Imagine getting paid $150,000 to live in a luxury villa on an Australian tropical island.This was not a scam or reality TV show, but a once in a life time opportunity won in 2009 by Ben Southall, a charity fundraiser from Petersfield.Southall beat 34,000 other applicants to secure this position, which involved sampling tourism attractions around the Great Barrier Reef and uploading his findings onto a blog. Sounds like the best job in the world, right?
Wrong.As Southall found, every job has its flaws.Speaking to the BBC, Southall remembers 'At the time I saw the advert I thought it would be like living on a desert island like Tom Hanks in Castaway'.The reality was considerably different to this.According to Southall the job should not be called 'best job in the world' but 'busiest job in the world'.There was more to the job than chilling on the beach with a bit of surfing now and again, Southall having to work long hours and face hurdles such as a potentially lethal venomous sting by an Irukandji jellyfish.When looking for a graduate job, it is important to retain perspective.One in three graduates are now employed in a lower skilled job, compared to one in four in 2001.This does not mean you blindly leap at any opportunity for employment: it is important that you do something you believe you can build upon in the future.However, everyone must start somewhere, so do not go into your first job with unrealistic expectations.Once you land your first graduate job, it can be easy to become disheartened with one's work when faced with the horrors that the morning commute can bring, the wrath of a stroppy boss or the pressure of targets.However, as Southall has proven, there is no such thing as the perfect job.Motivation and elbow grease are key when faced with the obstacles of a working life.Whether you set yourself short term goals, such as a holiday, or long term goals like a big promotion, one needs to remain engaged with the bigger picture in order to overcome the little hurdles of everyday working life.Southall has reaped many rewards from his hard work;he impressed his employers and landed himself a permanent job working as a 'tourism ambassador' and completed a six-part National Geographic series and children's Australian show Totally Wild.So next time your morning commute consists of a tube journey sandwiched between a man smelling of last night's KFC and a child with operatic lungs, or that promotion does not quite work out the way you anticipated it, at least you can find solace in the fact that in your job there is no risk of death from a lethal jelly fish sting.
Mona, GRB Journalist
