WELCOME TO MY OFFICE.....
Each year thousands of graduates leave university with grand plans to travel and see the world. But with student debt now averaging £12,500 – and rising – many are being forced to scrap their dreams of a year off and try to find a job straightaway.
But if you’re clever, you can travel and earn money at the same time. A number of lucky graduates actually get paid to visit other countries as part of their jobs. Play your cards right and you too could join the international jet-set.
For Ben Watson the key was to find an international firm. The 24-year-old started working for PIPS Technology, a global organisation that specialises in the design of licence plate recognition systems, as soon as he completed his Master’s in engineering industrial product design at Coventry University last year.
As the principal mechanical design engineer at PIPS Technology, Ben has just got back from America where he spent two months working in the company’s Tennessee office, overseeing the design of a new product. He says: “Going to America was fantastic. I worked really hard during the week but weekends were my own. My flat was just a 40-minute drive from the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains and work gave me a 4x4 jeep to get around in.”
Ben used his flat as a base to visit different parts of America. He says: “I’d never skied before but being so close to the mountains and a great ski resort I decided to learn. I also spent weekends in Nashville, where I went to an amazing country music night, and Atlanta, Georgia. “I learnt so much about their culture. People always think that because they speak the same language and the country looks similar to ours there won’t be much of a culture clash but Americans are so different to the English.
“One time an American guy at work called me on my mobile phone and asked
me where I was. I told him I was ‘in Kentucky’, meaning the KFC
fast-food shop, but he thought I meant I’d gone to the state of Kentucky.
There were loads of funny misunderstandings like that.
“Tennessee isn’t anywhere near as cosmopolitan as New York and Los
Angles so I felt like I got the chance to see the real America. I feel really
lucky to have experienced that – and to have got paid to do it.”
Laura Woodhead, 25, knew she wanted to use her knowledge of French and her
love of travelling as much as possible when she started looking for work after
university.
Her degree, in international management and French from Bradford University,
led to a job working as a sales assistant at Cactus Language, a company that
specialises in sending people abroad to learn new languages. She was quickly
promoted to the position of product executive for Europe and now travels regularly
for work.
She says: “My job involves going on familiarisation trips to European countries, where I get to go to schools and meet the people that run our trips. It’s important for me to go out and meet the teachers and know the area in order to be able to tell clients interested in going there what it’s like. “Last year I got the chance to travel around France. I went to Monaco, Antibes and Aix-en-Provence. I stayed with French families and was taken to see all the sights. It was wonderful.
“In November I’m going to Italy and I can’t wait. I’ve
never been there before so I’m really looking forward to seeing lots of
beautiful places like Venice and Florence.”
Cactus Language also paid for Laura to do a language course in France. She says:
“Everyone working at Cactus is allowed a free trip to learn a language.
As I’d done my degree in French I wanted to make sure it was up to a high
level when I started working. Cactus paid for me to fly out to Montpelier to
do an intermediate French language course there for a week.”
As Cactus specialises in language trips around the world, Laura hopes to have a chance to visit the French-speaking parts of Canada and the French island of Guadeloupe, in the Caribbean, in the near future. She adds: “My friends get really jealous. Most of them are working in IT and are stuck in offices all day so it feels great to have the opportunity to get out of the country.”
Victoria Beardsworth, 26, hasn’t looked back since she changed her career
plans at the last minute in order to travel. After graduating from Warwick University
with a law degree she knew one thing – she didn’t want to become
a lawyer. She says: “I knew I didn’t want to get stuck behind a
desk all day so I realised that law would be the wrong profession for me.”
Victoria took a gap year travelling around the world, spending time in Australia,
New Zealand, Fiji, Hong Kong, Canada and the United States. But when she returned
to the UK she was still none the wiser about where to start applying for jobs.
She says: “One thing I did know was that I loved travelling. I was planning my next trip, to Prague, and logged on to the STA Travel website to book the trip when I saw an advert saying they were looking for employees. It looked like the perfect job.” Victoria soon started work as an STA consultant. Within nine months she was promoted to assistant manager and a further nine months later she became the manager of the firm’s Cardiff branch.
She says: “Working for STA is brilliant for graduates with itchy feet. The company ncourages employees to travel as much as possible in order to get to know the trips they are trying to sell. So in our office people have had free trips to Borneo, Egypt and Australia – and that’s only over the past few months.
“We also run Global Exchanges, when STA Travel employees get to swap lives with STA workers abroad and spend three weeks in their homes. One guy in our office recently did an exchange to America. “On top of all this we get paid a travel bonus each year to use on holidays. And you get cheap deals with travel operators. I recently went to Thailand and stayed in a four star hotel for half the price.”
Victoria adds: “It’s great to be doing something that I love. You spend so much of your life at work that you may as well enjoy your time there and finding a job that allows me to travel is like a dream come true.”
For more information, log on to www.cactuslanguage.com or call 01273 725200.