I get a lot of questions about my lifestyle. I spend most of my time traveling, and people seem to think that it is glamourous. I suppose I did too, at the beginning. That wears off after a while, and doubly so when you have a comfortable home. So a question was asked recently in a newsgroup: How do you like being a Road Warrior.
Of course I am not Mel Gibson. Road Warrior is a term used to describe trainers who travel a lot, such as myself. I am probably luckier than most because I chiefly work for a single company who schedules me, arranges my travel, books my hotels, and does its best to keep me happy. I have plenty of peers who will be working for new Horizons this week, Nexient the next, and Asentus the following week. I am probably not organized enough to do that, and am glad that I always know who to bill for my expenses!
In any event here is the answer I gave, an abridged version of how I became a Road Warrior:
As an anglophone coming out of Montreal it was apparent early on that if I wanted to make a living as a trainer I would have to do so outside of my hometown. Aside from the fact that trainers in Montreal seem to be highly underpaid, the demand leans heavily towards dev courses and are primarily in French. My French is excellent but I do not know that I would want to teach in it full-time.
When I left my full-time position at TradeLabs last October I was not sure what I was going to do, but I did know that I wanted to transition from consultant to trainer. A consulting group in Toronto had pushed me to become an MCT so I got in touch with him. I went on my first mini-tour, and enjoyed it. When I got back to Montreal I was perusing the newsgroups and there was an offer for two weeks in Ottawa, and I took that on and enjoyed it. Of course, the fact that I was having problems with my apartment in Montreal helped ;)
I have now transitioned to road warrior, and though the traveling does get long and tedious, if you have the lifestyle to support it you can make a good living at it. If I were still married then I would never dream of doing it, but for now I am happy with it.
So there you have it. I consider myself spoiled and am not complaining. I will work my furry little tail off to deserve everything I have... thanks Rory!