Careers That Travel: 10 Jobs You Can Do From Anywhere

Location independent professionals encompass a wide cross section of people. What most have in common is a need for the freedom of determining their own hours of operation in the settings of their choice.

With businesses moving towards higher efficiency models, this is the age of the freelancer/traveler. The doors to the world are open. If your day-in day-out feels like an internment camp, it might be worth while to looking at what others are doing to set themselves free. Remember, it never hurts to look.

Authors: Supporting Careers that Travel Since Always

Authoring books belongs to a list of “classic location independent careers.” It existed before the advent of computers and the bucket load of location independent careers that came with it. Part of authoring, books tours, replace shiftless wanderings with goal-oriented travel. It’s also a sure-fire means to meet people on the road.

You can write a book from anywhere. You can publish with a big publisher, or publish yourself. From anywhere. The profits of books are reaped (assuming it’s a good product with solid marketing) after the work is done.

Camera Men and Women/Film Maker/Cinematographer

After the 2008 economic downturn, companies found ways to be more efficient. Even large companies, like ABC News, moved to hiring freelance camera crews rather them paying expensive salaries and benefits to in-house people. In 2008 I met Canadian Garry Tutte in Nicaragua. At the time he was just transitioning from being an in-house film maker/editor to a freelance one. He is now 100% Freelance, travels as much as Indian Jones, and lives with his girlfriend in Lima. In addition, his project “Hello My Name Is: World Trav’ler” is active in schools where he teaches students about the benefits of travel.

Graphic Designers

What graphic designer working in his/her field isn’t freelance these days? In 2012 the Bureau of Labor reported that a quarter of all graphic designers were freelance. With medium pay of 44k, that kind of career could offer quite a lifestyle on a beach in Belize, where you can rent a two bedroom town house from $200-400 a month.

Computer Programmers

According to Code My Own Road, $100/hr would be considered a cheap wage for a freelance computer programmer. If you have an aptitude for math, you can earn what a math teacher earns annually in two months if applied to computer programming.

Translators/interpreters

People who love the sonorous nuances of languages have a persistent hankering to travel to countries where foreign languages can be learned from native speakers. Fortunately for them, they can have a lifestyle that allows for travel if they work as a freelance translator.

The more obscure the language, the greater the hourly rate a translator’s services fetch. On October, 30th CNN called it the “hottest job skill” to have these days. According to their research, interpreters can earn between $300-$1,000 a day. Translators aren’t fare behind. For every 3,000 words translated, they can expect to earn $390.

Web developers

This is a broad banner behind which quite a few of the following niche location independent professions pertain. Here are four basic categories in this area: Website designers, IT project Managers/IT consultants/Anyones with “IT” in front of their title, Social media creators/managers, Online marketers/Affiliate marketers.

Bloggers

If you know a special trade or skill, such as welding, home repair, dog training, organic gardening, pot cultivation, baby juggling—and the list goes on—you can share that know-how with people and become a maven of that field. There is a formula to follow, which for one person would be a full-time job to follow, but plenty of people make their livings from their website.

Freelance Writers

On any given day, have you ever taken stock of how much writing pervades your life? Even if you read not a single word a year, you are surrounded by writing. Every time you watch TV you are viewing a creation derived from something written. Ditto the music you listen to. From labels, to advertisements, to all those user manuals you never read, writing is everywhere. Every company needs copy and many are willing to pay for someone able to deliever it. There are sites like The oDesk and Elance (both recently merged into one company) where freelance writers bid for thousands of writing projects.

Copy Writers

According to Linda Formichelli, grammar Nazis make terrible writers. Well, even if that is true, at the entry level, they are higher earners. The freelance sourcing site Upwork has thousands of jobs seeking grammar Nazis.

Crypto Dude (or dudette).

I have been meeting a lot more travelers on the road who are supporting themselves by riding the crypto tides. We of course, wish these legend luck on this exciting new location independent life enabler! Surfs up dudes!