Love life on the road? These are the 6 best jobs for nomads
Had enough of living and working within your own four walls to last a lifetime? You may want to check out jobs for nomads. These jobs can be done from anywhere, usually at any time of day. Thus, if you want to work while you travel or live in a foreign land, jobs for nomads allow you to earn money whenever and wherever you want.
To be sure, any remote job can be used to live a nomadic existence. But if you don’t want to work in the middle of the night because you’ve wandered into an unfriendly time zone, nomads should seek out jobs that free them of both physical presence and traditional working hours. These six jobs fit the bill — and some take advantage of the skills you likely developed by traveling the world.
Translation and transcription
If you are fluent in more than one language, translation is a perfect job to take with you wherever you go. Most online translation companies combine translation with transcription, usually of tapes and video. There are three platforms worth checking out.
GMR Transcription lets translators set their own rates. But the site only works with U.S. residents. Your exact location while working does not appear to be pivotal, but you would need to maintain your U.S. residency to work here.
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Rev is a transcription and translation company that pays freelancers up to $3 per transcribed audio minute. But be forewarned, it takes roughly three to 10 minutes to transcribe one minute of tape, so don’t imagine you’ll earn $180 an hour. Still, a fluent translator/transcriptionist should be able to earn a good living here.
GoLance is a broad work platform that allows freelancers of all stripes to sign up and connect with potential clients. Freelancers set their own rates and negotiate payment terms with clients. The platform takes an 8% commission from freelancers’ pay for making the connection and collecting payment on their behalf.
Teaching and tutoring
There are dozens of teaching and tutoring platforms that exist primarily online. And, partly thanks to COVID-19, many of them are thriving and enlisting a growing number of freelancers. Tutoring and teaching platforms require fluency in a specific topic — reading, algebra, music, foreign language, history and art, to name just a few — and the patience to work with students online.
The best tutoring platforms will depend on your specific skills. Wyzant and Varsity Tutors are good for most academic subjects; Juni Learning is great for coding and math; Lessonface is good for music teachers. And Outschool is ideal for anyone who wants to create an imaginative online class to engage 3- to 18-year-olds.
Tour guide
If you’ve taken up residence in a foreign land and have been there long enough to both speak the language and be able to navigate the top tourist destinations, you may want to sign up as a tour guide through ToursbyLocals, Viator or Withlocals. All three sites encourage prospective guides to create their own itinerary, determine the price and list it for sale. The sites will market your package to travelers for a percentage of the revenue.
Being bilingual or multilingual allows you to market your tours to specific groups — English speakers’ guide to Florence, Italy; German speakers’ guide to Washington, D.C.; etc.
Consult
If you are an experienced professional in any field — marketing, accounting/finance, logistics, sales, etc. — you can sign up with one (or several) of the many consulting firms that operate online. These consulting firms connect appropriate consultants with project work that can range from evaluating proposals, guiding companies entering new markets or completing long-term projects.
You sign up, telling the site what you do — sometimes with granular detail. The site then contacts you when a client needs help in an area for which you are qualified. In some cases, the value of the project is presented to you upfront; in other cases, you have the ability to set your own rates.
Broad-based consulting firms, which work with nearly every type of expert, include GLG, Zintro and Maven. Other consulting firms specialize in particular fields. For instance, Robert Half finds work for accountants, human resources experts, administrative workers, and marketing, legal and healthcare professionals. And SMA-Inc. connects engineers, project managers, management consultants and tech professionals with work.
Provide tech services
If you have mad tech skills, you can work from anywhere at any time. There’s red-hot worldwide demand for data managers and cybersecurity experts, as well as user experience experts and programmers. Jobs are available both online and in person. Seasoned experts can expect to set their own rates and earn well into six figures.
Some good sites to find tech work include Working Not Working, Braintrust, FreeUp, Catalant and Toptal.
Write
Writing is another high-demand job that can be done from any location, usually at any time of the day or night. Good writing jobs can be found through ProBlogger, Contently, Skyword, Cracked, Working Not Working and Reedsy.
Writers for these sites are typically paid by the project or the word, rather than by the hour. Consequently, you are likely to earn more when you specialize in a narrow topic that you are conversant in, such as personal finance, credit cards, travel tips, etc. The keener your knowledge of a topic, the faster you can write, and the more you earn per hour.
Kristof is the editor of SideHusl.com, an independent site that reviews hundreds of money-making opportunities in the gig economy.
