Dream Jobs Abroad: How to Make Them a Reality

Whether you’re 18 or 80, many of us have dreamt of switching the daily 9-5 for an exotic job abroad. The internet abounds with tales of intrepid entrepreneurs who somehow make a living out of sunbathing.

Unfortunately, openings for luxury-hotel-reviewers, tropical-island-testers, and professional-Instagrammers are few and far between. Fortunately, there are ways to inject a little of the dream-job-abroad quality into your career break reality.

Time to grab your passport.

1. The dream: Island caretaker

Somewhere in the Great Barrier Reef is an Australian island that needs a little TLC. The local government will pay $150,000 to persuade someone to live rent-free on this island paradise. Job requirements: being able to swim and enjoying snorkeling and diving.

The reality: Tour guide

Want to spend your days enjoying cool activities in a beautiful part of the world and get paid for doing so? Become a tour guide. You’ll need to be well-organized, have excellent communication and people skills. Having additional language under your belt is an added benefit that would likely help.

2. The dream: Drink it intern

While most interns fetch coffee and file paperwork, those lucky few selected by the World of Beer travel around the world sampling different lagers, attending beer festivals and generally having a jolly good time. They get paid ($12,000 for four months) and have all their travel expenses, accommodation and beer covered.

The reality: Bartender

Just about everywhere in the world needs bartenders, so if you’re planning on traveling from country-to-country, it’s a great way to fund your trip – particularly if you stop off in countries which routinely tip their bar staff! It’s a great way to meet other travelers and local people and there’s sure to be plenty of beer tasting off-the-clock too! 

3. The dream: Wildlife cuddler

Here’s one for the animal lovers. The aptly named Kangaroo Island, also in Australia, requires employees whose tasks are essentially to swim with the local dolphins and sea lions, snorkel with whale sharks, cuddle the koalas, pat the kangaroos and generally explore the island via bicycle and kayak. The only ‘work’ requirement is that you share your experiences for a tourism marketing campaign.

The reality: Research assistant

Luckily, working with incredible animals is a viable career choice. There are several avenues you could take, but a good one for those with a science background is as a research assistant. You and your team are responsible for measuring, monitoring and observing the local wildlife in far-flung locations, collecting samples and analyzing data. It might be more work and less play, but by playing an important part in ecological conservation, your job satisfaction levels will skyrocket.

4. The dream: Luxury holiday tester

There is a company known as “the Air BnB for millionaires.” They are offering someone a salary of $10,000 a month (plus expenses) to test out their luxury holidays around the world. Not only will this lucky employee experience the best of the best, staying in multi-million-dollar holiday homes in 12 locations, they’re also allowed to bring a friend along to share the experience with them.

The reality: Blogger

Being a blogger is a popular career choice, but be warned: it’s often neither easy nor well-paid. However, if you’re passionate about writing and travel, it can offer some great opportunities. Companies will offer either freebies or sometimes payment to bloggers in exchange for a write-up of their hotel, activity, city or other experience.

5. The dream: Water slide tester

First Choice, a holiday provider, found itself in a bit of a pickle. They had a series of top-notch resorts all over the world, complete with top-notch water parks. But they had nobody to test out exactly how top-notch all those water slides were. So they offered up £20,000 to find the perfect water-slide-tester and sent him off on a round-the-world trip that included Greece, Turkey, and Jamaica.

The reality: Entertainment worker

Theme parks, cruises, shows, events. All around the world the entertainment industry needs motivated, talented individuals to dance, sing, juggle, act and entertain its crowds! Just think – with a bit of confidence and charisma, you could be the next Disneyland princess (or prince). Job requirements: smile and wave while riding an awesome glittery carriage in the daily parade.

6. The dream: Chief funster

Basically, the lesson from this article is to move to Australia. This time based in New South Wales, the job description of a Chief Funster is to “have as much fun as possible” (and document it on social media). From learning to surf to schmoozing with Sydney VIPs, the aim of the role is to experience as much cool stuff as this part of the world has to offer.

The reality: Holiday rep

Holiday reps are there to ensure all their customers have the best time possible. You’ll be organizing activities from a night out at Ibiza’s closing parties to après-ski at Val d’Isère. It can be long hours, but if you’re the sort of person who makes friends easily then you can spend a whole summer or winter season feeling like you’re on holiday.

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