This Phase is Over...On to the Next

So, it's official. I am not in the Top 50 Candidates for The Best Job in the World. I knew this a few days ago when I did not receive the email asking me to complete the online testing, but today the Top 50 were announced. You can see all of their videos HERE and vote for the candidate you like best.

There has been a lot of banter on the NING site about who would make the Top 50 and I have been shocked at some of the animosity that has come out. People were able to deduce, via NING silence and Twitter updates, who had received the email about testing. Everyone seemed very happy and supportive of the NING members who they thought may be a potential candidate, but they certainly lost no time turning on Tourism Queensland. There have been threats of class action law suits, anger that they seemed to be favouring candidates with media and journalistic experience, and outrage that all of the "potentials" were young and very attractive.

Although I have not had the chance to view all of the videos yet, I have seen some of them on the NING site. And, although I am not one who is choosing anger over this situation, (let's be honest when 34 000 people apply for a job your shots are always pretty slim), I believe that the people discussing the top 50 in the forums have a valid point. Tourism Queensland was slightly misleading on a number of fronts:

• Did they want someone who is funny and can make them laugh or did they want someone with a well rounded knowledge of the Great Barrier Reef? None of the videos that I have watched on the short list have made me laugh, and none show a great understanding of the Great Barrier Reef, (unless listing facts you read on Wikipedia counts as a great understanding). Tourism Queensland seemed to put a very large emphasis on being charming and funny for most of the competition, then at the end they started focusing on the knowledge of the Great Barrier Reef. However none of the videos I have seen have either of those qualities.
• There were many qualifications listed as necessary to land the job. Being able to swim, being able to clean the pool, speaking fluent English and, here's the tricky one, "one years relevant experience". What does that mean? One year cleaning pools? One year blogging? One year....one year doing what? There were many people who have more than one year doing exactly what Tourism Queensland is looking for the Island Caretaker to do, had better videos than some in the Top 50, and they did not even receive an invitation to do the online testing let alone be short listed.
• Tourism Queensland has said many times that they are looking to fill an "actual job". Are they? There has been speculation that they are holding a beauty pageant. Look at the Top 50. What do you think?

I hope that I'm not sounding bitter or upset. I'm not. These things happen and now it's time to move on to other things. I am looking forward to watching this next phase of the competition to see who ends up in the Top 10. And I'm looking forward to doing new things myself. Joanne asked me if I would keep up the blog. My answer is yes. Last we spoke we were in South East Asia. I have many more stories to tell and tell them I will. Stay tuned. And let me know what you think about the rest of the Island Caretaker competition. I would love to hear what you think.