Product design career: How to become a digital nomad?

“How can I become a digital nomad?” is a question I hear very often while travelling the world and working remotely.

So, today I am going to share my experience on how I became a digital nomad and started working remotely as a designer.

I will try to address the most common questions and worries about switching from your everyday 9–5 working life to a life on the road. And I also hope that this article will spark an interesting conversation about other people’s experiences. I would love for you to share your worries and adventures so that we can create an informational environment.

Where do you actually start?

It can be overwhelming to think not only to leave your job and start an adventure on your own (or with someone else) but also to leave your home, family and friends behind.

So my advice is to do this in steps and plan as much as possible ahead.

Switch to a freelance career.

Whether this is a new career you want to start or simply leaving your permanent position to become a freelancer, this will be the first step that will allow you to start working for yourself.

As always, there are exceptions. You may be lucky enough to work for a company that allows its employees to work remotely from any time zone, in which case you will not need to find a new job.

But for most of us, the reality is that a permanent job will rarely allow you to just leave the 9–5 work life and start travelling.

Start building a client base.

Once you have your freelance business set up, it’s time to start looking for clients. I have spent a year creating solid business connections with many different clients so to make sure to have a working backup.

I have prepared my clients by trying to move my business more remotely. For example, instead of picking up contracts that required me to work in a company office, I have been attempting to choose only remote work offers. I have also let my new clients know that I would have left the country in few months and continued my work from different locations. This helped manage expectations and created a natural selection of these clients that wouldn’t be ok with me being in another country while working with them.

Look for alternative work sources.

Having a client base that may be offering you work opportunities while you travel is excellent, but “better safe than sorry”. So a great way to plan ahead is also by ensuring that you sign up to any platform that offers remote work opportunities. There are many out there, but one of my favourites is Toptal.

Create a saving pot.

You may also decide to travel to cheap destinations, but as a freelance designer is hard to say for sure when your next contract will come. So be prepared and build up some savings before you leave. You never know what may be just around the corner, and finishing your budget while travelling could set you back a few months before you can travel again.

Let me give you a great but sad example. While travelling Central America and living in the beautiful country of Nicaragua, COVID-19 happened. After the initial “this-is-going-to-go-away” denial, I had to decide to leave Nicaragua. While a beautiful place, sometimes the infrastructures don’t work as well and, as the borders and airports started shutting down, I couldn’t risk staying there. So I had to move to Costa Rica, much more expensive but a safer work environment for my digital nomad career. After few weeks in Costa Rica, I had to take a flight back to the UK as the situation worsened. Remember that travelling full time requires you to have medical insurance, which, in our case, didn’t cover pandemics. Flight were sporadic, and prices were extremely high. Once in the UK I also had to rent a flat, which was, again, very expensive. The whole adventure ended up costing few thousands of Pounds (£) which luckily I had saved for rainy days.

Another good tip I can give you is always to have on a side around £1k/2k for an ‘emergency’ flight back from the farthest destination you can think of.

Book some destinations in advance.

If you don’t mind missing a bit of the adventure, you can always book flights and accommodation in advance.

If you do this before starting your travels, this will also serve as insurance to yourself that you will actually do this! I booked my first flight to LA about six months before leaving. This allowed me to keep the money I had saved near the departing date, and at the same time, I knew I had to do this, now that I booked the flight.

Another excellent benefit of booking in advance is that flight and hotels or Airbnbs are much cheaper. I saved between 60% and 80% on some accommodations by booking three to six months in advance.

Leaving your home.

The last step is to move out of your home and start travelling.

If you are renting, this is probably going to be easier. You can wait for the end of your contract or talk with your landlord and work out a plan.

If you own a property, you may want to consider renting it out. Be aware that this may take some time to organise. In the UK, you will need to obtain permission to rent from your bank (if you have a mortgage) and find a good estate agency that will fully manage your property while you are away. All this isn’t excessively complicated, but it does take a bit of time to organise.

Take the first steps as a digital nomad.

You are now ready to leave and start travelling. Life as a digital nomad is great and very flexible. However, it is not all Instagram shots of laptops on the beach. Here is a reality check and some of the struggles you can expect from this exciting lifestyle.

Worklife on the road.

The first thing to keep in mind is that you are still working. Whether you are used to working with the laptop on your laps or at a large desk with a second screen, there will be adjustments you will need to make and things to keep in mind.

The first piece of advice is to find a comfortable place for the type of work you need to do. If you need to take many calls during the day, find a comfortable and quiet place. Check that your host can provide you with a desk and a pleasant work environment. Sometimes I booked lovely and cheap accommodations that didn’t have a desk or sometimes even a table (I know, rookie mistake). Some other places had only outdoor sitting areas, and it can become noisy, especially if you travel to some destinations. Hostels are also an option, but again it will depend on the work you do, whether they are good options or not.

Ask yourself if you need a calm environment and whether your clients will be affected by it or not. Looking professional while working remotely is crucial.

Another thing to keep in mind is how your movements will affect your work. If you need to travel many times per week, you need to make sure your clients know this and are not asking you to do work while you are on the move. This is relatively straightforward to manage, but it will determine whether you can move every few days or every few weeks. I found that the perfect balance for me was moving every one to two weeks. Shorter stays would have made it harder to manage my clients’ work, while more extended stays were becoming a bit boring. Remember that travelling is always exciting, but sometimes you end up in a remote and isolated place where a whole month can become lengthy.

Talking about isolated places brings me to the last piece of advice.

Make sure you always have a reliable internet connection.

The hardest part of working remotely is not being able to communicate with your client or team and not being able to send files.

Unfortunately, many remote areas have a bad internet connection, which became a massive issue for me while travelling. Sometimes I had to leave a 16Mb (yes Mb) file on upload all night to have it transferred over. I also use Dropbox to sync my files, and that was an issue too.

While living in Nicaragua, I could not update my OS for weeks as the internet connection could not support the download. This last one is easily overlookable, but it is good to keep these things in mind.

I also bought a mobile hotspot to use. However, I would never recommend it because the traffic they allow you to use is very low. Alternatively, you have to pay a fortune per Gb.

So to go around the internet issues, you should look for a place that offers a fast internet connection. I usually contact the host and ask them to share their internet speed. That’s usually the only way to be sure whether your internet connection will be good enough.

Not being able to communicate or transfer files can reflect poorly on you, and you may lose a client.

Is it worth it?

Well, after reading this article, you may be wondering whether it is worth becoming a digital nomad or not. While I want to tell you “absolutely yes”, you will have to work it out for yourself. I wouldn’t change it for the world, even with all the struggles and misadventures.

Hopefully, this article will help you get a correct and authentic overview of a digital nomad’s lifestyle, and it will help you to make an informed decision whether this life is for you or not.