: $95,260

1. Professional Chefs work in many capacities with great earning potential. With more and more emphasis on healthy eating, private chefs are finding work with families who often will take their chef with them when they travel. If you just want to get your feet wet and see if traveling is for you, try a temporary gig at a seasonal resort. If you love where you live but want to explore more than what’s in your county, purchase a food truck and let your wheels earn your dough.  

Salary expectations: $51,530 – $130,000

1. Foreign Service Officers work as a diplomat for the government. Typically, the government will send you where you’re needed most, giving you very little control over where you work. The upside is that you will have a chance to get completely immersed in the country where you work as most assignments are 2-4 years. Foreign Service Officers usually have a degree and speak two or more languages. The upside – Foreign Service Officers have excellent benefits! 

Salary expectations: $40,000 – $172,000 (roughly)

1. Travel Photographers typically photograph tourist destinations. But there are so many niches within professional photography. You can specialize in fine art, landscape, or tourism. Another area that can be lucrative is selling stock photography. Stock photographers most often sell their images to third-party sites like iStockPhoto, Shutterstock, or Flickr. But you can also sell stock photography from a personal website. Finding your niche, or as one blogger puts it “mastering your domain,” and marketing your work will make you the most money. 

Salary expectations: $30,000 to over $100,000. Read this article for great tips increasing profitability as a photographer.

These last two don’t require travel but offer the opportunity to travel. Because of the pandemic, the way we work has changed. Stay-at-home orders created a unique opportunity to work from anywhere. People moved out of cities to rural areas for a better quality of life. Many countries are offering extended visas to remoter workers and freelancers. 

If traveling is on your mind, you might consider negotiating with your clients and managers to find a solution that works for you and who you work for. 

1. Freelancers work as independent contractors to a variety of different clients. Freelancers are in business for themselves doing work in a particular area, such as SEO, social media marketing, or graphic design. Higher paid freelancers work as business consultants, software programming, or other highly technical or specialized field. While some will land a gig with a single client for a period of time, most freelancers have several clients they are working for at any one time. Freelancers have location-independent careers and are often referred to as digital nomads. 

Salary expectations: varies widely but typically more than the average salary for the niche they fill.

1. Remote Workers are almost a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most experts agree that even when we can return to work, 25-30% of the workforce will continue to work from home at least part of the time. If you’re working remotely now, begin negotiations with your employer to continue remote work. Be sure to use facts to support your argument and examples of how your work has improved since beginning work remotely. 

Salary expectations: varies depending on your job.

Globally, we will reach a new normal or return to the way things were before COVID. But there’s no need to wait until then to start planning your career around traveling. If you know you want a location-independent career, begin to make that shift now. There are plenty of jobs that require travel and pay well. Better yet, you can create your own.

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