Content Summary
If your bank account is endless, investing and living off of interest should both be at the top of your list for careers you can pursue while traveling the world. For those of you without money trees in the backyard, fret not; there are still many achievable careers you can pursue and excel at while being nomadic.
Here is a list of 5 remote careers that will allow you to work from wherever your wondering soul takes you.
Freelancer
This term used to be pretty restricted to writing, webpage development, graphic design, and similar jobs whose only required tool is a laptop computer. As many are learning with the COVID-19 pandemic, there are a lot of other jobs that can be done successfully and remotely, especially with an abundance of new software that makes a single computer screen feel like an office. Project manager, lawyer, data analyst, pharmacist, veterinarian, lab technician, retail designer, job recruiter, HR specialist… all of these, and many more, are now occupations that have enough work to be more than full-time for an at-home freelancer.
One thing to be wary of when transitioning to freelancing is the fact that you will now be running your own online business, and allotting time for invoicing, finding new work, etc. should be planned for… and also charged for when deciding your rates!
Nurse
There are a few options for nurses who want to travel the world. The first, of course, being a “traveling nurse.” Traveling nurses tend to stay at a location for 6-12 months, and then they get reassigned to somewhere else on the globe.
A similar path, and one with destinations across the globe, would be that of a nurse on medical mission trips. Akin to traveling nurses, the assignments for these trips are generally a few months, but there are options for trips as short as a week, and as long as multiple years.
Telenursing is also a rapidly growing field, and the expanse of nursing specialties that are now in demand in the telehealth community continues to grow. Ultimately, all three of these nursing paths get higher job satisfaction rates than their home-hospital counterparts, and all are currently in demand.
Teacher
Many teachers were forced into remote education because of school closures related to the coronavirus, but even before, there were ample opportunities for teachers who wanted to travel. Akin to nurses, there are many temporary jobs teaching English in foreign nations, but even teachers who want to be constantly on the move have means of employment, via remote education such as what’s being practiced during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Translator
Do you speak another language? Hablas un segundo idioma? Parlez-vous une deuxième langue?
The breadth of remote work for translators is encouragingly large. If writing is your foreign language forte, take a look up at the freelancing section, as one-time jobs in document translation are readily available every day. For a more concrete written-based translation occupation, there are many, many global scale companies who hire translators to take their message to a new market.
Virtual interpretation is another field that requires a master of multiple languages, and people in these jobs would join web-based meetings to ensure everyone is on the same page even if a language barrier exists between the two parties.
Virtual Assistant
This job is pretty self-explanatory, but often overlooked as an opportunity to work abroad. Just as most small business owners in the brink-and-mortar setting have office assistants, so do their online counterparts. Sorting emails, vetting phone calls, engaging on social media, and scheduling meetings are all things that can be done from the comfort of your couch, even if you move couches a lot. Mastering online project management skills not only make this career path easier, but also improve your odds of moving your current job to the land of telecommuting.
Start Booking Your Tickets!
This list is not exhaustive, and it should be reiterated that web-based freelancing opportunities are coming to fruition in almost every single profession, including hands-on trades (online tutorials, education, etc.). If you have a will to travel and trusty computer equipment, there has never been a better time to pursue your remote career.
