THE BEGINNING, AND ALMOST THE END, OF MY TRAVEL CAREER
My travel career started right after college when I was fired from my marketing job. I was working for a small company that had to downsize and I was the last one hired so the first one that was let go. I was devastated as I really liked my job but regardless, I had to find something new to pay my bills.
As I was perusing the paper, yep, that’s how we looked for jobs back then, I saw a position for something called a “Trip Director”. I didn’t know what a Trip Director was but it included managing corporate groups for dealer meetings, sales training, incentive trips and included extensive travel. Hmmm, extensive travel? I was young, not married, no kids and the thought of traveling on someone else’s dime was intriguing, so I applied for the job.
Had I truly known, at that time, how stressful and exhausting being a Trip Director would be, I may not have applied for the job, but ignorance was bliss in this case. I managed to secure one of the three positions they were looking to fill and I felt pretty lucky! I was ready to travel the world and my first trip was off to Las Vegas. Maybe not the first place I would have picked but I was a team player and ready to do whatever was needed, I thought.
My first job as a Trip Director was to assist the Ground Transportation Lead and assist the Food & Beverage…
