Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Paradise Island Caretaker
Paradise Island Caretaker
Ben Southall, 34, of Petersfield, beat out nearly 35,000 applicants from around the
world for the dream assignment to swim, explore and relax on Hamilton Island in the
Great Barrier Reef, while writing a blog to promote the area. He was selected for the
$111,000 gig - a six-month contract to serve as caretaker of a tropical Australian island.
He now has to live rent-free in a three-bedroom villa, complete with pool.
Before getting the job he had to spend four days on the island for an extended interview
process, which required applicants to snorkel through crystalline waters, gorge
themselves at a beachside barbecue and relax at a spa. He also had to demonstrate his
blogging abilities, take swimming tests and sit through in-person interviews.
Surely the envy of any desk-bound office worker, Tommy Lynch has travelled over
27,000 miles this year for his job, testing holiday resort waterslides. Mr Lynch, 29, works
for holiday giant First Choice, checking the height, speed, water quantity and landing of
the flumes, as well as all safety aspects. In 2008 Mr Lynch tested waterslides at holiday
villages in Lanzarote, Majorca, Egypt, Turkey, Costa Del Sol, Cyprus, Algarve,
Dominican Republic and Mexico. This year he will quality control First Choice's new
splash resorts in Greece, Turkey, Florida, Jamaica and Ibiza.
Liverpool-born Mr Lynch, whose job title is lifestyle product development manager, was
recruited to identify the very best pools to be featured in First Choice's new Splash
Resort collection. He also ensures potential new resorts are up to the company's
standard.
Candy taster
Another one of the world's best job has gone to schoolboy Harry Willsher, 12, chief
taster in a sweet factory. Harry's job is to test top secret recipes. He got the job after
winning a contest at Swizzell's Matlow to find a recruit. According to him, after his first
tour at his new job, he felt like having stepped into the book Charlie And The Chocolate
Factory. He wowed judges by describing the flavor and smell of his favourite sweet, the
Drumstick lolly. The Derby firm, which also makes Love Hearts, Rainbow Drops and
Parma Violets, has now given the youngster chief taster overalls and business cards.
As well as sampling the sweets, he will also monitor their development at the company's
factory in New Mills, Derbyshire. I don't know if it's the best job, but it's definitely the
sweetest.
Bike rider-photographer for Google
Maps
Google (GOOG) has hired two lucky young men to ride around France on dopey looking
tricycles snapping up photos of historical sites that are inaccessible by car. This three-
wheeler is a sight with its long pole holding nine cameras, a GPS, a computer and a
generator. But the contraption tooling around the French capital needs all that gear to
do its job – adding three-dimensional images to Google's Street View Maps.
The riders, wearing Google tee-shirts and white helmets, are visiting well-known sites
such as the Chateau de Versailles, west of Paris, the Jardin du Luxembourg on the
city's Left Bank or Les Halles, in the busy centre of the French capital.