Working Remotely?

(yawn)

What a thread! Lots of advice from all ages and experiences.

I see a massive generation gap at work with some of the disagreements here (as well as some nose-thumbing). Gen Y's options are SO different from what Gen X's were and...er, the sages who came before. We're all a product of the time and history and options available during our formative years, and our career paths will therefore be different: my younger brother who's Gen Y has different options than I did at his age, born at the tail end of Gen X. Sure some of us grab the reins a bit more, but we're still born with certain generational assumptions, tech options, etc.

Re. the 'nomadic lifestyle' people selling products, etc. well they're entrepreneurs, they've taken the bait and are taking chances. I've been in touch with many of them, it's in many ways a middle-class caucasian Anglo phenomenon - there was a wonderful Francophone location independent blogger who was killed in Mexico awhile back (InDirectDesIles).

Some have a sub-genre focus like working on debt and budgeting, others are more focused on NGOs and charities, like the UMarket people mentioned previously. NB: I've met the couple behind UMarket here in Bangkok, and I found them to be quite focused and very much about helping the charities they encounter during their travels.

Me, I'm just an artist who has given up on 'finding' home but am making one instead.

On to the OP's questions:

For those of you who are working remotely, did you plan your career this way?

Not at all. Always dreamed of travel, but for many years thought it wasn't possible. Awhile back I wrote more about why I travel here: http://elizabethbriel.com/blog/why-i-travel/

If you were just starting out your education/career plan with the goal of working while travelling how would you go about it?

I would get a BA/BFA in my chosen field and get internships at home and abroad to work while I travel. I did this just after I graduated b/c I was too busy working 40 hrs/week while in school: went to Liverpool where I volunteered with a youth art program and worked with a gallery in the first Liverpool Biennale - a very exciting time to be there.

The BA will allow you to get a visa relatively easily. The work experience is more crucial: not just for contacts in your field, but for recommendations, feeling out options, etc.

In hindsight what would you have done (or done differently) if being a nomad of sorts was the goal from the start?

As social media and photos/blogging have been so important for my contacts within my field/the regions I live in, I would've invested in a good computer and DSLR camera much earlier on, and arranged more backup files. Two weeks ago a photographer was asking me for photos from my trip to Bokor in Cambodia in 2006: http://elizabethbriel.com/gallery/bokor-in-blue.php and I had to admit the original photos were too low-res to use in his book, because my camera at the time was cr*p.

What kind of education is required to do what YOU do?

Minimum BFA (usually), MFA or PhD is better if you want to teach (but I don't - I've just been offered an Artists Residency at a University in Penang, Malaysia, because of my unconventional focus to printmaking and social media). As with any field, if you dare to experiment and go places and create things others in your industry couldn't dream of - at a high standard - you will excel.

fwiw, i don't think i was being mean in any of my posts to ewit. in fact, i think i was being quite tolerant and offering up important things to think about. i ask of ewit the same questions i'd ask of myself. i don't think i'm old or young really and i don't think it's a question of youth or age. i think it's a matter of thinking critically before you speak, do or follow. if you don't take the time to do that, then you may as well be flying blind. and if you're not willing to answer or explore the questions put forth or attack because you're afraid of them and can't adequately support the things you think you stand for, then either don't participate or get ready to be taking to the whippin post ;)

ultimately we all learn on our own and in our own way no matter what advice we give or get.