How Do I Become a Corporate Travel Agent?

A corporate travel agent arranges travel for company staff members, managers, and owners. To become a corporate travel agent, you will typically only need a high school diploma, but earning a degree, certificate, or diploma from a business- or travel-related program may help improve your job prospects. You will likely need customer service experience as well, and a history of booking travel is often desired. Additionally, experience with travel business technology and computers is usually critical for this type of employment.

Most employers will not require you to have a college education when you want to become a corporate travel agent. Instead, many employers are willing to hire individuals for this position after they have earned high school or General Educational Development® (GED®) diplomas. Earning a degree, certificate, or diploma in a travel- or business-related program may help improve your chances of securing the job you want, however. This may prove particularly helpful if you have to compete with many candidates applying for a particular job.

You also will usually need customer service experience to become a corporate travel agent. This job typically requires you to work and interact well with others, so a history of customer-service-related work will likely help you build relevant communication skills. Likewise, you may find it helpful to gain experience with clerical work, as you will probably have to perform data entry, handle record-keeping duties and possibly record and process payment information as part of this job. Additionally, some employers will give preference to people who have sales experience when the time comes to hire new agents.

Experience in the travel industry is often helpful when you want to become a corporate travel agent. If you have previously worked for a retail travel company, for example, you may have a better chance of landing this job. Likewise, if you booked travel as part of your previous job, even if you weren't called a "travel agent," this may improve your chances of getting hired. For example, if you worked as an administrative assistant and made reservations for your boss as part of this job, highlighting this experience on your resume may help you get hired.

Typically, experience and skill with travel-related technology are also requirements when you want to become a corporate travel agent. For example, you may find that a company with which you seek employment works with a specific reservation system for booking hotels or airline travel. Learning this system and gaining experience with it may help you land the job you want.