Creating The Best Job in the World Yourself

Tom Reissmann, travel videographer and applicant for the best job in the world, writes about psychometric testing for the position of Island Caretaker and how to create "The Best Job in the World" yourself. End Quote

I remembered a comment a friend of mine had made on my Facebook page: has it ever occurred to you that you may already HAVE the best job in the world?

(1888PressRelease) March 04, 2009 - When I received an email from Tourism Queensland on Thursday, saying that out of 34,864 applicants my video had caught their attention and that I am a potential short-listed applicant, I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest. I believed that it was meant to be, after all I had been working as a travel videographer promoting Tourism to Australia for 3 years and I had written a couple of travel books.

All that stood between me and the top 50 was a psychometric test, consisting of conceptual reasoning and a personality assessment. I Googled conceptual reasoning, realized it’s the same as abstract reasoning and did a couple of practice tests, which involved geometric shapes and finding patterns and differences. I also read up on personality tests and thought I was pretty well prepared.

The warning at the beginning of the conceptual reasoning test was that it’s virtually impossible to complete it in the allotted time of 10 minutes, so I wasn’t too worried when I managed only 41 out of 50 questions. I also wasn’t too worried about the personality test, according to my research the task is to NOT make yourself out to be a saint and to be positive and extroverted. Most of the questions covered the basics: do I have any health issues, do I take drugs, abuse alcohol and take advantage of the opposite sex? They basically wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to embarrass Tourism Queensland with inappropriate behaviour. But there were also a surprising number of questions related to respect for authority: would I be a discipline problem for those in charge; would I mind taking orders or dislike the interference of others?

I had thought about this before, but it really dawned on me now that this job was not going to be about my creativity or what I wanted to say or do, it was going to be very much about being the spokesperson of Tourism Queensland, in other words taking orders and allowing the marketing department to edit both my videos and blogs. As much as I wanted this job, a part of me knew that the reason I had gone free-lance 3 years ago was that I did not want to work for other people; take their orders and do what I’m told all the time. I had wanted to create my own best job in the world and be independent. When I took the test I decided to be honest about this, this was me after all.

Needless to say I was not selected for the top 50 and when I got the news I was pretty devastated. I decided I was going to have a full-body massage at the local Chinese Center and remembered a comment a friend of mine had made on my Facebook page: has it ever occurred to you that you may already HAVE the best job in the world?

It had occurred to me because I love my job and the freedom that comes with traveling around Australia and creating promotional videos for tourism companies. The only drawback is that I do not earn $150.000 in 6 months. But then why did I choose the job in the first place? Because that’s what I love to do and not because I love the money.

I love working for different clients all the time; I love the creative freedom that comes from filming, editing and producing promotional videos and I love the fact that I get to travel all over Australia, including the outback.

I have helped people to become freelance videographers for about 12 months now, and anyone interested in this path please visit www.filmingholidays.com .

Thomas Reissmann
tom ( @ ) filmingholidays dot com
0432 899 247

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