Digital nomads

Working under a palm tree on an empty beach one week, then taking your laptop to a café in a bustling city the next. What’s it like, working as a ‘digital nomad’ and is it a good idea? In Issue 18, three people tell about their experiences. One of them is Esther Jacobs. 

Esther Jacobs was a digital nomad before the phrase had even been coined. “I left university with a degree in business administration in 1992,” she says. “All my classmates were jumping right onto the career path, but I wanted to travel first. I thought, ‘I have no money, but if I start work straight away, I’ll have money but no time’. And as far as I’m concerned, it’s easier to make money than time. I started out in Curaçao, where I spent my mornings selling fruit salads in large office buildings and my afternoons on the beach. When the office people heard I had a business degree, they started giving me assignments—to conduct market surveys for example. I used the money I earned to travel through South America, and from there on I just kept rolling from one thing to another. In the last ten years I’ve never spent more than six weeks in one place. I never want to give up the freedom I have living life this way.”

  • You can find the article ‘The world is your workplace’ in Issue 18.

Text Chris Muyres Photography Eefphotography.com