Looking for work online has become the scurge of my existence. Every long-term traveler will know what I’m talking about. It seems so easy before you leave. There are so many news articles and feature stories about people who quit their jobs to travel and find work whilst they’re away. All these stories say things like, ‘Look on upwork.com or elance.com there’s heaps of work online for freelancers,’ and in theory it’s true, however in practice it’s not that easy.

I am completely for quitting your job to travel. I regret nothing since I made the decision to pack up and leave my ‘regular’ life, however I’ve become addicted to this travel lifestyle and want to keep going. So I need to make some money. I need to see my bank balance increase instead of watching it constantly decrease.

I’ve worked for years in the marketing profession and have a lot of experience in digital marketing, email campaigns, web design and writing. I’m a skilled, hard working person who puts passionate energy into everything I do. The problem is that there are many people looking for work online. Sites like upwork.com are great for finding positions, but by submitting a proposal I compete against people who have 2000+ hours of upwork experience, or those who’s first language is not English and are happy to work for $3 an hour.

It’s frustrating and I know this is what so many others must go through, they just don’t write about it. Being a ‘digital nomad’ is not the dream that many portray it to be in their feature articles. It’s a lot of hard work, most of which is unpaid. It’s spending weeks on end applying for positions, pitching story ideas and writing proposals.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have two interviews over the past few weeks for marketing and writing positions. I received very positive feedback for both, but unfortunately the jobs went to others with more direct experience. The frustrations I experienced looking for work in Australia are the same that I’m experiencing whilst traveling.

But I’ll keep going, I’m not one to give up easily. I’ll continue to write and pitch story ideas, I’ll continue to apply for marketing positions, and I’ll continue to quote for web development jobs.

I’ve read the stories about so many others who make it happen, so why can’t I?