It's good to be interrogated! I am going through this "what's the point of it all" moment, so trying to parse out my emotions on this stuff will help me to make the next step.
I think that at this point in my career i wouldn't mind too much to work in one of those boring enterprise companies, since i've pretty much accepted that no matter what type of company it is, it's going to be the same old shit everywhere. So might as well work at a company that doesn't make any pretense at being hip or cool. Unfortunately i find it's also very difficult to score an interview at one of these companies. I'm not sure if it's because of my background or if it's just because there are 17 layers of HR to get through before you can get in touch with a hiring manager. It might also be that those companies are less inclined to sponsor visas for new workers, and would rather bring across an internal hire from one of their other offices?
With regard to working-while-traveling... I have been exposed a little bit to that "digital nomad" life through other people (both colleagues and folks i met while traveling) and i really don't think it's for me. It's a bit like my issue with music. Yes, i really love listening to music. But because i love it so much, when i am listening to music i can't concentrate on anything else, whether that is work, or writing a journal entry, or reading the news, or speaking to other people, or whatever. So most of the time i don't listen to music, because it's too distracting. I think i have the same thing with travel. I love to travel, but it's something i love enough that i don't think i could work at the same time, either because the place i'm traveling would distract me, or because the work would infect my view of the place and ruin the enjoyment.
Also, from a social responsibility point of view, i think it's a dick move to earn money in one jurisdiction and live in another jurisdiction, especially internationally. It means you are enjoying the perks of living in one country while paying taxes in a different country. It's different when you are just traveling for its own sake, because then you have an explicit tourist relationship with the place you are visiting. When you are working it becomes exploitative imo, especially because the usual situation for digital nomads is to get paid in a rich country and then live in a poor country. I think it's a better relationship with the local community to support industry in that community instead of exporting your labor value somewhere else entirely. And from a purely selfish point of view, i'd prefer to actually work with people in the community i am living in than operate in some kind of elite bubble where i only interact professionally with people who live elsewhere (and presumably only speak English etc).
I have long thought that doing manual labor would be less emotionally draining to me than what i currently do. Obviously it thrashes your body a lot harder and the pay is much worse, but at least you can turn your mind off and just do the work, then go home and forget about it. But that kind of work won't sponsor a visa, so it would be the kind of work i'd be stuck doing in Canada, which feels a bit depressing, going to a country with one of the most unaffordable housing markets and then voluntarily taking a massive pay cut, just to have more mental energy left over on the weekends... which now i can't do anything with because i have no money? I don't know.
I think that at this point in my career i wouldn't mind too much to work in one of those boring enterprise companies, since i've pretty much accepted that no matter what type of company it is, it's going to be the same old shit everywhere. So might as well work at a company that doesn't make any pretense at being hip or cool. Unfortunately i find it's also very difficult to score an interview at one of these companies. I'm not sure if it's because of my background or if it's just because there are 17 layers of HR to get through before you can get in touch with a hiring manager. It might also be that those companies are less inclined to sponsor visas for new workers, and would rather bring across an internal hire from one of their other offices?
With regard to working-while-traveling... I have been exposed a little bit to that "digital nomad" life through other people (both colleagues and folks i met while traveling) and i really don't think it's for me. It's a bit like my issue with music. Yes, i really love listening to music. But because i love it so much, when i am listening to music i can't concentrate on anything else, whether that is work, or writing a journal entry, or reading the news, or speaking to other people, or whatever. So most of the time i don't listen to music, because it's too distracting. I think i have the same thing with travel. I love to travel, but it's something i love enough that i don't think i could work at the same time, either because the place i'm traveling would distract me, or because the work would infect my view of the place and ruin the enjoyment.
Also, from a social responsibility point of view, i think it's a dick move to earn money in one jurisdiction and live in another jurisdiction, especially internationally. It means you are enjoying the perks of living in one country while paying taxes in a different country. It's different when you are just traveling for its own sake, because then you have an explicit tourist relationship with the place you are visiting. When you are working it becomes exploitative imo, especially because the usual situation for digital nomads is to get paid in a rich country and then live in a poor country. I think it's a better relationship with the local community to support industry in that community instead of exporting your labor value somewhere else entirely. And from a purely selfish point of view, i'd prefer to actually work with people in the community i am living in than operate in some kind of elite bubble where i only interact professionally with people who live elsewhere (and presumably only speak English etc).
I have long thought that doing manual labor would be less emotionally draining to me than what i currently do. Obviously it thrashes your body a lot harder and the pay is much worse, but at least you can turn your mind off and just do the work, then go home and forget about it. But that kind of work won't sponsor a visa, so it would be the kind of work i'd be stuck doing in Canada, which feels a bit depressing, going to a country with one of the most unaffordable housing markets and then voluntarily taking a massive pay cut, just to have more mental energy left over on the weekends... which now i can't do anything with because i have no money? I don't know.
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