

Ask HN: What startups enable international travel for employees? - inquisitiveta

I am a software engineer in the bay area and have been considering other potential options in terms of employer. One of my favorite things about start-ups is that they (can) give you exposure to experiences that are out of reach in a larger corporation. That being said, something I'm extremely interested in is international travel and would love for that to be enabled by my employer. What companies do you know of that offer this as a perk (if not job requirement)? An example would be a company that has foreign offices to which they fly you out for training, team building, etc.
======
johnfuller
Start traveling now and then apply for work while you are abroad. Do freelance
work while looking for employment to generate income to get you by while
traveling. In some places, like S.E. Asia you can get by cheap enough that you
may not have to do much work at all to stay even, depending on what your rates
are, you truly could get by with a 4 hour work week. Freelancing is also great
for generating leads which could turn into the sort of opportunity you are
looking for.

Don't wait for the perfect situation. Start packing your bags and look for
plane tickets today. My suggestion for a great place to start is the
Philippines. You can buckle down in country for 16 months on a tourist visa
before you need to do a visa run, English is an official language and flights
to the surrounding countries are very cheap.

This is basically my story. I had plans on doing this, which I just kept
pushing out farther and farther. I also barely had any savings, which is one
of the reasons why I was pushing out my plans. Then one day my situation
changed, I needed to find a new place to live and I received payment on a
decent invoice. I really didn't want to find a new place to live in that city,
so I used the invoice to buy a plane ticket, took care of the things I needed
to take care of and left the country with just enough cash left over to take
care of deposits for an apartment, utilities and probably less than a month
(!) of regular expenses. As soon as I got into my apartment I went right to
work and built up a bit of a cushion. I probably would never have made the
jump if I didn't force myself to buy that ticket.

ETA: As a freelancer with a freelancer mindset, I never view any offer as true
employment. With every long term gig I give myself a general milestone to
achieve and then it's time to move on. I usually get a few offers for full
time remote work every year without actively looking and then I uncover a few
more with minimal ground work.If I set myself to seriously look then I would
find a lot more. That's with agencies which do client work and the occasional
start-up. So, the work is out there, you just have to plant the seeds.

