It is important to travel will well polished resumes saved.  Be ready to alter and edit your resume based upon the position desired.

I typically keep four basic resumes outlining my various skills.  While traveling anywhere in the world I could stumble across a job opportunity to teach English, work with kids, an office role, or a position at a coffee shop.

Basic resumes I travel with:

1. ESL teacher
2. Will play with kids
3. Desk jockey
4. Barista or hospitality expert

Keeping these four resumes ready to submit to a future employer works for me.  These are my skills and what I do best.  Take your best skills, education and attributes.  Format them into resumes you can travel with.

Victor who I met in Spain keeps 6 resumes ready for jobs he finds along his travels.  Some of his resumes include, ‘handyman’, ‘tech-head’, and he even told me about his new one ‘landscaping’. He wrote this resume after recognizing some women just wanted him for yard work.  Why not pull weeds for the nice old lady you met in Madrid?  She paid him and gave him lunch everyday!

Wondering if you really need a resume to work in someone’s yard?  Victor described the credibility the resume gives him.  People instantly trust him to be professional and to work hard.  Plus, extra travel cash can result from what someone discovers you can do.

For example, after Victor helped a girl at the hostel desk connect a new printer for FREE, Victor gave his technology resume to the hostel manager.  They read about his talent in web design and ended up offering one month FREE lodging and $800 to redesign their hostel website.

I just got an email from Parris in Wellington, New Zealand.  He shared, “I’m registered with a job agency and working for the government at the moment.  So life is pretty sweet for this backpacker.”  Parris has been in Wellington for a few months now enjoying working while traveling.

How have Justin & Natalie (the nomad backpackers) worked while traveling:

• We used our writing abilities to receive FREE lodging while traveling and writing for an online travel magazine.
• We received FREE lodging and meals at an Irish Pub on the Great Barrier Island, New Zealand, in exchange for some landscaping and washing a few dishes at the pub on busy nights.
• We worked at a 5-star lodge in the Fiordland’s (South Island, NZ) for 6 weeks.  This paid for 4 months of travel in New Zealand.
• I have taught English to students in China and Mexico.
• I have been paid to babysit kids.  I met Sigorney from Australia living in Paris, France as a nanny for a family with 3 kids.
• Justin has built websites and received various forms of gifts/money through offering tech help.
• I have worked multiple coffee bars in multiple countries pulling endless shots of espresso.

Don’t be the traditional backpacker that runs out of cash and takes a flight home.  Instead, make yourself marketable and travel with a well written resume to land any job around the world.

Find a job while traveling!  Use nomad approved resources.

Ready to take your resume around the world?  How to write a resume. Start polishing your resume today!  It can take you around the world if you are willing to work a variety of jobs along the way.  Be creative and start brainstorming your skills.

Justin and I have moved to Fort Collins, Colorado.  I now have a wonderful job as a preschool teacher and Justin is exploring various employment opportunities.

Although we are not currently living a nomadic lifestyle out of backpacks, we still have a great passion for travel and exploring the world.  The two of us are excited about where we are in life.  It’s great to live out of a backpack and pursue continual travel, but we are also excited to be in one place permanently.  Last week, on May 27th, Justin and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary.  Over the past 3 years we haven’t lived in one place for more than a year.  The two of us have lived an extremely nomadic lifestyle.  Feel free to check out some of our favorite cities in which we have lived in www.justinandnatalie.com

For now, Fort Collins, Colorado will prove to be our happy home as we become a part of a community and continue to build great friendships.  However, after experiencing a season of international travel, Justin and I will be unable to deny future travel adventures.  Although we are currently unable to depart on a long-term trip, the two of us will supplement our wander lust with small trips and adventures that we will mix into our current lifestyle.

Soon the You Choose poll to decide the future of www.nomadbackpackers.com will close.  At this time, we will formally announce what the plans for this website include.  I can’t wait to see the outcome!

Follow Up

The You Choose Poll results:  The outcome was for our website to be updated with cities and places we visit or live in.  

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Vote, because You Choose what will appear in the future.  It’s up to You!

The You Choose poll is located in the sidebar.  Scroll down and You Choose is on the right.  If you have a better idea, that’s great!  Email us.  We would love to hear your great ideas or advice for how www.nomadbackpackers.com should transition.

Although, we don’t know where we are going next.  We love to travel, and plan to do lots of exploring in the future.  There will still be many adventures to read about.

You Choose what is next!

On another note…

Thank you for voting in our most recent You Choose poll.  We are currently unable to explore South East Asia.  However, when we travel to South East Asia in the future, we will be sure to take part in a Multi-day elephant riding trip.

Since Our New Office is always on the go, Jason and Sara agreed to a virtual interview.  Their advice will help anyone think outside of the cubicle and dream of working, while traveling the world.

Natalie: How did you gain the necessary skills to work remotely?  Did you read lots of books?  Experiment with personal websites and online marketing?

Jason: Trial by fire. Sara and I have left multiple broken and failed websites in our wake. From these failures we have attained enough knowledge, confidence, and skills to both make money through our own websites, as well as, help others do the same.

Of course, books, education, and experience played a role as well.

Natalie: Is it difficult to work while you are traveling?  Are the distractions endless?

Sara: Generally speaking, it is a little harder to work overseas than it is at home. Internet access is often a problem, so we usually plan around that. As for distractions, while living in Denver, I was distracted by episodes of Lost and invites to happy hour.  My more recent distractions of jungle tours in Costa Rica and shoe shopping in Bangkok are just as tempting as the Denver distractions of my past. It’s all about discipline.

Natalie: Do you have a physical home to return to?  How long have you been traveling? How often do you return?

Sara: Our address is Public Storage unit #67, Denver, Colorado…we’re definitely homeless, but surprisingly we don’t miss having a home. We just miss friends and family.  Jason and I altered our lifestyle in August, 2008. We return to the states every 1-3 months to take care of business and see friends and family, and we plan on returning to the USA at the end of May for a wedding…we almost always come back for the weddings (including our own).

Natalie: Weddings are a good excuse to return (especially your own).  Is it difficult to keep new work consistently coming in?  Do you have key clients you depend on?  Are you ever concerned that work opportunities will lessen with the global economic issues?

Jason: Finding new clients is always a concern, regardless of where we are. Still, we like to think we’re doing a good job because we’re able to depend on referrals for new business. As for the economy, we’re not terribly concerned. The Internet industry is still going strong.

Sara: We plan on working remotely through the end of the year. After that – who knows. The more time we spend doing this, the easier it gets.

Natalie: It’s good to know it gets easier.  It has been fascinating to learn about your lifestyle of travel and international telecommuting.  Your lifestyle will encourage and inspire so many others to work remotely as they travel the world.  Thanks Jason and Sara!

NOTE:  The photos I have included are not actual photos of Jason or Sara working around the world.  Although, they look just as sharp while working remotely.  If you would like to see actual photos of Jason and Sara visit their gallery.

Check out Jason and Sara at Our New Office and follow their travels.  Jason’s latest travel discovery is bite-size bananas in Panama.  While Sara is savoring her natural alarm clock each morning, as the sounds of traffic, horns and car alarms wake her up in Panama.

As for Justin and I, we are sorting out our next step in life.  Thank you so much for all of the encouraging emails and topic suggestions for future articles we will consider writing.  Be sure to vote in our next poll, You Choose, coming soon!

Thanks to Steve, we’ve now made our feed available through email. This means that every time either Justin or myself write and publish a post (such as this, that you are reading right now), you will be notified via email if you subscribe to the correct feed. It’s almost magical! But you still have to set it up. Located on our home page in the right column under the heading Nomadic Essentials is the link, - Get the Feed via Email. Click on the link, make sure that you spell your email address correctly, and you should have no problem receiving regular updates.

Check out Steve’s website: www.thailandmusings.com

Thanks again Steve, Justin and I appreciate your help! Hope you like the thank you photo I took.

Help us improve the quality of our blog. Have any ideas for our blog? Please let us know things we can change or enhancements we can make to improve the quality of this blog.

Justin and I began about a month ago.  We started out with some weight in our packs.  I would recommend adding a little more weight each time you head out for a walk.  Reams of printer paper work wonderful and phone books aren’t bad either but they’re a bit floppy.

The first two weeks we focused on becoming proficient at 1-2 miles.  It wasn’t the easiest at first.  The straps felt different, and trying to adjust everything so the weight felt evenly distributed was an art form.  But I think we both figured out how to wear our backpacks in the most comfortable manner.

A NOTE to the ladies: Don’t be afraid to tighten the straps.  It really helps the backpack feel more comfortable.  In addition, ensure the waist strap is not at your “low rise” waist like Express jeans.  This just won’t work.  Think 1950′s waist and then go a 1/2 inch higher.  You want the center of the strap lined up with the highest point of your hip bones.  And then tighten some more.  Then it should feel perfect.  And as for the chest strap.  Well, even if you have a smaller chest like me…things will still feel smooshed. Please feel free to share your own advice or “my boobs got smooshed” stories.

And the last two weeks we have been walking for anywhere between 2-4.5 miles with our backpacks.  It’s also been fun to give our muscles a break and walk with just our day pack once in a while.  I’ll carry the first mile out and then Justin will carry it the second mile on our way back.  I think these behaviors should prepare us for a the more realistic forms of walking we will experience.

Before reading this…Don’t worry, I’m fine
2 years ago I had minor back surgery.  That’s right folks!  I went through intensive physical therapy after the surgery and immediately resumed walking, some biking, swimming, and even attempted rollerblading.  About a year after surgery I was rock climbing in the Rockies in Colorado.  However, I am no longer a long distance runner.  I would love to resume this activity some day, but at this point I am happy to be able to walk and experience the freedom from sharp lower back pain.

After a long night at Starbucks, (that’s right folks, in case you forgot, I’m a barista…like the title…Don’t worry, I’m fine) I will experience some noticeable back and/or hip pain.  I’ve had barely no caffeine today and the coffee I had was hours ago.  My point is that, I do have pain still.  However, it tends to be dull and Motrin IB reduces my inflammation.  In case you suffer from inflammation…another great inflammation reducer is Nettle leaf the herb, then you boil water and make green tea out of it.

Right, so conditioning has been more important than you could imagine.  It’s been my time of discovering that we can backpack around the world and my back is not going to hold me back.

As discussed in the post entitled REI Wandering, Natalie and I are currently looking for companies (and individuals) to sponsor us in our Nomadic Adventure. You may be asking yourself

what could two budget travelers possibly do to attract Sponsors?

To be honest, I think it depends on the Sponsor. Companies and organizations are looking to put human faces on the values that make the company successful. Natalie and I searched out a number of companies whose values reflect our world view (i.e. environmentally responsible, community minded etc.) It is our opinion that we may be able to attract some sponsorship because one or more companies may see their values reflected in how and why we want to spend a year traveling the world.  I am not going to tell you which companies we applied to, at least not yet, but as of today we have sent out 3 promotional packets. I am excited about this process. Admittedly, I do not have a great deal of hope (a part of me would rather be surprised than disappointed ) that what we are doing will help us attract sponsors. On the other hand, I am not sure how else we would seek them out. We did/are doing the best that we can to promote ourselves and our dream. When this process is over, we will be able to say that we put in the time, money, and effort to attract the right sponsors. Even if nothing comes of this, I do not think I will regret looking for sponsors.

Do you or your company want to become Nomad Sponsors? Leave us a comment or shoot me an email.

Do you have any suggestions for us? Leave a comment.

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To create the our promotional material, Natalie and I used Apple’s page layout/word processing software application Pages. In an attempt to keep myself from gushing over Pages, I simply want to say that it was an enjoyable experience. For a version 1 (v 1) program it was surprisingly powerful and relatively bug free. I think if I was new to design and did not have a strong Photoshop/Illustrator background, the learning curve would have been more difficult but Natalie seemed to pick up the basics very quickly so perhaps a design background is not all that important.