You Call This Work?
Take a break in your routine with a short-term gig in an exotic locale.
By Jane Bennett Clark, Senior Associate Editor
From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, September 2006
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Not inclined to sling silverware or lead mountain hikes? Be a caretaker. Employers welcome older people who know their way around a toolbox or a garden shed.
Whatever your qualifications, you'll leapfrog over other applicants if you can stay the entire season. Says Berg, "Employers can't send everyone home in the middle of August," when many students head back to school. Apply at least three months ahead of the next session or season. If you miss the window, try again in mid June, when homesick (or party-weary) employees start peeling off. Turnover throughout the season is not unusual.
Compare perks
Before rushing off to a remote outpost, head for the Internet to compare, say, Yellowstone with Denali. "See what kinds of packages they're offering for room and board, pay and perks," says Berg. Some job sites include forums where workers can dish on employers. The freewheeling discussions "sometimes make us squirm," says Berg, "but they're a good way to scope these places out."
As for pay, expect to make at least minimum wage, plus tips and maybe a season-end bonus. Employees in jobs that require expertise, such as trail guides, wilderness counselors and naturalists, earn $9 to $14 an hour, or about $360 to $560 a week. Typical benefits include free or subsidized room and board and access to the facilities; some employers provide health insurance.
Although nobody gets rich doing seasonal work, you should be able to break even or maybe come out ahead, assuming you avoid the inevitable temptations. Newby, who makes $8 an hour as assistant manager at the service station, says she'll end up with a small profit at the end of the season -- "if I don't spend it on camping supplies."
Overseas opportunities
Avi Melniker considered herself perfectly happy as a talent agent in Los Angeles until a friend raised the idea of moving to Sydney, Australia. "When she said Sydney, something inside me just went off. Sydney? I'd move to Sydney!" Within a month, Melniker was on her way to the other side of the world, where she found short-term work at a speakers bureau. She returned several times and eventually settled in Australia, working as an events manager.
Before you cross the border, you have to jump through one big hoop: getting a work permit. (If you're already in the country -- say, as a tourist or a student -- you usually must leave and reenter with the proper visa.) That means either finding an employer who will arrange for a work visa on your behalf, or applying for the visa through an exchange agency and, if necessary, finding a job once you arrive.
Melniker organized her work-stay through Bunac. For $600 or less, Bunac pulls together the paperwork and posts jobs and accommodations. You can usually score a so-called casual job within a week or so. Pubs and hotels often provide housing for their employees. Short-term workers at other jobs share flats or crash at hostels (www.hostelhandbook.com).
You could work as a tour leader for a travel company, such as Adventures Cross-Country or Global Works. Such companies help you get a work permit and provide room, board, travel expenses, a salary and training. Better yet, says Landes, "they get you to just about every corner of the world." As with seasonal jobs stateside, you won't save much by working overseas, but that's not the point, says Griffith. "People work abroad for experience and enjoyment, not for money."