Finding short-term work to top up your travel funds relies on resilience, optimism and lots of word-of-mouth networking.


Get Serious About Casual Work Abroad


BY SUSAN GRIFFITH


hard-to-get work visas are one thing. Casual work of the let’s-see-what-turns- up-next variety is quite another. Short- term opportunities crop up in lots of unexpected places and allow the canny traveller to earn some shekels by honest toil, or at least work in exchange for free food and accommodation, in order to avoid depleting travel funds. Although it is not impossible to slot a short-term job into a relatively short trip, most people looking for casual work on the spot have embarked on some long-term travels of several months or more. vergemagazine.com


C


onsidering working abroad? Proper jobs involving long-term contracts, expat salaries and


Casual work is often easier to find in the countryside or suburban areas rather than city centres, and outside the student holiday periods, although just before Christmas is a good time, when staff turnover is high. The tourist industry and agriculture both generate lots of opportunities. Most casual job-seekers pick up jobs such as selling ice cream in busy resorts, doing maintenance at hostels or campsites, shovelling snow in ski resorts, picking fruit at an orchard or helping at an organic farm. None of these requires any special qualifications.


Shrinking violets are likely to be out of


luck. The only way to find an opening is to broadcast your availability far and wide and keep your ear to the ground so that you can follow up every lead. Word of mouth is the key to success here. Once you are given a chance to work, you should do the job with such zeal that the calibre of your services will be noticed and perhaps recommended to other potential employers. To take one example of the way in which this might work, an approach to boat- owners at a marina sometimes results in the offer of a job doing hard and tedious maintenance work, sanding, painting,


CONTINUED P. 6 RESOURCE SERIES verge : 5


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26