Best job in the world

How you can help me get my dream job – and what’s in it for you.

QUICK LINK TO MY VIDEO

Tourism Queensland is offering what they say is the best job in the world – and I’m inclined to agree. You’ve probably heard about this already – it’s made the news all over the world, including the BBC here in the UK, and a lot of people are talking about it. There’s been so much interest, the site crashed on the first day and they’ve accepted nearly 10,000 applications already.

For those of you who missed it, here’s the quick run down: A six-month posting to Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef with a rent-free three-bedroom villa. There are some light caretaking duties – about 12 hours a month – and the main remit is to explore the reef, have lots of fun, and tell the world about your experiences through blogging. Oh, and the annual salary is $AUS150,000. As I said, it’s pretty much a dream job.

Despite the stiff competition, I’ve applied. I had to submit a 60-second video application, which I’ve embedded above. I’ve also outlined in more depth why I’m the right person for the job. But first, I need your help.

How you can help

Please click through to my video on the official website, to help increase my page views. I would be grateful if you could give me a 5-star rating while you’re there. (You do that by clicking on the fifth star along to the right of the video itself – you don’t need to watch the whole thing again in order to rate it. A week or two ago, technical problems were making it difficult to rate the videos, but they seem to have fixed that now). You can also rate me on YouTube – but the primary place to do it is at my video page on the Best Job in the World site.

Tourism Queensland is going to narrow down the tens of thousands of applications to a long-list of 50, without reference to public vote. So at this stage the vote is not crucial – but I think it would still help because a high ranking and lots of page views can help me get me noticed. There’s been about 10,000 applications already and there’s still 13 days to go, so I need all the help I can get!

From that long-list of 50, Tourism Queensland will choose its own short list of 10, and there will be an eleventh “wildcard” candidate chosen by public vote. If I make that list of 50, then I will be calling on you to vote your little hearts out because that’s when it will really count. The eleven finalists will then be interviewed, the appointment will be announced in May and the chosen candidate will take up the job in July.

So after you’ve been to the site, there are a number of ways you can help. A lot of them involve social media and that serves two purposes – firstly, it’s an effective tool and will help me get noticed and secondly, I think if I use the tool properly it helps show why I’m qualified. If I happen to get the job, I will need to promote the blog via social media so if I can harness the tools now to help my campaign, it’s a taster for what I can do if I get the job.

If you are on Facebook, please join my ‘Help Caitlin get the best job in the world’ group and invite all your friends as well. If we can get a real network effect going where your friends invite their friends, this could be extremely effective. It’s wise to build this group now, in case I do make the final 50.

Also on Facebook, you can join Tourism Queensland’s Facebook group and post messages of support for my entry. For example, currently they have two relevant threads: Latest Applicants for the Best Job in the World and Which Applicants Have Caught Your Eye. Don’t forget to say that you are supporting Caitlin and give the link to my video (http://www.islandreefjob.com/#/applicants/watch/ZTo_m6xPGHE). Please feel free to say WHY you think I’m the best person for the job (inspiration here) – and it’s fine to be honest about whether you know me personally or professionally or just happen to enjoy reading my blog.

If you are on Twitter, you can follow me at @niltiac and send messages to @queensland (Tourism Queensland’s official Twitter account), saying why I’m the right person for the job in 140 characters or less. You can also send tweets (and retweets) asking your followers to do the same and to vote for my video or sharing the link to this post.

If you are on Digg or StumbleUpon or any other recommendation site, you can recommend this blog entry. (Reviews are particularly welcome on StumbleUpon). This should help boost my visitors and hopefully get strangers supporting my campaign as well, and at least voting for me. Update: Friends have submitted this to Digg and you can vote it up here. The StumbleUpon link is here.

If you are a blogger then I would be enormously grateful if you could write a supportive post and don’t forget to link to this page and my video.

You can also help me come up with new ideas to promote my entry.

What’s in it for you

First of all, I would be eternally in your debt and willing to repay favours in kind if you ever need anything voted on or blogged about or stumbled or tweeted or dugg.

If you are a competing applicant, I’m willing to reciprocate. I’ll support your campaign if you support mine – there’s room for more than one of us on the short-list.

If the job advertisement caught your imagination but for whatever reason, you’ve decided not to go for it, then this is a way to feel part of it. There’s also the entertainment factor – if I get the job, I’ll hopefully be creating something worth reading.

If you’re a friend or family member, it’s a way to get me to move home to Australia. And most of all, don’t forget the job comes with a three-bedroom villa and I’ll be there for six months so I can have people come and stay. If you show your support for my campaign, you’ll be top of the list (after my mum and dad, that is). It’s not an open invitation but nor is it confined to people I’ve met in person – I have a lot of virtual friends I would be willing to have come visit.

Why I’m the right person for the job

The real question is - what does Tourism Queensland hope to achieve with the campaign? The answer is pretty simple – they want to promote the islands of the Great Barrier Reef to potential tourists all over the world.

How do they do that? Well the most important part comes now, before they appoint anyone to the job. It stands to reason that the interest is greatest for people while there is a possibility they – or someone they know – might get the job. That’s the reason people are talking about it and why it’s getting coverage in newspapers and on television all over the world.

The campaign is structured in a very clever way – there was the initial interest when it was announced, the ongoing interest as people apply and word spreads around, there’ll be a surge of interest when they announce the long-list of 50, and another surge of interest when they get to the final short-list of 10. They’re getting applicants from all over the world, from all walks of life, and it’s in their interest from a marketing point of view to keep that diversity in the long-list and the short-list.

By the time they appoint one person to take the job, the buzz will have died down. It’s doubtful that the BBC or the New York Times will be interested beyond possibly a single story when it’s announced. Certainly people won’t be talking about it in the pub. If the campaign is to have a second life, it’s all down to the talent and skill of the appointee at writing a blog, marketing themselves online and networking.

That’s where I come in. Obviously there are a lot of strong candidates – some of them are marine biologists and SCUBA instructors. However, I believe I bring serious credentials to the role.

Content is king…

• I appreciate the raw material. It’s worth saying because enthusiasm and an adventurous spirit is such an essential part of the role. I love the ocean and nature and I’m keen to explore the reef and learn about the ecology and culture. I’m also a healthy, active person, taking on sports I already know and love such as swimming, snorkelling, hiking, sailing and kayaking and trying new ones such as diving. A hallmark of my blogging would be the variety of content, and absolute willingness to try new things.

• I can write something worth reading. I am a professional writer so this is a core strength. I have been a journalist since I was 20 (I’m 32) and I’m comfortable with pretty much any style and subject matter, but I especially love writing about travel. You can see samples of my work on my professional site and travel articles here on Roaming Tales).

• I’m good at multimedia. Photography is one of my passions – you can see a lot of my photography on this site, or on Flickr and my more artistic shots on Redbubble. Audio and video are no problem either – I actually did my undergraduate degree in broadcast journalism in the mid 1990s and I must say that editing the application video was a breeze compared to splicing tape.

• I can code. I’m not a programmer by any means but I’m handy enough with HTML. My blogs are self-hosted and don’t have any problems installing content management systems, importing or exporting files, and other general site maintenance. My fiancé, who would be coming with me, actually IS a programmer and a highly skilled one at that.

• I’m a real person. Yes, I’m a professional writer but blogging is about voice and personality. You won’t be getting some slicked up newsreader package – you’ll be getting the genuine me. The fact that I’m a professional writer doesn’t diminish this – it just means I’m good at writing in a different style for different audiences.

…but marketing is queen

• I have experience with blogging and social media. I have this site plus my food site The Gooseberry Fool and a personal blog The Niltiac Files and I’m a paid writer for US-based environmental blog EcoSalon. Blogging has taught me so much about search engine optimisation, networking with other blogs, and using social media tools effectively. My favourites are Twitter, StumbleUpon and Facebook (which I use primarily for real-world friendships) but I’m also on Digg and Delicious.

• I have excellent contacts – internationally. I’m an experienced journalist – you can check out my CV on my professional site. I’ve worked for publications in Australia, the United Kingdom, Austria, the United States and Hong Kong. This means that I’m used to writing for an international audience and also that I have contacts at media outlets all over the world. I also have a lot of contacts in the travel blogging world. Effective marketing is all about contacts and there are so many ways I could leverage this – from writing guest posts for other travel blogs and persuading newspaper and magazine travel editors to feature me to simply inviting some of my travel writer buddies to come and visit. I’m also keen to host a travel blogger conference on Hamilton Island (something I have been discussing with Kelly from Travellious and others).

• I will write travel articles, not just blog posts. I am an experienced travel writer with work published in The Guardian, The Australian, Rough Guides, Australian Women’s Health and so on. I’m also a member of the British Guild of Travel Writers. If I get this job, I will use the opportunity to become an expert on the Great Barrier Reef and I will be writing about the islands of the reef long after my six-month contract is up.

• It’s not just about me. I am a committed environmentalist and I’m deeply concerned about the fate of the world’s oceans. As well as promoting the Great Barrier Reef as a tourist destination, I want to raise awareness of marine issues and raise money for conservation and research work. If I get this job, I’ll donate at least 5 per cent of my net salary to a non-profit organisation working in the field.

Thank you for your time and for your support so far.