

Ask HN: A different way to travel? - shk88

I'll be graduating in December, and have decided I want to travel as much as possible for the next few years. Unfortunately, a traditional job with 2-4 weeks of vacation a year doesn't allow for the type of extensive travel I'm hoping to do. Equally unfortunate is the fact that I don't have the money to simply take off and go see the world. So, what I'm hoping to do is leverage my fairly useful skill set (as a developer) to make this happen. I would honestly be happy working short contracts for room/board (and maybe enough to make a student loan payment every month) if it gave me the ability to see the world.<p>Here are my questions:
- Has anyone had experience with this type of arrangement?
- Would any of you bring somebody in under this type of arrangements?
- Is anyone else interested in this type of work/travel?<p>If so, I would seriously consider attempting to build a network for interested workers and employers.<p>Advice/Suggestions are much appreciated.
======
jasonkester
You're heading in the right direction, but I'd actually recommend a different
approach.

Try working for a few places over the next couple years and build yourself a
reputation as being good at what you do. Get some products shipped that you
can point to. Build some side project stuff that you're proud of. Basically,
get yourself employable.

 _Then_ go off and start traveling with the laptop.

You see, when you first start out, you're unlikely to find many people willing
to pay you $75/hr to work from a Hammock in Laos. Who is this kid and what is
he smoking?

But if you're the kid that built X. You know, _X_! And he's available to work
for us. I know, he has some silly demands about time off and we won't be able
to get him on site, but hey, he built __X___!!! There's no doubt he'll
deliver.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents, having built X myself at your age and milked it
into 10 years of living on beaches with a laptop. It's all good out here, so I
definitely hope to see you on the road some day.

But before you do, I'd recommend putting in the groundwork to make sure you
can pull it off.

------
keiferski
Rather than looking for work on-site, I would try working remotely. You'll
have a much bigger market to sell your skills to. Can't really help you as far
as specific sites or employers go, but it seems to be fairly common.

~~~
ljf
Definitely - work remotely - go to places where you can live and enjoy the
culture, but with just some net access you can still make something near your
current wage. You'll be amazed how far your cash will go living in India or
the rest of Asia - so you won't need to work all the time - just enough to
keep things kicking over. By all means take local work, but there will be visa
issues etc. to bear in mind.

~~~
shk88
I never considered visa issues. Sounds like finding remote work might be the
best option.

------
proxwell
By saying that you'll work for room and board, you're not establishing the
best positioning. You're much better off separating your consulting practice
from your living arrangements. Establish yourself as a credible and
professional developer rather than one who "will work for food".

I've been traveling nearly continuously for the last 3 years, funded by a
successful consulting practice. If you have the skills, there are plenty of
well-paying offsite consulting gigs to be found. Of course, having "the
skills" also means knowing how to market yourself, negotiate, and land and
keep clients.

You may want to consider the possibilities of geo-arbitrage, having clients in
higher cost-of-living countries, and spending some of your time in lower cost-
of-living countries.

Travel Well.

------
marquis
I travel and work remotely. Work hard at finding a good gig at home/your
native country and plan ahead - you can move and work almost anywhere in the
world. Beware of the small unconsidered things: for example where I was living
in Mexico we would lose power on a regular basis, for a period of hours or
days. So, no working at home that day but I could get out of the house and
work in an internet cafe. These small pieces of knowledge - being prepared for
the unexpected - have saved my ass when travelling.

------
aorshan
Not sure how to help you with the job stuff, but this e-book will help you
save a lot of money travelling. I read about it on nerdfitness.com and it
supposedly will help you drastically cut travel costs.

<http://frequentflyermaster.com/>

------
mattvot
I've been using oDesk to do some remote work. You can definitely scale remote
working to where you have enough money to travel.

Most places I've been always have an internet connection in easy reach.

------
gerds2007
<http://tynan.com/lifenomadic>

