Working from the Road as a Research Analyst

Working from the road is different for every job, but before I get into that, let me back up a second and answer a question I get a lot: What actually is my job?

When people ask me what I do for work, I like to tell them I do other people’s homework. Officially, I’m an analyst at an emerging technologies advisory services and consulting firm. That means that clients, mostly large companies, come to us to improve their understanding of what kinds of new technologies are being developed in start-ups, in academia, and otherwise, of how those technologies and other major global and regional trends will affect their industries, and of what they and their companies can and should do about it. My own focus is on materials and manufacturing technologies. Over the years that has included a bunch of different topics, from things like steel and aluminum all the way to 3D printing, 5G network infrastructure, and lab-grown meat.

One of the great things about my job is its flexibility. While I need to be available during business hours for calls, meetings, and answering questions, my actual work is mostly independent, and just needs to get done by a deadline. Since I started in 2012, I would often work from home one or two days a week, to save commuting time and have fewer distractions when I needed to focus. Since April 2020, I have been completely remote because of the pandemic; in two years I only went into the office twice. With that context, and it was easy to get permission to stay remote and work from the road. In short, not much actually changed for me day to day. With both my clients and my colleagues scattered across the world anyway, it really doesn’t matter where I am sitting. Before 2020 I worked in an office at a desk with a laptop. From 2020-2021 I worked at home at a desk with a laptop. Today it's still a home, but on wheels, and it's a desk, only slightly smaller, and the laptop is the same. In just over 2 years I went from a 30-mile commute, to a 50-foot commute, to about 8 feet today. Safe to say I've cut my commuting time way down, which leaves extra time during the week for other commuting - to a campground, or just exploring the area.

I did do a lot of legwork in advance to ensure we had reliable internet access. Today we have device data plans on all three major wireless carriers, and (in most places) campground wifi (such as it is). Every time we get to a new site, or whenever our connection is lagging, I check to see what source of internet is the best, and switch our modem over to using that. So far, across six states and many sites, there have been a few small hiccups but no major issues.

I was fortunate to not need to change or adjust a lot in order to work from the road. As the pandemic lifts, there will likely be more work travel that needs to happen. This is when we'll decide if I'll fly, or if Nicole and I will take the rig and both go together. There is a lot of great flexibility in this lifestyle and I can't wait to continue seeing what options we have available to us.