HELLO
There's way too much in today's newsletter for a long-winded introduction, so we'll let you get stuck in straight away!
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT - REVIEWERS NEEDED
We need you! We're revamping the site and we need people to give us honest feedback. If you'd like to apply to be one of the core team of site reviewers, please email info@thecareerbreaksite.com - you don't need any special experience but a brief summary of your background would be useful. Thanks!
FREE STUFF AND OFFERS
**EXCLUSIVE*** Our friends at HouseSit Match have produced a guide to housesitting - which can save you up to £35,000 a year! What's more, they're letting you, as a lovely reader of The Career Break Site newsletter, have it absolutely free! This is an exclusive, limited time offer, so don't hang about! Click here to get your free guide now.
Free eye test from Tesco (it's a good idea to get your eyes tested before you go travelling)
Free Kindle books from Amazon - we have featured free Kindle books before but they change all the time, so have another look!
Free app to find backpackers with similar interests - no more feigning interest in someone's "band".
Free condoms - vital when you're travelling if you want to enjoy some super happy fun time (especially if you're in a country with high HIV or hepatitus rates).
Free day of translation - Chinese, Japanese and English via the Tripper app.
Full disclosure - no-one pays to be included in our free stuff round-up.
NEW AND UPDATED CAREER BREAKS
Here are all our new and updated career breaks - yes, we really do have new stuff every month!
PHOTO CORNER - YOUR MONTHLY DOSE OF INSPIRATION
Travel and Leisure's most pinned photos on Pinterest - these are stunning but they're in an annoying gallery format. If you just want the highlights on one page (better if you're on a mobile), click here for the Huffington Post round-up.
VIDEO CORNER
This is a bit bonkers - Ivory Coast cocoa farmers never get to taste the fruits of their labours. Until now! This video shows the farmers tasting chocolate for the very first time.
ON THE BLOG
How to work while you travel and have a 'portable career'. This is a text recap of a webinar we recently did with some other industry peeps, and we answered questions as they came in. Quite a lot of useful info if you want to earn while you're on your career break!
An insider's look at conservation volunteering - this is an interview with a manager at Projects Abroad (one of our approved partners). A fascinating insight into what life is really like on a volunteer project from someone who's worked on them.
Fun post of the month is games to play in airports. We guarantee you'll never be bored in an airport again! (Not actually guaranteed, we're writers, not miracle workers).
In a response to a news story about two of the big companies finally dropping cruel elephant trekking, we ask "What took them so long?". This post also has related reading on the subject.
Finally, we nicked a useful infographic from Career Savvy on what NOT to put on your CV which has some super-useful tips.
All these, and the rest of our blog posts, can be found here: http://www.thecareerbreaksite.com/blog.
ELSEWHERE ON THE INTERWEB
We were featured in this excellent round-up of career break resources, which also has to other sites which we also rate very highly. This same site is offering a new career break travel course and you can get a highly discounted rate if you're one of the beta participants. The course is being launched in full in January and we will have an exclusive discount for you, our lovely readers!
How to take a career break without ruining your career is a guest post by us on job site Social Hire, which covers all your career break and sabbatical options and helps you use the experience to get a promotion or better job.
Finally, CareerBuilder quoted us in their blog post Why quitting my job was the best decision I ever made. The piece includes 3 real life stories from people who've done it, so we hope that inspires you if you've yet to make the break!
TIP OF THE MONTH
Soggy shoes? Put a handful of dry rice into a couple of socks, twist them so it doesn't fall out and stuff them in your squelchy footwear. It'll dry them out quicker!
If you have a tip for us, email info@thecareerbreaksite.com - we will credit you unless you want to stay anonymous.
USEFUL THING OF THE MONTH
If you haven't got much time to read, Short will find... well, short stuff for you to read.
If you're worried about your online accounts being breached (a real risk for travellers) check this: https://haveibeenpwned.com/. We did and were surprised to find a major company who we've paid lots of money to can't keep our data secure (we keep yours secure!)
FUN THING
What stupid quiz are you? Fun little game we made when we got sick of seeing them in our Facebook newsfeeds. (Yes, it was featured last month as well, but it's got a cute kitten on it!)
JOKE
I reminded my boss that he said he'd give me a pay rise if he was happy with me.
He replied, "That's true, but how can I be happy with someone who wants more money?"
FINALLY
We bet there's one thing in this newsletter that made you think of someone - a friend, colleague, relative or whoever. Go ahead and forward this newsletter to them. Research has shown time and time again that if you do something nice for someone else, you'll feel happier! And don't you deserve that?
Until next time, enjoy what's left of the summer and we'll see you in September.
Love,
The Career Break Site xxx
www.thecareerbreaksite.com
PS - if this newsletter was forwarded to you by your most attractive and considerate aquaintance, and you'd like to get these direct in future, you can sign up here. We never use your email address for anything else.