HELLO
And a belated Happy New Year to you. We hope that this is the year you're going to change your life, and that we'll be the people to help you do it!
We've got lots of help for you today, including free/cheap tickets to travel shows, useful news and as usual, lots of lovely inspirational stuff. Enjoy!
EVENTS - FREE OR DISCOUNTED TICKETS
Adventure Travel Show - exclusive discount!
Olympia, London, 28th & 29th January
You can get in for £6 instead of the usual £10, a lovely 40% off! Click here for details.
Destinations Holiday and Travel Show - free tickets!
Earl's Court, London, 2 - 5 February
We've got five free pairs of tickets up for grabs, courtesy of our friends at Kaya Responsible Travel. Entry is super simple - you just wing us an email with your address in it! (No spam ever of course, cos it's us).
Click here for details and to enter
SOCIAL MEDIA - DO US A CHEESEY QUAVER
This month, instead of telling you where to find us on social media, we're asking you for a favour instead. If you have a fab story, a useful link, or details of a competion or offer our readers might like, please drop us a line so we can tell the world! Reply to this email (it goes to a real person) if you've got anything to share. Thanks!
WHAT EVERYONE ELSE IS UP TO
Projects Abroad have a new guide to fundraising - it's geared mainly towards gappers but career breakers should find something useful too.
i-to-i have also got a free fundraising guide. We picked up a paper copy at the Year Out Expo (hello if you saw us there) but you can download yours here - and get an entry into a competition to boot! The prize is a trip to Costa Rica. Nice.
Still on the subject of saving money, Savvy Woman wrote a useful guide on how to save money using social media.
PHOTO CORNER - YOUR MONTHLY DOSE OF INSPIRATION
95 awesome pictures of awesome places around the world
We were sent a new picture for our funny signs page - click here to see it (it's the top one).
ON THE BLOG
How to turn an 88% chance of failure into a 70% chance of success.
We asked people on Twitter for photography tips. What they said was so useful, we put it in a blog post - Photography tips we nicked off Twitter.
Off-season travel - what's good, what's bad, and what might be crucial to you having a good career break.
When you read this, do you imagine us as suave, sophisticated jet-setters, or as a bunch of rambling, scruffy backpackers? We let you in on our secrets here: 6 things you didn't know about travel experts (hint: it's closer to the second one).
If you're planning a career break, this is the single most important question to ask yourself.
Are you interesting? Do you want to share your story on our blog? We're always looking for guest posts, so email info@thecareerbreaksite.com.
QUESTION OF THE MONTH
Question: Hi. I just wanted to find out, can you claim state benefits ie income support, tax credit etc while on a career break?
Our answer: It depends what you're doing, where you are, and your personal circumstances. Ask the benefits office, they know way more than us about that kind of stuff.
Do you want to ask us something? info@thecareerbreaksite.com (ALWAYS confidential) or find us on Twitter or Facebook.
CAREER BREAK, TRAVEL AND WORK NEWS ROUND-UP
Horrible stuff going on in Nigeria right now, we really feel for the victims of the terrorist attacks. Unsurprisingly, the Foreign Office has updated its advice, recommending limited or no travel to certain parts of the country. Click here for its Nigeria guide. Remember, if the FCO tells you not to go somewhere and you do anyway, your insurance probably won't cover you.
We found a shocking statistic - 70% of recruiters rejected applicants because of information they found online. It was an American survey, but the article said the rate in the UK was only slightly lower. Time to take that picture of you, the kangaroo and the beer bong off Facebook.
Gong Hay Fat Choy! If you're lucky enough to be in China now (or in the next week or so) here's a round-up of New Year festivities.
If you like sport and women, and hate human trafficking, here's a story for you. The all-female Row for Freedom team have just finished their row across the Atlantic (blimey), breaking some world records and raising money for an important cause too.
In South Africa, rangers are taking the desperate step of cutting horns off rhinos to protect them from poachers. You can read the story here [WARNING: one of the pictures is a bit gross].
The ski news update from the Independent has snow reports and legal requirements (new laws about wearing helmets).
And finally, a species of monkey thought to be extinct... turns out not to be extinct after all. They're called Miller's grizzled langurs and live in Borneo.
JOKE
Give a man a job and you have an employee.
Teach a man how to shift blame and you have a manager.
FINALLY
We've all got a mate who complains about how much they hate their job. Do them a favour and forward this newsletter to them. You could be the person who changes their whole life! (And shuts them up to boot).
The Career Break Site
xxx