Do you travel for work?

[Whuut]

Not necessarily abroad. My partner has just got a new job which occasionally requires travelling to cities to meet clients. I'm currently on mat leave but trying to figure out what I might want to do as a career when I return to work and the thought of travelling around and meeting new people is appealing. So, if you travel for work, what do you do?

I work in marketing, across multiple countries (so think the same brands but different markets). I'm not currently in the UK but worked in global marketing roles when I was in the UK.

I worked for a university and frequently travelled in the UK to conferences and to meetings with other universities/colleges. Also got to work abroad eg China! In other unis for a week at a time and to attend conferences. The travel - whether Manchester or Bangkok - was one of the best bits of the job. My DH was scientific journalist and had similar travel. My DS worked in production in publishing and had to go abroad to oversee the first run of a new book. Another DS worked for the BBC and used to spend months filming abroad. There are lots of options but if you have a young family you might not want to be away that much.

I don’t any more as it’s all moved online in my workplace and I have changed jobs too, but relationship or supplier management.

Large businesses, usually have supplier or relationship managers, you are basically their to make sure the supplier is acting in accordance to their contract, meeting KPIs and developing that relationship so you can get more out of their services. Normally meet monthly or quarterly depending on how valuable the supplier is, and manage any operational queries, changes etc in between.

When the supplier is underperforming you have to have tough discussions and agree action plans, when they perform well it’s a pretty easy job. Although for not many supplier do....

@violetbunny My partner also works in marketing, I'm not sure it's something I'm into though.

@mdh2020 Oh that sounds fun! I hadn't thought about it before but it seems like it would keep things exciting to travel with work.

@Postchristmasflab That sounds interesting, I'll definitely have a look into it, thank you.

Before Covid I used to travel a lot for work, mainly to cities in Europe but occasionally further afield. I work in the non profit world and focus on tech policy and human rights (lots of conferences).

It's a bit of a tricky time to look for a job with lots of travel because so many people that used to travel a lot are doing a lot less still post-covid and it's not clear when things will get 'back to normal'. I should have been going on a three day trip to Bruges the week after next; instead I will spend it sat in my dining room on Zoom for eight hours a day (she says, sulkily)