So you’ve just finished university and you’re ready to step into the big wide world. Congrats, time for some #adulting! All jokes aside, it can be daunting when you’re starting to apply for the grad programmes / first job, or even making your first job change early on in your career.

You don’t know where you’re going to end up, who you’ll be working for, if you’ll be in a job you enjoy, or even if you’ll be employed in 6 months time! Wouldn’t it just be easier to act on that travel bug itch now, and pack up to go nomad-ing around South America for 6 months?

But just because you’re the new kid on the block in your new job, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be allowed to have some work-life balance and go travelling too.

There is some sentiment still lingering in the corporate world that juniors shouldn’t take time off to travel until you’ve been in the workforce for at least a couple of years or so.

What’s more, some people say you can only choose between starting a career in your twenties (then finally maybe taking some time off for travel in your thirties when you’re more ‘established’ in your career, or in your forties or fifties when the kids have left home), or going travelling now and coming back to the career later.

Well, I beg to differ. Why can’t you do both?

Now I can’t speak for all millennials, but I would say that for the most part, millennials want to travel sooner. Or ideally, now… But still have their careers going while they do.

I’m not talking about doing 6 months worth of travel at a time – yes you’ll have to resign from your job to do that!! But saving up 3-4 weeks of annual leave to go travelling shouldn’t be frowned upon in this day and age.

Impossible? Hell no. Is every employer going to want to cater for employees who want to take month-long stints away to Europe every year? Maybe not.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, in 2018 employers should be understanding of the fact that the travel bug among millennials is common, it’s a rite of passage. So doesn’t it make sense to be accommodating (to the degree that it works for both parties)?

And don’t get me started on the benefits of having employees who have done some travel. But that’s one for another blog post.

Everyone has different priorities in life. Maybe you’d rather never see the world, stay home for the rest of your life and have a dozen babies. Hey, no judgement here, that’s totally your call and your life. But I suspect if that was that case, you wouldn’t still be reading this blog post about travel 😉

Some tips for asking for time off:

• Negotiate / meet them halfway – ask them what’s a good time during the year to go on holiday? Maybe your boss thinks a certain month is the quietest, so this is when they’d prefer you to take time off. Of course, this has to fit in with your plans as well, but meeting half way is better than nothing.
• Give them heeeaaps of advance warning of when you’re thinking of going travelling. Start discussing your plans sooner than you think. This is both useful and courteous.
• Offer to put some systems in place beforehand that will help your boss / the department while you’re away. In the past, I have put together a comprehensive content calendar for social media and scheduled these in advance.

This is my two cents, feel free to be the devil’s advocate. But from my point of view, having a career and doing some travel shouldn’t be totally exclusive of each other. With some team work, communication and of course some ‘meeting in the middle’, having a healthy balance of both is totally possible.