Holding steady beneath my nose. A confession: I had a job interview last night.
Before you flood my inbox, here’s why.
The very first post on this site hinted at recession ridden times and a promotion being snatched from me. That climatic event forced me to evaluate everything.
That new job would have related to my field to some degree, but the lure is this – technical writing.
Candice Does The World and Nerd’s Eye View are technical writing their way to a hot CV in addition to their creative writing. I’m admiring of such skills – really, truly. Just unsure if that’s me.
Even though last year was a surface disappointment, the seed of long term travel was taking hold. I wasn’t crushed, in fact, a little relieved.
Then this comes along.
Keith Savage wrote about the Lizard Brain – described as the unwanted advisor in his post. I am swimming in Lizard juice right now!
This new opportunity is technical writing. At least the beginning stages of it.
The interested party whispered words of love, promising sensual caresses.
Work/life balance.
Small firm.
We only allow people to work 8 hours – no overtime encouraged.
Flex days.
Working remotely is possible.
What’s drawing me to this bad boy is money. If I embarked on this path, I could hang up my own “techie writer” sign and clear $80,000 per year. As a freelancer.
Right now I vacillate between staying the course or succumbing to that scaly, green reptile slinking towards me, tongue sliding in and out like a beckoning finger.
Am I making the wrong decision?
Should I close down Nomadic Chick and turn my back on this?
Back to why, going to the job interview was about internal investigation, asking what will ultimately be right for me. How could yesterday’s “right” flip so drastically?
The universe is testing my will. Frankly, I’m pretty pissed with the universe at the moment. My god, someone get me a stiff drink or at least reinforce my choice to chuck the cube, travel, and write for myself.
UPDATE – Monday, April 12, 2010
First off, thank you dear ones, from the depths of my heart! Your comments below aided me as I bandied around this prospect in my conflicted mind.
All of you have truly become treasured friends in arms. You mean more to me than I could ever express!
Now the gist – I’m staying the course. Nomadic Chick is a permanent fixture. Here’s why:
- The job opportunity is very, very starter. For me to earn $80,000 will take one to three years. Possibly longer, barring professional development and industry trends.
- Working remote is a dim possibility, due to the size of the firm, employee coverage is expected. The remote idea will apply after that three years as mentioned above.
- Considering all your comments – this is NOT my dream job. More a help-me-stay-on-the-road-longer job.
- Long term potential exists, but as Colin pointed out, if I’m hire-able now, my status won’t change after a year or so.
- The only reason to take this job is a higher salary to pad savings, avoid a lay-off (my industry is painfully slow at present), or utilize those flex days I keep salivating over. Any extra days I get to play or write and not work bodes well!
What also turned the tide was a pleasant Saturday brunch with an old friend. She knows me inside and out, can recite my foibles in the dark, sans cue cards. I love her bluntness:
“I think you should go. You’ve been focused on this for a year, and to turn back would be wrong. And this IS your dream.”
I also hate it when she’s right. My dream was never to be trapped by circumstance or defeat. Yet, here I am. My intense belief that travel is the elixir to personal growth and unchecked opportunity can’t be denied. And my renewed love affair with the pen is in its infancy. To stop now? Seems misplaced.
This newfangled existence I’m carving out continues to settle in comfortably, more and more I morph into the real me. I don’t want to dismiss her yet, the untold stories or intrigues she holds is worthy of release.
Today I woke up to an unspoiled work day… a clear thought rang in my head – I can’t stay. Mentally and emotionally I’ve disembarked the plane, overflowing with excitement, gazing towards the horizon… breathlessly…ALIVE.
Oh, and the regret thing. Once I shut out fear, not doing this will negatively impact me. For those who already bit the travel apple, I know you don’t regret it? Non?
If a dangling carrot presented itself before your travels, how did you handle it?
Like a morality laden children’s tale, what I’ve learned is to focus, push harder, and not bail on a dream. Because mine is surely attainable. Perhaps yours is. You won’t know unless you free fall. If you’re frightened, I promise to hold your hand.
Photo: hap under Creative Commons.
Popularity: 7% [?]
{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
One opportunity is just that – one opportunity.
Others will pop up if/when you get back. You may find something on the road you like. You may come home and find an even better position. You’ll be betraying yourself if you didn’t follow your original plan.
Congratulations on making the decision!
Luckily, we have been able to make our “location independent” lives work out. We are traveling and working —- though right now, only my husband is making money. I am writing to build up a resume in the hopes that, eventually, this will turn into a career.
I love traveling and am so glad this lifestyle works for us. But, my writing career might flop and, if it does, I will go back into lawyering without any hesitation. I won’t love it — but, at the end of the day, I need to make a living. My advice: pursue this for a while and if it works, then fantastic. If it doesn’t, then make a change into technical writing and leave those doors open.
I currently myself in a similar situation. Although I am not looking to leave for another 8-10 months, I have been offered a permanent job in my ‘career path’ ( the one I would take if I weren’t so darn addicted to travel…) Still juggling the decision. It’s not an either/or for me but rather a question of how willing I am to sign up for a permanent job with no end date in sight. I’ve written about my decision here
I’m happy to see you’ve chosen to stay the course. I think you’ve made the best possible decision. But there needs to be no doubt about the bravery required to make such a choice.
Good luck with everything!
Great choice! Congratulations. I never regretted going travelling instead of taking the job that was offered. I am sure you won’t either. :)
That’s awesome news. I’m glad you choose the travel lifestyle. There are so many opportunities to make money, not so many to travel the world!
So now the only question is where & when in the world do we get to meet face to face and have a beer together?
Cheers,
Colin
Congratulations! My personal feelings are that you made the right choice, but more importantly it seems you had an opportunity that forced you to dig deep within yourself and make the right choice for you.
Wonderful news.
I’m so glad you chose the path that will make you happy.
I kept coming back to this post and not commenting because I couldn’t think of anything to say other than ‘Do what’s right for you’, and it sounds like you’ve found exactly what that is!
Congrats and I’m glad that you’ll still be around all the rest of us that have been bitten by the travel bug!
Oh, how I have succumbed to the dangling carrot in the past. The money was great, but the extra stress was not worth it. This time nothing is standing in my way!
It’s a hard decision to make, but in the end you need to do what is best for you and will make you happy. If you settle, you’ll regret it. :)
In one word: Awesome!
In many more words: That’s a brave, ballsy, challenging decision that you’ve made. It’s also undoubtedly the right one. You are passionate about travelling and equally passionate about writing about it – doing anything else now, after you’ve got yourself and this site to the point they are at, would be swapping some short term cash for your long term dream.
As I often say, when I’m lying on my deathbed looking back over my life, I’m not going to be saying ‘I wish I’d spent more time in the cubicle’. Now that you’ve made the decision, follow your passion and put into it everything you’ve got. You’ll never regret it.
I’m excited for you. Good choice ;)
At the end of the day, the only person you have to answer to is yourself. It sounds trite but you really do have to follow your heart on this one. In a perfect world we wouldn’t need money to live but it is a far from perfect world. If this job will help make things easier financially, there’s no reason no to give it a try – especially if there is a possibility to work remotely. On the other hand, if money is the ONLY reason you are considering it, then it probably won’t make you happy in the long run. Just trust yourself and good luck with whatever you decide!
Wow, what a choice you have to make. It comes down to a couple questions though. Is this a once in a lifetime type job opportunity, or is this commn in your area? Does the company seem like an awesome fit with you? Seems to me that it does sound like a wicked fit and it sounds rare (for Canada at least). If you work for 1-3 years many options can come out of it such as work remote – maybe London for 2 months? They say remote work is ok…
It took us 7 years to start our year long travel. There’s always reasons not to leave for longterm but eventually it’ll come a time when you just have to go.
I thought a lot about this before I decided to put my 2 cents out there. Mike is right. No one way is ever going to fit all people. All of us have our own reasons for doign what we do, and you will have yours. I waited–my reasons are unique to me. You may opt to not wait.
Deciding on the job doesn’t mean you have “sold out”. Going on your trip now doesn’t mean that you are foolish and will never have another job offer. None of us can know how it all turns out, unitl we are “done”.
I just quit my job. I wanted to and financially, I can, but I STILL had a major anxiety attack the first time I tried to do a budget without that big paycheck.
Take council from people, but follow your heart. Doesn’t mean you won’t have second or even third thoughts-but to me, that is part of the adventure.
It’s a tough one. But there’s good wise advice in these comments, if I’m and judge…
To reiterate what Joel said – long-term travel is part of the long-term picture. It’s not something you’re not ever doing because you choose to save for a while. A job is a job, but travel is a part of You, and so there’s no way you’ll stop hearing its call and responding to it. Anyway, saving up money is a great way to focus harder on travel. It unlocks your imagination. :)
But mainly…and this is hackneyed to say, but anyway….we’re all unique. So your plan is going to be different than anyone else’s. The joy of long-term travel is that there’s a million billion ways to work up to it. There’s no one set way to become a semi-nomadic globetrotter. You make your rules.
Why not play with the possibilities? Why not see how much travel is possible with the new job? Why not push boundaries in both directions? Why not see if one actually *complements* the other?
Sounds rather like it might.
@Everyone – Thanks to you all for such diverse opinions and words of encouragement. After brunch with a friend yesterday she said a few things that made sense. I will be adding an update to this post, so watch for it. :)
Will the new position change your life in a way that will make you happy in a way that will make your souls dreams come true?
If yes, you have your answer. If no, you have your answer.
@Abby: “At times, it’s been hard to hear all of the RTW-ers moan and groan about being stuck at a cubicle. I lost my job a year and a half ago and hit the road with a huge chunk of debt. I would’ve given anything for work to go to, to save…”
This is how I often feel. So many travel bloggers are scrambling to get out of their cubicles. I’d love to trade places with them! I currently have no money to travel, and I’d love to have a job that would put me over the poverty line so that I could actually save up some.
Ugh. What a dilemma! I honestly can’t tell you one way or another, and like everyone else said already – you have to decide between what is going to make you happier in the long-term. Do you think that by taking this new job you’ll be more likely to put off the trip another year… then possibly another year… you know that corporate world has a way of sucking people in and keeping them there. Are you OK with that as long as the job is pleasing?
And, you have to consider that it is technical writing. I have done a fair bit of technical writing for the past year for a company and let me tell you it can be more than dull sometimes.
For me, I have a hard time waiting. I want the world and I want it now, so I would totally ditch the job and run far, far away. But that’s just me ;)
I totally relate with your being pissed off with the universe! It sure does give us signs, huh? If this hadn’t happened, you could’ve skipped right off knowing that travel was what was meant to be… At times, it’s been hard to hear all of the RTW-ers moan and groan about being stuck at a cubicle. I lost my job a year and a half ago and hit the road with a huge chunk of debt. I would’ve given anything for work to go to, to save… Besides the fact that I love what I do! It’s what I’ve wanted since I was five years old. Work isn’t always bad! BUT, fast forward eight months, and I now live in Central America, have savings, and get to do what I love every single day. I can’t travel as freely as the others, but it’s worked for me. You will figure out a way for this to all work you! Whether this was just to build your confidence back up after unfairly missing out on something before, or a way to save even more money for a longer trip, this happened for a reason, as you know. I am so happy for you!
I have only been following your blog for a short time, so I wouldn’t feel confortable advising you what to do about this difficult question.
I will however tell you my story in the hope it will give you a different perspective.
I turned down a good job opportunity while I was planning my big trip. And I never regretted making that decision, as other opportunities arose during my one-and-a-half year trip. I would not be where I am now if I had shelved my plans and had taken the job.
Good luck with making your decision. I know how hard it can be.
I have to agree with Joel. You need to understand the motive behind wanting to take the job. If it is the fear of the unknown then it is not a good enough reason in my opinion.
I remember a couple of weeks before we (Tracy, the kids and I) started our trip 3 months ago I got really scared. We didn’t have a lot of money saved or have any real concrete plans for what we were doing. I started to worry about money (and making enough of it to survive, etc.). It was just the fear of the unknown that was worrying me, not the worry about money or what we were doing, just the unknown.
I hope you don’t mind the link, I wrote about the “Fear of the Unknown” a couple of weeks ago.
And that fear will continue to pop up throughout your journey, whether it is travelling or manning the cubicle.
Now I can’t imagine any other choice than what we are currently doing. It is working perfectly for us at the moment and we’ll continue doing it until, well probably until we get sick of it or the kids are going into High School (whichever comes first ;)).
Good luck with the decision. There is no right or wrong, just a choice.
Regards,
Colin
Oh man, when I saw your fb post I was so ready to tell to you ignore it all and don’t let it derail you, but on the flip side – this is an incredible opportunity. I work remotely and it’s the one of the things I am most grateful for. The salary is enticing, and as others have said if you could sock away more than half of that paycheck over a year, and be ready to flee after a year, you can both prolong your travels, and have skills to possibly travel indefinitely or until you choose to end your travels :-)
And a planning for a year out won’t take you out of the RTW planning club – Candice and others have a year or more in their planning! :-) We’d still follow your journey :-)
I’d have to agree with Kelsey. Take the job, and do it long enough to (a) earn enough money to extend your RTW trip and (b) make a name for yourself so that you work as your own techie writer. And who knows? Maybe they will love you so much that when you leave, they keep paying you to write while you’re abroad.
Good luck in your decision, whatever it may be.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be either or, I’m sure you can find a happy medium in between. Sounds like a good opportunity if it’s what you really want to do. You probably can’t go terribly wrong with either choice.
Whatever you decide, remember that there are no mistakes in life. You can try and make this a linear, logical decision. Or you can go from you heart. Go sit in nature (I know you already do) and ask yourself. You know whats right.
I got offered a great job after my clients found out I was leaving. (It was easy for me, I already had my house packing in progress and my flight booked.) But it did show me that I would be equally marketable in a few years.
Traveling the world opens up so many door, I believe you can never go wrong with that kind of education. But then there are those doors that open because you’ve let them…
i wish you luck in your decision :)
(i also would miss you as a parallel planner)
Shauna :)
Wow, truly a test. First let me say I think this could be a golden apple. That’s not a good thing (see the story of Atalanta and Hippomenes).
The answer to your dilemma lies in the origin of your decision to travel the world. You mention that it was spawned from a missed promotion. Did this help realize that the job wasn’t for you? Was your trip planning simply a convenient (albeit exciting) alternative?
I don’t feel comfortable telling you what to do because I’m different. I am a technical writer now. I’ve been doing technical/sales writing for seven years and have had my fill. It’s been great, but I realized I need more creativity in my life (a trait sadly lacking in the technical writing field). My job’s different – hours pile up, I can’t work remotely. Doing Traveling Savage on top is like having two jobs, and that’s not sustainable for me in the long run.
When you make your decision, make sure it’s not from a place of fear. If this job isn’t your definition of a perfect job, you’ll probably be starting Nomadic Chick back up in a few years and cursing yourself for biting that apple.
Going on a trip like the one you’re planning is transformative in ways that can’t even be anticipated. Who knows how you’ll come out the other end. Give it a lot of thought and trust your gut. Good luck.
Dear God! If you don’t want the job, I’ll take it. :-)
DO IT!
Not for the money, but because it sounds like an awesome opportunity to create an amazing life for yourself. If you pass this opportunity up now, do you think it will come around again? The way you describe it – it sounds like this is not an ‘ordinary’ job – it is an awesome job with awesome potential.
But do not give up on your travel plans. Tell them you will only take the job if in 2-3 months you can work remotely – have them write it in you contract. And then embark on your travels. If they want you, they will say yes and you get to travel and do it with money flowing in as well. If they say no, then you are on you way in June anyway. Remember the How to Be Awesome approach – an awesome life is one you create in which you get to have it all. In making this decision – pick the option that allows you to have it all.
Honestly, I think you should give it a shot.
What’s the worst that can happen? If you get there and you hate the job, you can quit!
I don’t see how you have anything to lose here by giving it a shot.
Besides, if you saved 75% of that $80k/yr for just two years, you could travel around the world for a solid 4-5 years on what you saved.
Oh, and I missed #4:
Your apprehension and fear of what you’re soon diving into is making you consider something you wouldn’t have 3 months ago.
It doesn’t seem like that’s in your nature, but it’s certainly possible.
Just some thoughts –
I’ve never gotten the sense from you that traveling was because you were running away from your job (though it may have hastened things and pushed you). Traveling seems to be a big part of your life vision.
So, if you are going to take this it seems like one of the following needs to be true:
1) You can still fill your travel goals while doing this job
2) This is such a dream job, your travel goals become secondary (though still important)
3) You can make enough money and build enough technical skill that you can parlay this into an even better/longer travel plan in the future (set your goals concretely if that’s the case).
I’m guessing that #3 is where you’re at, which is understandable and why I’ve been loosely planning my RTW for 12 years. All I’d say is, know what that end result is and when you want it to happen and create a plan around it. I didn’t, which is why it’s taken me so long – I should have been saving money for 12 years instead of the last 2. I should have been writing long before I started.
Just ensure that if you do it, you keep the other aspect of you intact and part of the planning.
I’d hate not having you as a parallel planner, though!