HELLO
Well, what a busy month that was! If you're one of our lovely Twitter followers or an equally lovely Facebook friend, you will know that we've been working hard on our book (probably because we never shut up about it). If you want to be IN it (yes really, we're featuring lots of real people like you), just reply to this email and we'll see what we can do.
We've found time to put together this monthly newsletter as well, of course, because some of you are kind enough to tell us how much you enjoy reading it (that or complaining about the joke). It's an extra-useful one this month, with tons of free stuff (including free fairs helping you get hired at a summer camp next year), "how to" posts on the blog, and our usual advice and tips. Plus the rather irregular "useful thing of the month" is back and we've got some lovely inspirational stories and pictures as well.
So if you need a break from work, life, Christmas or just the weather, stick your headphones on, grab a hot drink and spend the next 15 minutes reading this. You'll be glad you did, we promise.
SPONSORED: BUNAC SUMMER CAMP FAIRS
Want to work in the USA next summer? BUNAC are hosting Summer Camp Fairs in January to help you get there! Not only can you get hired at an amazing summer camp in the USA, but you can also go to their FREE CV writing workshops and improve your employability!
Dublin - Friday 18 January
The Alex, 41-47 Fenian St, Dublin, D02 H678, Ireland
London - Sunday 20 January 2019
Pullman London St Pancras Hotel, 100-110 Euston Rd, Kings Cross, NW1 2AJ
Glasgow - Tuesday 22 January 2019
Hilton Glasgow, 1 William St, G3 8HT
Not only are BUNAC the cheapest, flights-included programme in the UK, but also have a 100% placement guarantee or your money back! Sounds good, right?
Click here for more information and to book your FREE place!
FREE STUFF, DISCOUNTS AND COMPETITIONS
Genfriends is a travel app for millennials, which sounds terrible but is really highly rated. Available on iOS and Android.
Free mobile guides to over 200 cities on your phone, from Lonely Planet. Dunno why we haven't featured this before!
Ryanair are offering lots of deals for "cyber week" and they include car hire and hotels so you don't even have to go on one of their awful flights.
Free travel planner for visiting the USA - it's an old-school paper one too!
Free guides to Ireland - you can download them or, like the American one above, have them posted to you. What's with all the paper stuff?!
Free gluten-free restaurant cards in 63 languages - print off and show to your waiter or waitress to make sure they don't fill your food with flour. Note: these are for coeliacs (who have been diagnosed with a gluten intolerance), not those on a bandwagon.
Free printable PDF calendar - stuff like this is great for planning your career break!
Free Coke - the drink, not the drug. You need a Google Assistant or Alexa to get this.
NEW ON THE SITE - USA AND CANADA SECTION
We're carrying on showcasing all the lovely places you can go on a career break in our Destinations section. This month, we're all about the USA and Canada. Working there is easier than you might think, and the USA is the only place you can get more than one working holiday visa (they call it something else but it's essentially the same thing). Canada not only has a working holiday scheme but also lots of lovely ski and snowboard courses, taking you from beginner to instructor in a single season!
All our vetted and approved organisations who work in the USA and Canada can be found here.
ON THE BLOG
Oooh, but it's been a busy month on the blog, with inspiration and guest posts coming from all over the place!
First up, we have a response to a question a lot of you worry about, which is how to justify the cost of your career break. It's packed full of different ways you can justify - or even offset - the expense of a sabbatical, and will help you explain it to your mum.
Our second "how to" post of the month is called How to make yourself indispensable at work - and like our first post, was written in response to a worry a lot of you come to us with: "I want to take a career break but what if no-one misses me?!" This post has tons of tips to make sure your workplace can barely function without you, with psychological tricks and practical advice. They'll be begging you to come back!
Oh man, we love this month's guest post. One of the most extraordinary stories we've ever featured, it's how career break enthusiast and world traveller Pete Martin chose to travel across the Pacific, not by plane like a normal person, but on a container ship! It's a fascinating insight into the world of commercial shipping, and a compelling tale of a man travelling more or less by himself, but never getting lonely. Read Pete's story here.
Finally, we've all seen the Iceland ad about orangutans, even though it was banned from the telly. If you want to stay at home avoiding palm oil, good for you, but if the ad has inspired you to do more, why not go and work abroad with the orangutans? This post rounds up the best volunteer placements where you can work with orangutans - from 2 weeks to 6 months. Obviously, like all the other volunteer projects we feature, we checked these out before sharing them with you.
We're always looking for real career breakers, travellers, industry experts and bloggers to share their stories on our blog. If you want to be famous and featured, drop us an email. We accept anonymous submissions too.
PHOTO CORNER - YOUR MONTHLY DOSE OF INSPIRATION
Oooh, it's time for the Siena International Photo Awards - the winners have been announced and they're amazing! Warning: some of them depict the aftermath of violence.
USEFUL THING OF THE MONTH - IT'S BACK!
We have World First Travel Insurance to thank for tweeting us this article. It's about travel insurance and depression and - crucially - what's going to add costs to your premium, and what won't affect it. Really useful stuff if you want to go travelling but are mental, because as we've shown, travel can actually help improve mental health conditions for some people!
https://blog.world-first.co.uk/7883/the-facts-about-travel-insurance-and-depression
TIP OF THE MONTH
Don't use Skype (or your VOIP app of choice) to phone a landline from abroad, because you have to pay for it and it may well not be the cheapest way of making a call. Use WhatsApp, or if you don't have free or cheap wifi, an international calling card or SIM will usually give you the best rates.
If you have a tip for us, email us or tweet us.
MESSAGE OF THE MONTH
"I would really like to apply for a job overseas please. We traveled a lot and also worked, if i can maybe do something in hospitality that will be great or even education or something. I have attached my CV if you would like to have a look at it."
There was more to this message but we stripped it out for privacy reasons.
We're always glad to hear from you but we don't organise placements ourselves - if you want to work abroad you'll need to go through one of our partner organisations and they can all be found here. Having said that, if you'd like a job with us, we are currently recruiting. Have a look at our Work for us page and if you think you'd be a good fit, get in touch!
If you've got a question, feedback or just want to share your story, get in touch! We never reveal your name (unless you want us to!)
JOKE
Just spent £300 on a limousine and discovered that the fee doesn’t include a driver.
Can’t believe I’ve spent all that money and I have nothing to chauffeur it
From this Twitter joke account (warning: quite sweary and not always clean)
FINALLY
The book - did we mention the book? If you are from a gap year company (or any travel-related company in fact) and want to be listed in our directory, please fill in this form. Chances are we already know who you are but that will just give us a bit of extra info.
If you're not "industry" but you'd like to be involved - as an expert, a case study, or just someone who wants to share their story or advice, please email us and tell us what you'd like to share. We could make you famous! (If you don't want to be famous, please note that we do accept anonymous submissions too).
Until next time,
Love,
The Career Break Site
xxx
PS - we'll be back a bit earlier next month with our pre-Christmas round-up. So look out for us!