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Was Our Trip Career Suicide?

by Keith on November 11, 2010 · 7 comments

Let me be clear, I do not think that this is the case at all, but now that we are back in Philly, in the midst of a full-time job search, during the worst recession of our lives, the market (employers and clients) have yet to make a definitive call on the matter.  So I thought it was worth a post to explore the issue, hopefully providing insight for other travelers on what you can expect when you return, thus making it less unsettling, as you will be better prepared.

First let me provide a little context for this post.  One of the most unsettling interactions we had happened almost immediately upon returning to Philly.  It was hearing the personal story of another world traveling couple while at the Meet-Plan-Go event.  This couple was from New York and had been back from their trip for over a year.  Much like Amy and me, they also had left successful careers with large companies to travel for a year.  Upon their return to the States, they struggled for months to find work.  The wife eventually found a position with a large company in her previous industry, but it lasted only a couple of months, as she was so miserable she eventually left.  Since then, they had been surviving on some freelance work here and there but are really struggling. Hearing this only three days after we returned caused a restless night of sleep or two for us.  Like our trip, though, I looked at the job search as another goal that could be successfully achieved through diligent planning, hard work and persistence, so we dived in.

My Pitch

The first task was crafting my story.  What was my pitch, my 30-second elevator speech?  How could I engage people in helping me to find that perfect next career?  Getting this right is tough and it was through lots of feedback from friends and family that I landed on the following:

Hi, my name is Keith Sutter and I’m a Business Development and Marketing professional.  I spent the majority of my career in Brand Management at Johnson & Johnson.  Most recently, though, I undertook a more entrepreneurial venture, launching GreenAroundTheGlobe to document businesses that are using environmental sustainability as a way to succeed in the market.  For this research, I traveled to 18 countries on five continents interviewing sustainability thought leaders from around the globe.

I think that this pitch works because it does three things well. First, it takes less than 30 seconds to deliver.  Second, it begins with the key things I want people to associate with me: Business Development and Marketing.  Third, it provides enough of a teaser about our trip to get someone to ask a follow-up question.  That follow-up question is the key, as I need to get them to engage with me quickly, and asking questions accomplishes that.

But who cares what I think. What do you think?  Is this a compelling way to engage prospective networking contacts?  After all, the data suggests that a job search will live and die by networking.  Over 85% of jobs are landed through networking.  Only 15% are landed exclusively through applying to job postings, online or otherwise.  I believe that effective networking is critical in securing a job in my target industry and company type, which is:

  • Small to medium-sized;
  • Entrepreneurial-minded;
  • Fast-growth;
  • Employs sustainability as a core strategy for growth; and
  • Is in need of effective Business Development and Marketing to propel them to the next level of growth.

Before diving too far into my networking strategies, I want to open this up for discussion.  Let me know in the comments below what you think.  Is there a more effective way to communicate our trip?  A better approach to my elevator pitch?

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I also wanted to list a couple of the practical things we did right while traveling and some that we could have been better about in hopes that it will help other travelers and job seekers.

Some things we did right:

  • Establish a safety reserve of at least one year of savings.  We reserved enough of a financial safety net to support our living expenses for at least a year upon our return.  Anything we make in consulting fees or freelance work extends this.  I highly recommend that anyone contemplating extended travel build this into your budget.  You don’t want to come home and have to live with your parents because you are dead broke.
  • Having a professional purpose for the trip.  Ours was for the trip to serve as a catalyst into careers that were more focused on sustainability.  For me it was also a way to gain creditability for a move to a more entrepreneurial company.  Having that guiding goal helped us make decisions while planning and along the way.
  • Postcards to professional connections.  This tactic was a great way to stay connected with professional contacts back home.  While an email is easy to delete, a colorful postcard from China is a something that tends to catch attention sitting in your snail mail in-box.  It also makes reconnecting when you get home easier.

Some thing we could have done better:

  • Networking while we are traveling.  Amy hates the idea of us having dedicated even more time during our travel to staying connected and broadening our network back home.  But I think I would have spent more time establishing additional professional connections through twitter, linkedin and facebook while we were traveling.

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Gear Review – Two Months In

by Keith on December 3, 2009 · 7 comments

Two months into the trip, we now have enough experience with our gear to provide some insight on what we packed, what mistakes we made and what has turned out to be very useful last minute additions.

Below are pictures of the gear we packed up as we left Philadelphia for the last time in September.  Rather than list everything I thought a more interesting way to share our lessons learned is to look at a couple of categories.  If you have specific questions on any gear pictured, or want a detailed list please email us and we will be happy to get you all the very exciting details.

Keith's Gear

Keith's Gear

Amy's Gear

Amy's Gear

Things We’ve Lost

  • Sink stopper (Istanbul): We had this to help with doing laundry by hand in sinks.  We managed to leave it in our first hotel.  I blame the fact that it was white and was tough to see, but that is really just a lame excuse.

Things We’ve Ditched

  • Coffee Travel Mug (Turkey): Despite hearing from a couple of other travelers that this would be useless I still brought it.  It was such an important part of my daily routine back home.  I even used it to bring tea when I biked to work.  Turns out all of the travelers were right.  Unlike America, the rest of the world, or at least the Middle East, seems to not want to drink while traveling.

Things That Have Broken Or Been Damaged

  • Amy’s sunglass lanyard (Israel): the rubber ripped, and it turns out to be a design issue as the rubber on mine is already halfway ripped.
  • ShoeMy Keen hiking shoes (Israel): As you can see, the stitching in the toe of my right shoe ripped out.  The timing on this one was really unfortunate as it happened as soon as we got to sandy desert, which results in my right toe filling up with sand as we hike. I emailed Keen and I am in discussions with the warranty department to get a replacement pair.  Let’s hope they do the right thing and replace them as they were pretty expensive.
  • Amy’s Eagle Creek money belt (Turkey): The clasp that holds the two straps together does not seem strong enough to hold, annoying but not a complete failure. But the money belt is nine years old, so we can’t really complain.
  • Amy’s camera and iPod (Egypt): Both of these are 4-5 years old, so as electronics go not a bad run but it is unfortunate timing as the next place for cheap electronics is not until China, maybe Thailand.  If anyone has any suggestions in Southeast Asia let us know.
  • Converter cube (Istanbul): This was a piece of junk we bought from Amazon.com.  It broke within a week of use because it is cheap plastic.  But we realized it was overkill.  All of our electronic chargers have built in voltage adaptors so all we need is cheap plug adaptors which you can get for less than $5.

Most innovative re-use

  • Dry BagUsing the dry bag for laundry: After we lost the sink stopper we discovered that using the dry bag as a washing machine works much better and makes much less of a mess than the sink because a dry bag keeps water in as well as it keeps it out.  Simply load with dirty clothes, laundry soap and hot water, seal and shake for 15 minutes, rinse and hang clothes to dry. Pretty simple and effective.

Best last minute packing additions

  • PacSafe: We were not sure that this would be worth the weight.  Turns out it is indispensable.  If you are traveling with a laptop or camera gear it is critical so that you can lock up the electronics and other valuables in your room while you are out.  While not impossible to break into, it provides a deterrent and peace of mind.
  • Neti PotNeti Pot: This one is for my SUDAFED® friends. A neti pot is great for dealing with sinus congestion.  It is also helpful in the desert where the dryness can irritate your sinuses.  If you suffer from sinus congestion, as Amy and I do, and have not yet tried a neti pot, you should.  Get over the water up your nose thing, the result is true relief.

Most indispensable items

  • Packing Cubes: While these seem boring they really do help make packing and unpacking much easier.
  • Pocket Notebooks: Amy brought these to keep in her purse for quick notes.  They are excellent for doing our daily budget and for jotting down information like names and emails of new friends.

Things we forgot

  • Winter hat for Amy: The Jordanian desert is cold in late November, and sleeping in a Bedouin tent can be chilly.  A winter hat would have made Amy more comfortable at night.
  • A sewing kit: We meant to bring this but somehow forgot.  We got a spool of white thread and a large, somewhat rusty needle in Dahab for 1LE ($0.20), so no big deal.

That is about it. We will report on gear again after we have been in Southeast Asia and a tropical climate.

December 16, 2009 update:
I am attaching this picture per David’s comment below on the PacSafe we use to secure our computer and camera in our hotel rooms.

Pac Safe

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The question that started it all

by admin on June 28, 2009 · 4 comments

“Do you want to take a year off to travel the world?”

It is a simple question.  And I would guess that since you are reading this there is a good chance that you may have even considered that same question.  The good news is that by reading further my wife and I will help you determine if world travel is something you not only can do but is something you need to do.  But back to the question,  when my wife asked me “the” question I was not sure she was serious, but my answer of “Sure, why not.” was very deliberate. Because “why not” is exactly the way I felt.

So after the question was asked be began to discuss the implications of this, what about our careers, our condo, our car, what would our parents/family/friends say? When do we tell people?  So we came up with a list of question and figured we needed to be able to have at least cursory answers to all of them before we said anything to anyone.  I would suggest that if you are considering a similar trip sitting down and writing down your answers to these questions is a great exercise.

Take a gander at our list:

  • Why? Because this is the last opportunity we will both have to freely travel and experience the world for 30+ years (pre-kids), not to mention that the US economy stinks and instead of sitting here fearful for our jobs we are looking to expand our experiences to start something new.  Follow our amazing adventures at Green Around the Globe
  • Health insurance/access? (A timely question in the U.S. right now.) We will be purchasing health insurance while we are traveling from HTH Travel Medical Insurance for less than $600/month.  When we return a comparable PPO to what we have today today will be  about $500/month.  Hopefully in a year there is a national health care plan we can opt into, go Obama.
  • Isn’t this career suicide? No, we feel that is a great opportunity to grow our experience base and further our careers in a newly developing Green and Sustainable economy
  • How much will it cost? Fixed costs, assuming we rent our place, will be less than $20K, variable travel costs will be approximately $50-70K, for a total of $70-90K.  This estimate is highly dependent on where you decide to go. Europe is expensive, southeast Asia is not.
  • What about (un)employment when you return? With our highly marketable skills we feel confidant that at least one of us will be able to quickly find a job upon our return.  We will also be using the trip to stay connected with business contacts through extensive blogging and documentation of the professional and research aspects of our trip.
  • What about your condo/car/stuff? We have begun to simplify our lives and will continue to shed unnecessary and easily replaceable stuff.  Depending on how we rent our condo, furnished or not, we will put the rest of our stuff in storage.  We plan on selling our car before we leave, and will use Philly Car Share on our return until we find a basic car option, that is if we need a car to use daily.
  • Can we call you? What happens with emergencies at home? Yes, we will set up Skype online number to enable you to be able to call us on our current numbers (which we will forward to the Skype online number) and we will be able to get back to you in less than 24 hours.
  • Would you want us to call you in an emergency such as a death in the family? Yes please call, we love our families and would want to know as soon as is possible.
  • If something terrible happens globally, another 9/11 for example, how do we connect with you? Again if there is an emergency, please reach out to us, and if there is an emergency we hear about we will reach out to you immediately to let you know our status. If we can only connect with one set of parents we will inform them of that and they should call the others.
  • What about handling state side issues? We will leave a limited power of attorney for someone locally that will have the ability to transfer funds and sign documents in our name.
  • Can I/we come too? Sure, we hope to use this trip to connect with family and friends around the world.  Feel free to meet us anytime for short visits.

That should be a good start in your planning and evaluation of taking a trip like this.  We hope that this is helpful and if it is not please let us know below.

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