Remember the World's Best Job posts that were making the rounds on all the blogs and newspapers a few months back? The "job" required the new employee to relocate to Australia, where he or she would become a caretaker on an island in the Great Barrier Reef. Duties included blogging about the island on a weekly basis, capturing video and photos, and generally being an ambassador for the Queensland region. In return, the person hired would be paid $100,000 USD for six months of "work" living on the island, which, as you can tell from the photo, looks pretty awful.
At the time it was announced, the "World's Best Job" also became the "World's Most Sought After Job", with hundreds of thousands of people hitting the website and 35,000 actually applying online. In fact, it was so crazy at one point, that the website severs crashed. The applicants were sifted through, and many made it to the next round, which required a video explaining why they would be prefect for the job, which led to further cut-downs to the final 25, who were all young, and suspiciously looked like models.
Dashing the hopes of thousands, it was announced today that Ben Southall has been hired to fill the position. The 34 year old Southall is from the U.K., is well traveled, and eager to get down to the... uh... work. Congrats Ben. You do know that a rather sizable portion of the world's population doesn't like you much right about now, right?
In related news, the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper is reporting that the entire search process has been a huge PR success for Australia and Queensland, leading to millions of dollars in free publicity. Some are going so far as to call it one of the best PR stunts of all time.
Seems like it has worked out pretty well for all involved. I didn't bother to apply however. As nice as that tropical island looks, I'm holding out to be the official blogger of the South Pole or maybe K2 or something. :)
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