Who here travels for work?

[1SlowFormula]

Hey guys,

Who here does a lot of traveling or long distance commuting for work?

I work in the IT consulting industry and have been pretty lucky to be staffed at a local client for many years. But I was just proposed for a position that I really want, and is up the avenue of career advancement that I want, but the client location that I would need to work at is 2900 (no exageration, google shows it as 2899 miles) miles from my house. I have had to travel to Florida for a week or 2, Georgia for a few weeks, and Chicago for a few weeks at different points, but this is a 2 year contract that they are asking me to fill that is outside of San Jose, CA. I am torn, since my career would only be helped by this, and it is the position I hold as a consultant to travel, I think it would be dumb to pass up the oportunity. However, I would think this would put a damper on a lot of the racing plans I have had, especially since I like doing a lot of the work myself...

So how many of you travel(ed) a lot for work and what did it do to your racing hobby?

[85SALEEN]

Your career plans should always come first. That is what lets you go racing right?

[1SlowFormula]

yeah Norm it does, but I was looking for some info on peoples experiances.

For example if some guys said something along the lines of, it's not that bad you just have to plan out big changes over the short periods of time that you will be home, but if something breaks you better know some good people to help you fix it... Or maybe they will say, you will have to put anything serious on hold for those 2 years and just run what you got and hope for the best...

That way going off of the expierences of others I can get an idea of how this may shake out, otherwise you are right my career helps me race, but honestly it already impacts my racing to a point because I like to do things on my own, and for a while back earler this year I had no time to get the car ready, but I also had all my weekends taken up then too. That isn't a good scale to go off of for me and why I am asking others if they did this before, and if so if there were any lessons learned they wouldn't mind passing on to a young racer...

[REDGAR]

I am your man.

Traveling 10+ years.

First is the gig long term or like me, 9-15 months?  If it is long term you can negotiate race weekends better.
3000 miles is too much John.  it will wear you out fast and you may be too tired or out it to want to race weekend.
Keep your program simple.  When I raced NSCA for two years running 11.50 or 12.0 car was very reliable and not issues.  As I have tried to make the car faster and keep finding new weak points it becomes less enjoyable.  Your race weekends become your test weekends and you are traveling long distances to find out x part did not work cause you had no time to test last fix or change.

If you have a partner that can work on and test your car it might be a little different.

If RAM were two day event or further out, I would not do it.  My current client is in NYC and I take the bus but it is still a pain int he ass and I stay during the week.  I still cannot get out of here on Thursdays to race at Atco index race without a huge hassle.

[85SALEEN]

You mean to tell me that you will be flying back and forth to Cali so you can work and then back here to race on the weekends. That has to be one of the crasiest thing I have ever heard. Just take 2 years off of racing get your CAREER stuation worked out. Make lots of money and come home and race when it is done.

Option 2 take the car to California with you.

Racing isn't going anywhere. I took 1 1/2 years off. The whole time I did I By the time I get back racing the cars wont have wheels and be flying or I will never be able to drive my car anymore. But I am back(still out of money) but back and things haven,t changed a bit.

[1SlowFormula]

You mean to tell me that you will be flying back and forth to Cali so you can work and then back here to race on the weekends. That has to be one of the crasiest thing I have ever heard. Just take 2 years off of racing get your CAREER stuation worked out. Make lots of money and come home and race when it is done.

Option 2 take the car to California with you.

Racing isn't going anywhere. I took 1 1/2 years off. The whole time I did I By the time I get back racing the cars wont have wheels and be flying or I will never be able to drive my car anymore. But I am back(still out of money) but back and things haven,t changed a bit.

Norm,

That is the way of being a consultant, flying to and from work every week. But this is a pretty far position even for my company, but the fit of the position and where I want to be in my career plus having that client on my resume will be killer. If I get this position I would be flying back and forth every week. Living in corporate housing during the week then flying home either Thirsday after work or mid-day Fridays depending on the clients need. One my last few projects even though the client was local to me, there were people I worked with that commuted from Buffalo NY, Chicago IL, and Minneapolis MN, and one guy was from Phoenix AZ. So it is somewhat normal for this industry to have the longer distance travel to get the right person in the right position. I have mentioned the position to a few people at work and most of them were like no way until I told them the position and the client, then they all had the same reaction that I did. It is a reaction of this is a make or break career oppurtunity, with a killer client, and I wonder what in life I would have to put on hold to do this. Also no way of taking the car out with me, nor would I want to really deal with that...


Edgar - We are talking about a 6 hour commute so going to the trip to the west coast with the 3 hour time difference means I can leave Monday morning at 6 and getting to work before noon (between 11-12 depending on the flight), then depending on the need of the client I would be coming back either Thursday after work getting in early morning Friday or leaving Friday mid-day and getting in around midnight that night. So that would roughly be the schedule, and as you stated Ram races are only 1 day events and there are normally a few weeks in between, so that should be good. I guess if I don't plan too many changes it might work out, but that means more time beign slow...

[REDGAR]

I have done that west coast trip several time but never for a long period.  Had a project where the manager was "begging" for me to go their and I said sorry...you may not like me after several consecutive 6 hour which are more like 9-10 hour trips when you add travel to the airport and client/home.

Luckily I landed another gig and did not get forced to go.

[BlownbirdX]

Just think, even if you take some time off from racing, you can still be a post whore on the boards!!! THE INTERNET IS EVERYWHERE!!! 

[1SlowFormula]

Just think, even if you take some time off from racing, you can still be a post whore on the boards!!! THE INTERNET IS EVERYWHERE!!! 

Oh, I would actually be doing more of that since I will be away from home during the week and not trying to waste my money on the bar every night... 

[grosspeed2k4]

John did u get my pm

I say take the job you want to go heads up one day this will help a ton

The way I look at it the days spent not going to the track are time and money saved to get you where you want to go.  I talked to one NHRA SS racer who told me he stayed away from the track for six years didn't even go to watch.  Put all of that money into the car and built a really competitive piece.

[1SlowFormula]

Yeah Kent, I got that note.

I just finished sending the email off to the HR rep that was contacting me for this role and told her that I was interested. So we'll see, the next step is an interview with the client to see if I am OK for them, plus there are more then likely a few others that are being put into for it. So we'll see, I just wanted to be sure I was OK with the commute, and how it may affect my life before saying yes to it...