Travel whilst young or take advantage of career foundations?
Hey All. This question has been going through my mind a lot recently and luckily I think I have found the correct sub to ask it on.
I am a 22 year old British male. Since I was 18, I have been on 3 big-ish travelling trips. A summer abroad in 2023 teaching English in the north of Austria where I got to learn so much about Austrian culture and 2 separate months travelling in Thailand (one in Summer and one in Winter). Currently I am a cover teacher at a school and want to get into teaching which I am having a meeting about within the next week. I also am a football coach with a UEFA C qualification which would be the dream but once again I am very young in this field.
The question I have been debating is, should I go and travel more before committing to work or just commit since I am in a good position to make some real foundations to my career? With the teaching, I may have an opportunity to get onto teacher training for the next year if the school suggest I do it (however I am very new to the school). With the coaching, next season I am scheduled to manage a Step 4 clubs U17s EJA team (which is a decent start into what I want to do) however their communication has been very very staggered. Hearing one thing one week and then waiting nearly 2 weeks to hear different information. So with what I want from my career, I am in good stages quite early in my working life. Also, I have a partner who is amazing but also very supportive and easy going, meaning my decisions often are received well from her.
Onto the travel, I absolutely loved my most recent month in Thailand and want to travel more, meet new people, volunteer in hostels and basically explore and LIVE! I have the fear that I won't get that chance if I kickstart everything now and the time to solo travel is when you're younger, right? With all the hostel age restrictions and also most solo travellers being around my age. I just feel like it will be a missed opportunity and damn....I have that travel itch and want to do it properly and spend however long going around to different places. Europe, SE Asia, Australia and so much more.
What would your advice be since I know the opinion can be split between pleasure and work in life.
TL;DR : Would you start your career early since you have good foundations already (like I have)? OR Explore the world while you're young and get that travel bug satisfied?
Posted May 10, 2026, 10:09 PM UTC