Hi, I'm someone about to leave academia for the world of consulting and am debating a couple of offers. One firm has considerably more travel than the other. Can it be fun or does the novelty always wear off quickly? What if it means you get more client exposure? Are there people out there who like their 6am flights?

Yeah, we all relish the opportunity to get up at 4am on a Monday morning to catch a 5.30am flight to Brussels.

Flight to Brussels? You don't want to do that. Get the 06:04 oh ah Eurostar. Bit of a breakfast, a snooze and get right into the middle of the most boring City in the world.I actually don't mind the travelling too much, downside is that a lot of the time you are there Mon am 'till Thurs pm and don't really get a lot of time to enjoy the places you are 'cos you're at work/meeting/dinner/bed/work and so on

I agree with Anon 1 - Waking up 4 AM to catch a 6 Am flight to Frankfurt every Monday is only "fun" for the first 3 weeks - After that its a drag and you start to wonder if staying in hotels every night and eating alone is worth the few extra grand. If you staying away for 2 or 3 days a week, then its do-able and you can still keep a balance between your life and work - But anything more than that and your life starts to suffer

Good question Anon - I think it really depends on where you are in your life. If you're a new graduate, as you suggest, putting 4/5 days a week on expenses can help, you might get access to interesting projects, and work with good people. If you are just into a new relationship weekly travel could be a bit of a road crash. Equally if you have no ties you can structure the time to get more out of it - especially if you can get the gym paid for, want to study, explore a new place (after office hours!). Generally I find hotels a bad idea - they feel too much like dead time, negotiate a serviced apartment, with a colleague, (some home cooking), a hire car, gym etc and working from home on Fridays and you might be on to something.