My 2017 Retrospective - A year of work and travel

Why should you read about my year?

If you have been considering taking up contract employment or have been interested in travelling whilst working I'm hoping this retrospective of my year might illuminate some of the options you have. My goal for 2017 was to work and travel whilst still holding down a relationship at home. Looking back at the year there's been mistakes made, plenty learnt and a whole bunch of good times had.

My year in a snapshot

For a couple of years I've been trying to work abroad. Due to my age (30+) Visas can be difficult plus my partner's career is quite firmly based in Australia which means she would have to put it aside to travel. When an opportunity arose to work for a startup remotely I snapped it up with the plan to work in San Francisco. My partner agreed to stay in Sydney and we would stay together long distance.

When the startup sold up prior to me flying to San Fran I decided to go back to contract work and set out to travel as much as possible. By constantly chasing work and being open to opportunity I was able to roughly divide the year 50/50 work and travel. My year hopefully is a good example to anyone out there that if you chase something a little ambitious you can have a pretty amazing time.

What did I achieve?

My Retrospective

Liked

My partner didn't dump me

Which is good news for me and assumedly her. My travels were filled with people asking "So wait, your partner is back in Aus? That must be difficult.". It was. We somehow made it but be warned, if you are going to travel with a beloved waiting for you at home it's going to be tough on them. You're going to have to be prepared for a scenario where you'll have to head home if you want to steer your relationship out of the rocks.

Things usually were not as dire as I expected

I almost didn't go to Vietnam out of fear that it would jeopardize me finding contract work. I was also petrified of coming back around Christmas to not find work for months. Both concerns were totally valid but proved to not be the case. As a rule of thumb, I usually start notifying contacts that I will be available for work six weeks out from when I'll be available. I also I try to make decisions about what work to accept in the present based around what opportunities I think there might be in the future. In regards to my year I chose to spread out my trips with enough time to fit substantial contract work in between them

I got more by doing it my way

I formally worked remotely in a different time zone for three weeks at the start of the year. It was a great experience but given the time zone difference (America is in the past or Australia is in the future depending on who you ask) it made it quite prohibitive to explore the city or get to events. When I started travelling and contracting I could make the day suite me. If there was work that I needed to do I could prioritize it around what I wanted to.

Learned

How to make long distance relationship bearable

Long distance relationships are extremely hard. If you are going to do it communication is key. Try and pick countries where the time zone doesn't make it extremely difficult to contact each other. Also, be sure to celebrate important moments where ever possible. My partner found us a new home to rent in Sydney. I sent her two bottles of champagne, one to enjoy immediately and one to enjoy when I returned. She was ecstatic

Make suwe there is a plan B

Always, always have a backup plan. Even if it's as rough as mine was you need one. Having a plan B meant that when things went wrong I could just focus on moving forward instead of getting overwhelmed by the situation.

Co-working spaces

If you are like me and want to be working around people doing interesting things then you might be considering a co-working space. My advice would be to check if one of the bigger tech companies have set up an accelerator or incubator in the city you plan to work. Places like Google Campus in London and Microsoft Flux in Helsinki offer free desks and Wifi for people to work on their ideas. Not only are you going to save money but there's a good chance you will be surounded by awesome people.

You can make your own rules

Maybe I've been reading too much Tim Feriss but honestly life is full of people that won't do something unless there is some agreed formal structure around it. If you are keen to travel and work but the company you are working for can't provide you the opportunity then think outside the box. For me, being able to contract then by a

Lacked

Motivation

Make no mistake I definitely came close to giving up a couple of times. When you are on the other side of the world with loved ones waiting for you back home it gets hard to justify spending time and capital on something that may prove to be totally fruitless. I didn't really reach out to peers or a mentor to talk when things were getting tough and I should have. I got through all my travels fine and managed to keep my relationship together but given my time again I would have chosen someone to check in with regularly to keep me on track. I believe that with the right council I probably would have got more out of some of the experiences I had abroad.

Longed for

More international contacts

I had contacts in some of the countries I went to but not all of them. Knowing people in abroad is a massive advantage when travelling. If you are thinking about visiting somewhere consider getting involved in a community based there. You might find there is a functional programming group overseas that you interested in. Join it and start contributing, if they are having regular meetups you have a good excuse to visit and meet some awesome people.

So in closing

If you are interested in travelling and working then evaluate your situation. If it doesn't cater to your needs you should grab a coffee and just start penciling out ideas. Come up with a few scenarios where you could balance the two and share them with people. Based on their feedback you may discover how to steer your life towards your goals.