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Careers that could support this lifestyle?

Rob D · · Queens, NY · Joined May 2011 · Points: 30
John Herreshoff wrote:Airline pilot. You can commute to work from any airport with airline service (though I'm not saying it's always easy). I have a friend who sold his house, bought an Airstream, and rolled out to where ever he wanted to be for the time being. You can get anywhere from 3 to 10 days off in a row (depending on your seniority), but the pay ain't great. Expect to make $19,000 first year at a regional airline, and the really good jobs at major airlines are few and far between. That being said, the time off can be fantastic once you've got some seniority.
One of my best friends is an airline pilot. He's very very in debt, lives in those weird pilot hotel rooms most of the time, and has very little chance of being promoted or hired by a better airline. He loves his job, and takes full advantage of his time off, but the people that jump ahead in the pilot game put in their time in the airforce/air rotc/are rich and started flying at a young age.
He also flew every day from xmas eve through new years day without seeing family or friends.
Travis Senor · · Cary, NC · Joined Feb 2013 · Points: 60

Careers? Not so much of a long-term career suggestion, but I'll second the recommendations for seasonal work. A fishing or drilling gig will net you some bankable cash, and then when you're done with the contract the time's all yours.

Slightly more outside the box is taking up a seasonal gig with the U.S. Antarctic Program. If you get in good you can usually keep coming back on (southern) summer contracts (5-6 months usually). You bank all of your income, have the opportunity to travel a little bit, and when the contract's up it's only early Spring in the U.S. so you get the whole spring/summer to climb. Last I knew there was a bouldering cave down at McMurdo to keep fit.

Totally random, but might work.

D Stevenson · · Escalange, UT · Joined Dec 2010 · Points: 25

How has nobody mentioned any 'work-from-home' type things?

Take some classes on graphic design, or web development. Search around and find many one-off contracts in the range of $500 for putting a logo together for a company. There's thousands of dollars to be had in web design and security for small/medium companies. Start finding small projects for Social Media Marketing. It's such a new field, there's no formal training, and it's pretty easy and surprisingly consistent and formulaic work. What about Internet Sales and Marketing? Find clients and do pay per sale traffic towards their website. Most companies will want to keep plausible deniability, and don't care too much what you do. What about independent software design? Keep a powerful laptop with you to code on, then ssh if you need it back to your client.

Best of all, tmost of these can be done on a 1099, and are short term. Yeah, you'd spend extra time hunting these down, but no more time than hunting down jobs in new cities every couple of months.

Invest in a good laptop, a cell-phone, a 4G internet card for your laptop (or mobile satellite internet-- the kinds of things for RVs). You can work wherever, whenever.

If you play your cards right and are smart, you could probably make $20 /hr with no more education or experience. Think about iPhones and how many stupid apps there are for them. Most of them are simple and small projects. Learn to code for the iPhone and Droid and you'll be in good shape

Skat B · · Down Rodeo · Joined Jan 2012 · Points: 1,075

I have been thinking the same thing: What job would be most conducive to climbing? There are a lot of answers, but I have two ideas in mind that could work for me:

(1) I have a BS in Accounting so maybe I could just do taxes during tax season, save, climb for the other half of the year.

(2) Sit on a street corner and play guitar and hopefully by doing that 2-3 days, I could raise enough money to climb for a week.

Doesn't Nicky Dyal work as a financial consultant or something half the year and then takes the rest of the year off? JC Hunter really is the person I look up to: she has 4 kids, a full-time job (nursing?), she's married, yet she's able to find the time to climb .14b's. Just look her up on YouTube!

wankel7 · · Indiana · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 10
Steven Groetken wrote:Probably not what you're looking for, but I sure did a lot of climbing in the Army. If you get in the right occupational specialty, you'll do a good amount on the job ( the Army has a contract agreement with Metolius for a reason). There's also a good amount of free time, one month vacation, and every conceivable government holiday, plus comp time if you ever have to work overnight in the barracks. I had way more days off than I do currently in the civilian world. You could also get stationed in places that are close to good climbing. Ft Carson, CO ( Colorado Springs) FT Drum, NY ( home of the 10th Mountain Division near the Gunks) Ft Bliss, TX ( Hueco Tanks) Ft Huachuca, AZ (Cochise Stronghold) Ft Irwin, CA (J Tree, Tahquitz, Red Rock, Yosemite) and several posts in Germany and Italy. Good pay, good benefits to help with your degree ( GI Bill and Tuition Assistance rules!) and you get paid to do PT every morning to get you into excellent climbing shape. Just a thought.
Unless you get stationed in S. Korea ! :p
Gwut · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Mar 2013 · Points: 80

Become a top stone mason, good bucks + you can just drop your trowl and take off, if it means for just half a day at the crag or weeks or months at a time.

Rob D · · Queens, NY · Joined May 2011 · Points: 30
Gwut wrote:Become a top stone mason, good bucks + you can just drop your trowl and take off, if it means for just half a day at the crag or weeks or months at a time.
Manual labor is probably one of the more realistic job/"career" that can be pursued while still climbing close to full time. There's always room for upward growth in the industry, and you are probably already pretty close to meeting the physical and mental requirements.
NickinCO · · colorado · Joined Sep 2010 · Points: 155

nursing sucks because you work for corporate america. I'm sofuckinghappy I finally got back into the fire service and away from all the bull that comes along with a privately owned for profit hospital. Every shift there's a new rule or some new form of documentation that you (and your whole staff) were doing wrong... And even if you bust ass pick up a bunch of open shifts to help the department out (10 bed ER) and never call in sick, at the end of the year you get a 1.8% raise LOL! This is the biggest hospital company in the Denver area also BTW.

$24/hour is change when you have 50-60k in student debt also...

Jon C. Sullivan · · Boulder, CO · Joined Jul 2010 · Points: 30

Im stoked on all of the replies. I just returned from another week in Indian Creek and came home to some really helpful responses. I will say, this may be one of the only forum posts I've seen that is free of some sorry soul's critical jargon so thanks for that as well! I agree with the "pursuit of happiness" ideal. I have been doing seasonal work for a while but its hard to make enough money with my current seasonal jobs (climbing guide/Vitamin Cottage). Both pay pretty good ($+12.00 or +100.00 day day) but I am ready to find either a job to make big, fast cash i.e. manual labor, fisheries, oil etc. or just set myself up for a career. I know that I would like teaching, I have always known that but it is still very helpful to hear from people who know more of a teacher's lifestyle. Thanks again everyone. I hope for those of you in similar shoes that you also find a great answer!

20 kN · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Feb 2009 · Points: 1,346

If you can handle military service, the US Navy selected reserves is a good option. In the reserves you can pick and choose your own job offers/ contracts and choose when you want to work. So if you need money you can volunteer to work more, and if you dont need money you just dont volunteer. However, you will have to do one-year-long deployment (likely in a combat zone) every 5 - 10 years so that is something to consider. The downside is that the reserves is best suited for someone who previously served on active duty and achieved a rank of at least E-4. Starting out in the reserves with no experience or rank would suck.

RN/ APRN, CRNA is a good option too. CRNAs get paid out the ass. Work as one for ten years and you can retire for life. However BE WARNED, what those who are recommending RN to you are not telling you is that getting a job as an RN at a hospital is much easier said than done. Due to the influx of recent RN grads over the past few years, RN has gone from being what was arguably the most open field to a relatively closed field. I know many RN grads who cannot find a job because hospitals wont hire them without previous experience. It is kind of like the viscous credit cycle where no one will give you a loan without you first having credit and once you get credit you get a loan, but at a very shitty interest rate.

Another option is you could be come a professional rigger. Get your level one SPRAT and IRATA certifications and go from there. Most climbers would love a rigging job because you get to play with climbing gear and rap down buildings for a living. The downside is that you dont get paid very well until you hit level III and the jobs are a bit far and few in between.

sherb · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2012 · Points: 60

I can tell you what NOT to do.... I found climbing a few months after I *finally* found a job at a BigLaw firm after the 2009 housing market bust... and it's killing me. 70+ hour weeks, 1-2 weeks vacation tops per year (if you make your hours), and I'm thinking about climbing all day.

John Herreshoff · · Ann Arbor, MI · Joined Jun 2011 · Points: 0
Caprinae monkey wrote:I can tell you what NOT to do.... I found climbing a few months after I *finally* found a job at a BigLaw firm after the 2009 housing market bust... and it's killing me. 70+ hour weeks, 1-2 weeks vacation tops per year (if you make your hours), and I'm thinking about climbing all day.
This is exactly why I'm ecstatic to go back to my job making $40,000 a year as a pilot when I graduate from law school in May. I might not make a ton of money where I'm at, but I can hold an easy 15-16 days off per month at my seniority. I'll take it happily over my colleagues who are either working 80 hours per work or worse, unable to find work at all.

Cheers!
20 kN · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Feb 2009 · Points: 1,346
John Herreshoff wrote: working 80 hours per work or worse, unable to find work at all. Cheers!
Working 0 hours per week is worse than working 80? Interesting.
EricSchmidt · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Feb 2013 · Points: 0
NickinCO wrote:nursing sucks because you work for corporate america. I'm sofuckinghappy I finally got back into the fire service and away from all the bull that comes along with a privately owned for profit hospital. Every shift there's a new rule or some new form of documentation that you (and your whole staff) were doing wrong... And even if you bust ass pick up a bunch of open shifts to help the department out (10 bed ER) and never call in sick, at the end of the year you get a 1.8% raise LOL! This is the biggest hospital company in the Denver area also BTW. $24/hour is change when you have 50-60k in student debt also...
waaaah. Werent you spraying to everyone about how awesome going into nursing was a few months ago? 10 bed ER??? Thats your problem... How is that the biggest hospital in denver?
Kirk B. · · Boise, ID · Joined Feb 2013 · Points: 60

What's a "Lifestyle"?

Mark Mueller · · Surprise, AZ · Joined Nov 2011 · Points: 185

try unemployment

Dave · · Tahoe City · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 200
nih.org/jobs/show_job_categ…

Pension
$30/month health insurance
3 @ 12 hr schedule
Brand new facility
Not for profit hospital

Did I forget to mention climbing and bouldering?
Liberty · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Mar 2013 · Points: 25
EricSchmidt wrote: waaaah. Werent you spraying to everyone about how awesome going into nursing was a few months ago? 10 bed ER??? Thats your problem... How is that the biggest hospital in denver?
Denver health does rock! The best level 1 trauma center in the area. Indeed inner city population but so much to learn. I would recommend it to anybody energetic and hungry for knowledge. Not an easy work but great support from doctors being a teaching facility. The work is hard though you guys. I put in 2 years of nights there as a float.
Chris Sepic · · Bend, OR · Joined Mar 2011 · Points: 45
Davis Stevenson wrote:How has nobody mentioned any 'work-from-home' type things? Take some classes on graphic design, or web development.
This. I now work remotely as a web developer which has allowed me to move to a place with good climbing. Make my own hours which lets me climb during the week, and have no problem taking off large chunks of time for trips. Last year I skyped in to a meeting with from the Yucca Valley Walmart parking lot, then went and climbed. Did the same thing this winter ice climbing in Ouray and billed some hours from the hotel on my rest days.

The catch: It's hard. Web development requires a lot of up-front time investment and constant learning to keep up with the latest in the industry, but the payout is worth it. You have to like it. As mentioned you don't need a degree (though it can help), just a willingness to grind through the hard initial learning curve. I worked in 9-5 cube land for about 4 years until I got enough experience to freelance. If you go in this direction, be prepared for 5+ years of constant learning and potentially low-paying gigs to get your skills up to snuff. There are also web development specific schools popping up around the country where you can pay a couple Gs for a weeks-long course to get you started. If I were starting now, that's what I would do, followed by building a portfolio of side projects I could show potential employers. The other catch: be prepared to deal with a lot of bullshit getting health insurance if you freelance.
Dan M · · Boulder, CO · Joined Sep 2005 · Points: 165

I like the idea of being self employed. Online retail is what is I would consider reasonably viable if you had little in the way of start up funds and didn't want to go back to school. Sell climbing gear, clothes, DVDs, supplements, etc. Amazon or eBay are interesting places to look for retailers who are successful and who you may be able to emulate. There are a lot of blogs and articles on getting started. I've looked at a few and the guy you want to be is Timothy Ferris, the author of The Four Hour Workweek (probably a douche but he's got some good ideas).
Best of luck out there.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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