BootsnAll Travel Community

I'd like to know: Are there any professors on Boots? If so, could you discuss your opportunities for travel both personal and professional (conferences, etc.)? (And please mention your field).

I work with professors in the life sciences (specifically bioinformatics), and it seems they have endless opportunities for travel paid for by someone else. Is this the norm in academia?

Thanks.

Hi Natascha,
I'm an executive in the insurance industry in Canada and yes, there are opportunities to travel to interesting destinations on corporate time and money. Most of these destinations are often big cities but if you have the chance to extend your time, you can breakaway into the region and do other things.

I'm planning on going to Hawaii next year. I'll stay at one of the fancy hotels in the city and then I'm planning to drop off my suitcase in a locker room, take my backpack and fly off to The Big Island where I'll spend a week doing some hiking and adventure travel.

If you have the opportunity, take advantage of it but never abuse it.

Cheers, Brenda

I'm a grad student in chemistry (working towards a prof) and judging by the situation with the profs here they are quite often jetting around the country (sometimes the world) to go to this conference and that conference for a day or two or a week at a time. It is a rare occurance for my prof to be in town for a month straight without going to a conference somewhere. What seems to be the case is that most profs would rather get right back from where they went and get back to work. Granted, many have young kids (my prof's first daughter was born in Feb.) as well as the loads of work to keep up with. As far as constant opportunities for travelling to new cities and seeing lots of new things, a professor can be a good position but not as great as it may appear.

That being said, my dad is a research scientist (responsible for day-to-day operation of the lab) in the same department as I. While he doesn't go on as many trips as the profs he has gone to a few conferences in Europe (Spain, England, Ireland) and when he does he usually sticks around for an extra week or so before flying back. Once he even took my mom with him (she had to pay for her part of the trip but his was covered by the University).

So to sum up - profs travel a lot but 9 times out of 10 only see the hotel, the airport, and the conference center where they're going. But that 10th time you have the chance to explore somewhere cool with airfare paid for by someone else.

Cool. Thanks for your responses. I'm thinking of becoming a prof in English, where it seems like there are fewer opps for subsidized travel.

Anyone out there in the Humanities? Or maybe travel opps are just peculiar to individual unis?

Well, my partner is a lecturer at the university in Vienna (doctorate in applied mathematics) and back in the US I have an old friend who's a prof in political science. While there are travel opportunities, they seem to be a much more serious issue for senior profs in many fields. But at least you have more vacation time,even if it is only at peak travel season. But don't forget another aspect: it's pretty difficult to get a job in the city of your choice. Many young, new profs start out switching from one small college to the next as they slowly build a career. Take my old friend. Currently he's in a small town in Oklahoma. Before that it was Arkansas. He'd love to be somewhere slightly more exiting, but it just didn't work out that way.

Conferences aren't very ideal to travel in. You are USUALLY STUCK IN YOU'RE HOTel most of the time.

Summers are better and there are a lot of opper. to take sabbatal.

Oh the Humanities.

1. summers
2. skool breaks
3. xmas break

conferences are good for learning but dont expect it to be fun like travel is fun. unless you tack on extradays here and there.also i have planned about 20 trips over 6 yrs which have allowed me to travel internationally and domestically (with students) while c osting me nary a dime.