Taking time off to travel

I think you'll find opportunities in any field to be more abundant after graduating university. Most of the English teaching positions which pay well either require that you have a degree or favor degree-holders. Without having college under your belt, you'll largely be relegated to low salaries in relatively under-developed countries. From what I've heard second-hand, there's a greater chance that your employers will exploit you or pay under-the-table.

Unless you at least get a certificate such as a CELTA, you'll probably be working illegally and will have no legal recourse if your employer tries to short you or decides they don't want to pay for the services you've rendered.

I'm 23 and will graduate university in another year or two. Been to several dozen countries since 2013 and lived in India for a year and a half. While I saved a lot for my first several trips, I've been getting more and more work as a freelance writer, which makes traveling without a big bank account balance to start off with a lot easier. For instance, I was recently in India for four months. I only had $1200 (enough for a comfortable month or two rough months), but kept myself happy by acting as an extra in Bollywood movies and commercials and picking up writing work.

I don't think $1k will be enough to travel indefinitely or really even start off without some experience, know-how, and the ability to earn remotely. You can definitely do it, but it won't be comfortable and you might not know what you're getting yourself into if you haven't lived that way before.

>>1201260
Hey thanks for the advice. Sticking with college is likely but it's incredibly discouraging not knowing what you want to do and dreading the idea of being chained to a desk 9 to 5.

All I've desired since youth has been true freedom, one without worrying about money or being stuck in some wilderness indefinitely. As that isn't possible, I've thought about freelance work or careers granting (relatively) passive income. Would you have any recommendations in that realm and what are your thoughts on freelance writing?

>>1201292

Frankly, my position is only a little more ideal than yours. I still have to complete my degree but have made traveling a priority while still in university. I worked and saved a lot to take my first several trips, up until I got into writing and became comfortable with earning while overseas.

Freelance writing is a decent way to make money, but it's not the easiest market to crack. I worked in logistics for several years and was fortunate to have been allowed a great deal of latitude by my employers. I had a reputation for taking care of sticky situations and being good with words - as a consequence, I was frequently assigned work designing recruitment advertisements, negotiating website design contracts, and dealing with minor legal problems. Other folks from different offices would occasionally stop by when they needed something written or had a corporate dispute they needed resolved by way of argument.

All of that, in addition to plenty of essay writing while younger, gave me enough material to make a portfolio complete with appealing writing samples. I also have several published music reviews in international magazines as well sponsored multi-page advertisements masquerading as articles (the sort of thing you see in National Geographic for photography equipment, except in a local publication).

Having that material behind me probably means I can crack certain markets easier than you might be able to, assuming that you don't have much published or ghostwritten work.

There's actually a decent amount of money in writing, but you have to network, make connections, and be flexible with customer demands. While I don't earn hourly, I type fast enough that I average anywhere between $20 and $60 per hour, depending on what I'm doing (when I was younger, I wrote an MS thesis for a student in Hungary and earned about $1k in two days).

>>1201298

Adding on to that, finding contracted or regular work can be a pain if you're not well-established. I'm not well-established yet, because I spent too much time dinking around with academic writing and essays. Doing work for lazy students can be profitable, but it isn't a consistent income.

In another couple months, I'll probably be earning two grand per month through contracted writing. That's not great, but I'll be able to take a few trips and not have to worry too much about going broke.

Still, get your degree. I know that in my case, I'll have a much easier time finding and making work with a graduation and BSc under my belt. As long as your major isn't something completely useless and you're willing to spend a few months (or years) with a wavering income, you can probably build a small business based around your area of expertise and skills.

If you can program or write code, work on that. I've met a lot of people who make respectable money doing that.

>>1201298
>>1201301

You're absolutely right in saying I have don't have much experience in ghostwriting; in fact, I have zero experience outside of menial office work such as printing and shredding required for my college workstudy award. With that being said, I wouldn't mind taking a crack at writing, but I'm clueless in terms of where to start.

I'll stick to getting my degree (for now), but not before I understand more about you. For someone only 23, you seem to have accomplished a great deal more than your peers if I had to guess. How did you get into logistics so young, and more importantly (read:more useful to me), how did you get into ghostwriting/publications/etc, as well as building your contacts in the industry?

>>1201319

Dunno about accomplished, senpai. I have managed to travel a lot, but I'm also 23 and degree-less. Most of my friends have already graduated with honors and are volunteering with the Peace Corps or wrapping up their first and second years of medical school.

Getting into logistics was also about having connections. One of my best friend's brothers was a truck driver who went rogue and started his own company a decade back. When I got sick of my last job, I offered to help him out around the office and quickly rose up to get a lot more responsibilities. The money wasn't great, but I got a lot of management and operations experience which most people my age in that field don't get to have. After I took a three-month long trip, my friend's brother gave me a recommendation to work for a larger company, where I earned more money and had to deal with greater challenges.

How I got into writing is just sort of stupid. During my sophomore year of university, I made a joke to one of my classmates that I'd write her term paper if she paid. I was surprised when she took me seriously. I did her paper, word spread among her friends (who were all fairly well-off international students), and I wound up helping two or three dozen kids get their shit together over the span of a couple years. When I decided I wanted to do writing that I could actually claim as my own, I used short sections from the essays I wrote as samples.

Still not easy to find work, but the more stuff I get my name on, the better.

>>1201372

DESU, if you want to get into writing, you could use good sections from well-written essays. Not as good as printed or published work with your name on the byline, but it can show that you have some skills.

Just don't expect tons of money in a little space of time. Freelance coding, web design, programming, and other tech shit is probably way more profitable. A lot of people can write well compared to those who can code well, although I've found that most folks who are decent at writing can't translate their creative skills to business (i.e., some people who get contracted for articles try to show off how verbose they are instead of getting to the fucking point, or they were smart enough to learn how to code instead and never bothered).

>>1201379
Thanks for the advice man. It's always interesting hearing someone else's story and come-up. I'll definitely try to duplicate your route in terms of essay writing, as I figure if they get back poor grades: writing is not my thing. If not, maybe I have a semblance of a future in the field. That said, what would you charge per essay?

>>1201391

Usually $15 per double spaced page. However, if I have to do a lot of reading or citations take me an hour, I charge more. Last-minute stuff is usually $20-$30 per double-spaced page, depending on the requirements.

I type 150 words per minute, so I usually get shit done pretty fast. I'm at the point where a lot of the students I write for are taking the same classes I've written for a hundred times before.

However, I'm really trying to stay away from academic writing. It just isn't that fulfilling, aside from occasionally earning extra money.