China and Japan. BUNAC (www. bunac.com) offers a similar scheme for Americans with work programmes to Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.


Qualifications and skills that can prove useful to the round-the- world working traveller include a certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (for which a university degree is not always a prerequisite), sailing, diving or other sports qualification, catering experience and knowledge of a foreign language. It is a good idea to prepare a resumé and take documentary evidence of any qualifications you have earned plus references, both character and work-related if possible. An alternative to carrying them around is to email copies to yourself so you can access them anywhere you decide to look for a job.


The kind of traveller most likely to succeed in this endeavour will almost certainly be blessed with an optimistic and resilient personality, and have plenty of confidence and initiative. This seat-of-your- pants kind of job-seeking is not for everybody. People whose travel funds are near vanishing point find that by necessity they become less fastidious about what jobs they are willing to consider. One round-the- world traveller, at make or break point in Sydney, quickly found a job parading the city streets in a sandwich board handing out flyers promoting a knitting sale, and claimed to have been able to endure a “mind-numbing, leg-cramping” spell of employment because of the comedy moments and observations of life on Sydney’s streets.


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