5 Tips for Work & Travel for Students

Students can hardly afford to travel the world on their budget. If your end goal is to see as many places of the world as possible, or spend your entire vacation abroad – there’s a simple solution. Nowadays, you can work and travel at the same time, allowing you to cover all expenses and maybe even save some money to take back home.

Work and travel for studentsis not the same as traveling with your pockets full of money, but it is an amazing opportunity to fulfil your travel dreams without ruining your financial situation. As long as you pick affordable destinations and find a balance between work and study, this can be the most memorable experience you’ll ever have. Not to mention – it’s a great way to create a work habit and boost your resume before you graduate.

Working abroad will immerse you into an entirely different culture, no matter where you decide to go. Since such projects usually take longer, you’ll literally get the chance to live in a place for a while instead of just visiting it for a couple of days. This gives you a chance to learn about people’s culture, become part of a new community, and make lifelong friends with locals.

With all this in mind, I’m presenting you with the best tips I’ve learned when I pursued the work & travel for student idea. Keep in mind that, at that time, this was much more limited as an option than today and still, it’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever chosen to do.

Tips on Working and Traveling for Students

Here are the most useful tips on how to travel for students who’ve decided to work at the same time:

1 – Consider your work options

Before you buy your ticket and pack your bags to go and work somewhere else, you need to determine what you want and can work. Scour the web for different opportunities for work abroad, check the visa requirements, and see what you like most.

You might even want to consider freelancing. If you find gigs online, you can take your laptop with you and make money from any location you visit. This is, right now, one of the most flexible ways to earn money and travel the world. But follow these Digital Nomad survival tips.

Or, if you are an artistic person who knows how to perform, draw, or entertain – you can use this to earn money on your trips. Just check the rules and regulations, as well as street art laws of different locations you’ll visit – and go for it. If the math works and you can cover your travel expenses, this will give you more flexibility than any 9-to-5 office job.

Even so, there are many advantages of actual, 9-to-5 work abroad, too. Firstly, you can agree on a fixed income and make a contract, as well as require a visa from your potential employee. This is not really an option when you work freelance.

2 – Make your itinerary

When you find a place where you can work and earn money to cover your expenses, it is time to prioritize the places you want to see. After all, the reason why you chose this challenge is to travel, so why not make the best of your experience?

The thing that determines your itinerary is your work. You won’t be able to spend your entire days exploring the new place since you’ll have work hours. However, if you check the schedule and determine how much time you have available, you can plan to see the best parts of the city or country you are visiting. There will be plenty of opportunities like this so, instead of wasting valuable time while you’re there, make plans before you depart.

3 – Keep the Weekends for Bigger Trips

If your job in the new place allows for this, you can plan bigger trips for your weekends. You’ll have at least two days off, so use these to take a trip to nearby places. You can even go as far as to book cheap flights ahead if you know when you’ll have the days off, allowing you to go in different countries and enrich your experience even further. Forty-eight hours might not be enough time to see everything, but with the right planning and schedule, you will be able to cross many of the nearby places off your travel list! Plus, you might even be lucky enough to combine a holiday with a weekend, which gives you a day or two extra.

4 – Make a List of All Holidays

This is very important when you travel abroad. It’s highly likely that your new destination won’t have the same holidays as your hometown. So, make a list of national and bank holidays. This will let you plan your weekend getaways and keep you organized during your trip. Since you can’t really afford to miss days of work (it will probably get you fired, too), your only chance at seeing the most you can is to focus on these days.

When you know how much time you have available to spend on travel and when, you won’t have to call in sick or lose some paid hours to travel. This is a great chance to build your work habit, so focus your schedule around it.

Moreover, knowing when and how much time you have will inform you of whether or not you’ll be able to write your projects and assignments for when you’re back at school. But, don’t worry – if you want to spend all your time traveling and can’t find the time for this, you can always hire a scholarship essay writing service online and ask them to handle anything you need, including your scholarship essays.

5 – Move around in Multiple Locations

Most students want to travel as much as possible, so sticking to a single destination, and one city only for months – can become really boring. If you want to make the most out of this, find a job at some of the companies that have offices in different location around the world or at least, the country. There are plenty of restaurants and hotels that offer such opportunities, allowing you to have multiple home bases during your work and travel experience.

Conclusion

Thanks to these tips, you can not only find the perfect opportunity for working abroad, but also make sure that you have the best time ever. You can easily juggle both work and traveling if you know how to organize and find a balance. These tips will help you establish exactly that.

Author’s Bio

Connie Elser is a college academic advisor who helps students pick the right program or major, apply for higher education enrolment and scholarships, and make smart decisions about their future. Right now, she also organizes the work and travel trips for students at her university. This makes her a great advisor, especially since she’s tested the program four times when she was a student.