All travel agent work could be exciting and demanding – but perhaps business travel jobs especially so. Why is this?

If you’re providing general tour operator services towards the public for things such as holidays and weekend breaks, then although challenges and problems will arise, there may be a core stability around the travel plans that’s unlikely to change. For example, someone booking a vacation to Thailand is unlikely to phone you on only the second day there and say that they would now like to travel immediately to another holiday in Australia. Yet with business travel jobs, that can happen – and fairly regularly!

Global business is characterised through the frequency of how things change. A business traveller may be actually en-route to Hong Kong and suddenly his or her employer will phone you to express that, upon arrival, their employee must now travel immediately to La. If you think that is simply a question of arranging other tickets from Hong Kong to Los Angeles, then you’re mistaken. All existing accommodation arrangements in Hong Kong might need to be cancelled and car rentals and connections likewise. Then you’ve the problem of attempting to set up those self same items to be in place and ready for when the individual arrives at LAX. Just like you finish making all of the revised arrangements it’s time that your client normally calls you again to ask you what you can do about the fact that the person in transit doesn’t actually have a US Visa!

If that sounds an unlikely scenario, be warned – the truth is it happens regularly in business travel jobs. That’s also why travel agents are typically demanding in terms of their requirements for people likely to work in business travel sections. It is an exciting, dynamic but also potentially highly pressurised environment that could not suit everyone.

Some employers prefer to offer junior and trainee positions running a business travel to people who already have general travel agent experience. Others may be willing to offer trainee roles to individuals with no connection with the travel industry, however they may look very favourably upon those applicants that hold higher academic qualifications inside a related travel and leisure field. Now there is a wide range of courses provided by numerous colleges, universities and other educational facilities, in various facets of this industry sector. These may offer qualifications at BA or HNC level and some are accredited by organisations such as IATA and ABTA.

Some employers might be prepared to offer business travel jobs to trainees around the proviso that they have reasonable GCSE results, specifically in geography and English although maths can also be usually perfectly received. Employers may also be seeking to see evidence that you’re the type of individual who:

enjoys pressure;
is a natural problem solver rather than problem creator;
is really a gifted communicator (verbally as well as in writing).

Business travel jobs offer a pathway to success for the best individual. They may be well rewarded, and successful folks are usually very sought-after by both travel specialists and their corporate clients.

The Presentation/Report:

The presentation of results is the highest risk a part of a consulting job. It’s at this time that both the client and also the consultant begin to doubt the need for the job. There’s two opposite symptoms: either the client provides reams of written material that he is unable to convert into management action; or, conversely, he’s playing excellent, but abstract, ideas that do not fill his requirement for a tangible product. Either way, everyone loses; it is therefore critical that you simply understand the root of the potential problem.

Fundamentally, this kind of issue is brought on by the client’s failure to specify clearly if the presentation/report is simply to convey results; or whether it’s to serve additional purposes too. To avoid this, it is essential to negotiate with the consultant exactly what make up the presentation/report will require and why.

My very own strong preference would be to avoid jobs where the type of the presentation or report is as important as this content. Certainly there are situations where the medium is legitimately as essential as the content; however, generally I’ve discovered that prospects tend to demand really the presentation/report than will work for them.

Basically were a consultant I would spend half a day reviewing data you give me and a day making a cursory study of your agency the ones. Then i might spend a maximum of 4 hours making a simple, logical outline of what I think and why. To share my observations to you, I now have two choices:

First, I can spend another half day walking you through the outline and making sure that you understand me, and that I indeed understood the information you gave me. This, generally, is that is required to convey the outcomes to some sophisticated top manager.

Second, and least palatable to me, may be the written report. The typical body’s uncomfortable with writing, and therefore, isn’t often very good at it. Good operating consultants’ expertise usually lies in their understanding of what works rather than within their capability to express abstract ideas on paper. To be able to express accurately and completely something as complex as the totality of the strategic consulting assignment, the average consultant are affected through, say, five days of the writing job he probably hates.

If you are the consultant – stay with your strength (which probably isn’t writing). If you’re the client – make the most of direct conversations with your consultant; seek only a short summary of the consultant’s tips.