If you have a bad case of wanderlust, it's hard to imagine a more appealing employer than an airline. With free flights for you and your family and hearty vacation time in addition to the usual medical and dental coverage, 401k plans and sick leave, the perks are overwhelming.

"We have the world at our fingertips," says Sunny Busawah, a Mauritius native who works in London as an aircraft engineer for American Airlines. For Busawah, this means more than just free flights -- it's the cosmopolitan experience of working with people from around the world, learning about other cultures and traveling extensively.

Furthermore, the education opportunities airlines provide are first-rate. "In less than four years with American Airlines, I have been trained on four different types of aircrafts," says Busawah. With educational opportunities like these, "you are always enhancing your knowledge and keeping up to date with the changing world."

If you like the sound of this and think you might be interested in an aviation career, airlines offer numerous professional opportunities. These range from internships and entry-level positions like administrative assistants, customer service agents and reservation sales representatives, to mid and senior-level positions like pilots, human resources managers and quality-assurance specialists.

Scoring an overseas position in this field can be difficult. Generally, airlines only place employees overseas who are either highly trained engineers or executives, or who have been working with the company for a considerable amount of time. "Normally, a company wouldn't hire people who are not local citizens for entry-level airport positions," says Amanda Lahey, operations manager at a recruitment Web site for the industry. "International positions for airlines are very glorified and very hard to get."

Because flight attendants are usually based in their native country, they often can circumvent the usual catch-22 of international employment: In order to get a work visa, you need a job, and in order to get a job, you need a work visa.

Flight attendants may also be the most widely recognized employees in the aviation industry, in part because of their snazzy outfits. If you're considering this work there are a few guidelines to consider, like the rigid height and weight requirements. If your body would not move easily through narrow isles, and your arms do not reach overhead compartments effortlessly, this is not the right job for you. To learn more about these requirements, visit various airlines' Web sites; each company has its own training program and requirements for flight attendants.

Despite the cosmopolitan life working for an airline provides, flight attendants can't just turn one-way trips into five-day vacations, because companies do not generally pay for hotels. "Basically, you touch the ground, you turn around, and you're on your way back," explains Lahey. One interesting aspect of working as a flight attendant is the lifestyle. Because flight attendants and pilots often split the rent of apartments near airports in hub cities, the industry offers a sort of crash-pad subculture.

Working for an airline does have major drawbacks. "You find yourself working all the time at odd hours, and it's hard to have a social life," explains Busawah.

Many positions are exceedingly stressful, from working with frustrated customers to scrambling against the clock to fix an aircraft. For engineers and other employees working on the aircraft itself, "it is a huge responsibility because people's lives are depending on your work," he says.