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business newsBest Job in the World Now Filled
Duties include swimming, lounging, messing around, blogging.
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British man Ben Southall, 34, a charity worker and action seeker from Petersfield, got this job on Wednesday. Nearly 35,000 applicants from around the world applied for the 6-month stint, in which the recipient would swim, explore and relax on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrief Reef, while writing a weekly blog to promote the area as a tourist destination. That’s right - a weekly blog.
Even in this economy, I’d do that job for free, but Southall will earn 150,000 Australian dollars ($111,000) from the tourism department of Queensland state. Southall didn't gloat after receiving the best job in the world, as I might have, but he seemed humbled and tentative.
“I hope I can sell the reef as much as everybody is expecting,” he told Reuters after he was crowned the winner at a ceremony on Hamilton Island. “My swimming, hopefully, is up to standard.”
Announced in January, the job became a made-for-social-networking hit. News of the officially labeled “best job in the world” spread on YouTube (GOOG) and Facebook, and people flocked to the job like bathers fleeing a great white shark in the Great Barrier Reef.
People shared the posting, and demand reached a fever pitch. First, the job’s website crashed, due to a tsunami of visitors. Within the first 48 hours, the tourism group received 7,500 online applications, before ultimately reaching almost 35,000. Each person had to submit a 60-second video.
Later, though, scandal arose. One finalist was ousted after it was revealed that she had connections to the adult entertainment industry. Also, a faux Osama bin Laden posted a video of himself on YouTube offering his qualifications for the job. (At this time of year, who wouldn’t want to get out of Tora Bora?)
The final round of interviews was demanding: Southall and 15 others spent 4 days on the island for an extended process, which required applicants to snorkel, stuff themselves at a beachside barbecue and relax at a spa. They also had to demonstrate their blogging abilities, take swimming tests and sit down for interviews.
Southall once worked as a tour guide in Africa, but most recently has worked as a charity fund-raiser. His application video featured photographs of him riding an ostrich, running a marathon, scuba diving and kissing a giraffe. At most jobs, this information would turn employers away.
Like most bloggers, Southall will work from home: a spacious, three-bedroom oceanfront villa with a private pool, called Blue Pearl. Work begins on July 1.
For the other 35,000 people, it’s back to the drawing board. What's the second best job in the world?
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