Job hunting has not gone well so far. I can only find jobs listed for corporate travel agents at large companies, and I want to do leisure travel for a small agency. Actually, I phoned up one agency who were looking for a travel manager, but it filled me with despair when they described what they wanted. They're on a small system that practically no one uses, they're located 20 miles out of town in the dreadfully countrified Hendersonville, and they want someone to be a marketing genius handling promotions and sales to new clients. Boy, would that be a nightmare for me. I'm not even sending them a resume. Fortunately, I feel little guilt about not considering a job that's entirely wrong for me. I'd take up mud wrestling sooner than I'd consider doing marketing and sales, thanks very much.
I understand that being a travel agent is retail sales, but the clients come to me. They want me to handle their travel and I enjoy it. I know what most of my clients want. They want me to find them a place to visit that's interesting but not scary, a car that's reliable and inexpensive, an airfare that is cheap, and a hotel that's clean and reasonably priced. Think those are simple requests to fulfill? Ahahahahaha. It's harder than you think. Well, maybe not harder than you think, but I swear there's real skill involved in being a good travel agent. Being psychic helps. Being an experienced traveler oneself helps a lot. Being a voracious reader of newspapers, magazines, trade publications, and a dedicated internet browser is absolutely crucial. When I teach travel I emphasise that reading the paper every day, paying particular attention to the international news and the business sections, is an important part of being prepared. Read the New York Times, too, not just the Doinksville Star-Tribune. Otherwise, you might end up trying to book someone to, say, Brazzaville at a bad time.
Anyone at all can find the same information I use as an agent, but it takes a certain amount of dedication and time, and a lot of people just don't want to deal with it. That's okay; I like dealing with it. I think everyone should travel. It's good for you. Gets you out of your tiny worldview, even if you're just popping over the state line to visit Aunt Osceola. Me, I adore traveling to foreign countries, and I love speaking foreign languages, and I like eating food that I'm not used to, and I especially like to meet new people. God knows why I'm so bad at meeting people I like in Nashville, but I make friends all over the world very easily. I get a very cheap vicarious travel thrill from arranging other people's trips. It's nearly as good as going myself, and most of the time the clients send me a postcard or show me their photos later. That's what I like about leisure travel. People are going on vacation. They plan to have a good time. Corporate travel is where the big money is, but there's very little in the way of vicarious travel thrills. I hope I don't have to do that, or do it for very long if I do get offered a position.
Maybe I'll get lucky and find a job where they want me to design and maintain their web page. Wouldn't that be the ideal job combo? Travel and web design. Mmm...
