If you fly overseas regularly for work ...

[Tashface]

... what do you do for a living?

I'm a nervous flyer and my mind is wandering this afternoon. I'm trying to imagine myself regularly travelling overseas for work - taking it all in my stride and not being afraid. But I'm struggling with what hypothetical job the new, improved, literally high-flying me would have

I used to travel a lot but not overseas. My favourite was a man I met going into Canada, whose job was to check the lines for international races. Olympics and so on. WHAT A JOB. I was so jealous.

I am an aid worker and spent the first part of my career living overseas and then the second part based in the U.K. but flying to different countries for meetings with donors, meetings to support partners and to check progress on programmes I was managing, work based at a partners to assess their capacity as part of our partnership model.

long haul mainly. I always treated myself to a little something in duty free - especially nice l’occitane soap as I was mostly staying in basic hotels, travelling a lot in country and it was such a pleasure to have a nice bucket wash at the end of the day. I did once have a dream stay in a radisson in Botswana but that was due to a problem and not the norm (we had limits for each country we visited). I also once got an upgrade from economy to premium economy on a very long flight and I very much appreciated it! I once also flew in a very small plane along with about 100kg of fish and I must admit it was squeaky bum time as we hurtled down the runway and the pilot had the window open and was on his phone. Fun times! Now I don’t travel for work and I am totally fine with that - the most I did was about 12 trips in 14 months and it takes its toll. Enjoyed the air miles though.

I used to travel abroad five or six times a year for work. I'm an academic so it was talks, project meetings, conferences, mostly in Europe.

I may be one of the few people who really benefited from COVID because that travel stopped and post-covid it became acceptable to ask for virtual participation. I find air travel really draining.

I worked for company based in Canada so had to visit HQ a lot. I’ve also worked covering a customer base across Europe, so trains, ferries and air travel were a weekly occurrence.

I worked in the head office of a global bank.
Retired now but still happy to travel independently, every problem can be sorted out if needed, I'm never too worried!

most people in our company travel a lot - global HQ of a corporation, so some people need to see suppliers, some need to see clients, pretty much all of us need to go to various country offices. I mostly fly short haul so that's like taking a bus. Did treat myself to a lounge pass though.

Academic. Go abroad about 15 times a year. Love it. Rather take Eurostar in Europe but only possible in North West.

Marketing manager for an IT company. I organise conferences and partner marketing activities. Until I had ds, I covered all of Europe & Africa, two or three trips a months

It was hard work but I loved it. I only had two iffy moments in hundreds of flights.

Until January this was me - I worked in product development for medical devices so would trail round the world to meet with engineering teams, meet with customers, attend conferences, look at possible new technology, and internal company meetings.

These roles all sound fabulous, thanks everyone - I can't choose which one of them daydream-me would like to pursue I can imagine the travelling does get tiresome though.

I did do a course with one of the major airlines which definitely helped a little, but I don't think I'll ever be actually happy to get on a plane. Ah well!

I used to work for Hr in a global company so did a lot of overseas travel. It’s not remotely glamorous and one Marriott looks much alike another

I was exactly the same, a nervous flyer until I had a role that required me to do a short haul trip once a fortnight. It cured me!

I work in IT Service. I have a global team so travel pretty regularly.

DH is a pilot - he has flown 1000s of flights in his career. Only ever had one, non-serious emergency landing. They train for every eventuality, flying is so much safer than going for a drive.

You will be absolutely fine OP.

I work in management for a large tour operator. I travel more at certain points of the year, but it’s rare that I go longer than 2 weeks without a flight.

Knew someone who worked for a Bank. His commute was Heathrow to Emirates every week. Flew out Monday am and flew back Friday. Air conditioned plane, car to hotel/office. Rinse and repeat. Business class was nice but after 18 months he was weary of it. Never had any issues.