Traditional Job Or Digital Nomad: What Is The Best Way To Start Your Career?

Our oldest daughter converted a temporary job to a full-time offer, so we have one of two children officially launched!

This first job is a traditional office job with a biweekly paycheck, benefits package and retirement account. However, it also comes with a 9-5 schedule and limited vacation time that needs to be requested in advance.

Already, our daughter had to give up free show tickets that a friend offered her because it was on a weekday afternoon, and she had not accrued enough vacation time, nor found out with enough lead time to properly request the day off.

On the flip side, I was able to jump on a free movie screening one random Tuesday and got to see one of my favorite comic actors in person, Rowan Atkinson, to boot.

While Scott and I are not digital nomads in that we don’t travel while we work, we do work virtually and very flexibly. I fully expected our daughter to take the digital nomad route since she loved to travel during her college summers (China, India, Spain – twice). Before she got her full-time offer, we even discussed her staying at our Condo Boom property in Tamarindo for the off-season. She speaks Spanish almost fluently and has a certification in hypnosis – an income stream that would fit nicely into the Pura Vida lifestyle that is Costa Rica.

Yes! Start a career right away as a digital nomad

I myself started my career 25 years ago with a traditional job and I didn’t even consider another option (like starting a career in Costa Rica). However, we will end up as digital nomads (Scott and I do plan to travel and work in less than year) and could have had 25 years of travel already, if we started that career path right away. One advantage of being a digital nomad right away is that you can travel that much more.

In addition, from a skills perspective, jumping into the digital nomad life prepares you for that type of career. There are particular skills necessary for the digital nomad life – e.g., time management, self-sufficiency, technology expertise, and good financial habits.

If you start as a digital nomad, you build these up right away, rather than have to unlearn dependencies that can come with a traditional job – e.g., a 9-5 schedule, the office computer help team.

As a digital nomad, you won’t be habituated to a regular paycheck and will build up your risk capacity from the start.

No! Start a career in a traditional office job

However, our older daughter already appreciates the money she has saved in just four months of her traditional office job. These savings are on top of money she has reinvested in herself – a second hypnosis certification, additional classes in Reiki and other alternative therapies.

She has started a retirement account and is getting a better understanding of taxes, insurance and other financial responsibilities as she wades through her employee on-boarding paperwork.

In addition to the financial foundation that the traditional job affords her, she is building her skills foundation – getting along with colleagues, showing up on time, reporting on her work, managing up to supervisors.

These are skills that come with a structured office environment, some of which you can still learn as a digital nomad, but more easily learned when you’re thrown into the constraints of an office.

How to choose whether to start in a traditional office job or as a digital nomad

I still suspect our older daughter will be a digital nomad at some point. She still loves to travel, and her interests are more suited to entrepreneurship than employment.

Since she is already a self-starter and has good financial and time management skills, I don’t see the traditional office job taking her too far off-course should she later decide to shift to a digital nomad career.

On the other hand, if the traditional career path might make you too comfortable, it could make sense to start abroad right away. I’m currently taking an online course on teaching English internationally, and this career option is a compromise – there are online teaching opportunities, but also plenty of traditional teaching jobs with a structured schedule and work environment, and both online and traditional teaching can be done abroad.

The experience our older daughter is gaining from her current role (she provides career assistance at a social services agency) could translate nicely to a digital nomad career. She could package the career insights she’s learned into a course or offer career assistance virtually. Having experience at a longtime agency lends some credibility, and she could always build up an online business on the side without the time urgency to have to earn money right away.

That said, you don’t need to clock in at a traditional job to get experience or credibility – there are successful entrepreneurs who started right out of school, or even as a student. If you have a marketable skill set already, you can start earning as a digital nomad right away, without traditional job experience. If you are good at selling yourself, you don’t need former experience to establish credibility.

Whether to start a career in a traditional job or as a digital nomad depends on an individual’s background, interests, and confidence. It never even occurred to me when I started my career that I could do anything but a traditional job. I’m happy with how my career unfolded, but I do have lots of travel destinations to visit and less time.

If you are considering a move to digital nomad, check out our digital nomad tips and additional considerations.

Onward!