Three Irish candidates have been shortlisted for the “best jobs in the world” after fighting off more than half a million entries from 200 countries.
More than 300,000 people applied for the six jobs in Australia which involve working with kangaroos, tasting wine and attending VIP parties, with Irishmen Allan Dixon, Richard Cullen and Heber Hanley all making the shortlist.
The jobs were announced by Tourism Australia earlier this year as part of a Aus$4 million youth tourism campaign.
Tourism officials had the mammoth task of watching more than 45,000 videos this month and paring down the applications to 25 finalists in each of the six job categories - outback adventurer, taste master, lifestyle photographer, “chief funster”, park ranger and wildlife caretaker.
Diverse entries
Entries have proved extremely diverse and creative, including one taste master applicant singing for his supper, a spoof 007 assignment for the park ranger role and a candidate for the chief funster delivering his entire application in rap.
The winning applicants will have a six-month salary worth $100,000 (€79,000), including living costs.
Richard and Heber both made it to the final 25 in the lifestyle photographer category, which will be based in Melbourne.
Allan, who works as a film producer for Web Summit, has made it to the final 25 for the dream outback adventurer job which involves getting paid $100,000 to go on an adventure in Australia’s North West Territory for six months.
“I was quite overwhelmed at reaching the top 25 as I only began editing the video two days before the closing date, finishing it just before the deadline,” he said.
This isn’t the first time the 26-year-old has hit the news. Last year, the DCU graduate sent a blow-up doll to American billionaire Alki David and then blagged his way into the Saint Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin, garnering the attention of Mr David’s company FilmOn. Mr David invited Allan to meet him in Los Angeles as a result of the stunts.
Difficult task
Tourism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy said it had been an extremely difficult task to sift through tens of thousands of videos to select the best 150.
“It’s already proving one of the hardest jobs in the world judging our best jobs in the world competition,” he said.
The jobs were created following the success of a 2009 initiative by authorities in Queensland seeking an “island caretaker” on the world-famous Great Barrier Reef. The post widely referred to as “the Best Job in the World” attracted 35,000 and was on by Briton Ben Southall.