About JAB
Instead of saving a small fortune at home to finance your journey why not just pack a bag and go now? Around the world there are numerous ways to fund a trip by picking up work as you go. Instead of putting on a suit or a nametag our readers wear bathing suits to teach windsurfing in Australia, deck shoes to serve drinks on board superyachts, or flippers while surveying coral reefs in the Caribbean.
The Jobs Abroad Bulletin is a monthly+ newsletter for travel minded people looking to pay for their globetrotting as they go. We have been in existence in one form or another since 1992, going online seven years later, and sending the first issue of JAB out into the world as a monthly email bulletin in April 2000, reaching 70,000 readers and 100 issues before we changed to placing the job vacancies in a blog format in 2010. In 2022, we brought the newsletter back.
Over the years we have helped our readers to finance their travels by working as powerboat crew in Greece, bar staff in the Czech Republic, chefs in Austria, camp counsellors in Russia, English teachers in Japan, au pairs in Dubai, holiday reps in Turkey, waiters in Cyprus, chalet girls in Switzerland, dancers in Jordan, nannies in New Zealand, tour leaders in Southeast Asia, hotel entertainers in Egpyt, nurses in Bahrain, call centre staff in Ireland, researchers in Cambodia, snackbar attendants in Portugal, hot-air balloon ground crew in France, classroom assistants in Chile, eco trail leaders in Costa Rica, hostel workers in Panama, ski instructors in Italy, kitchen workers in the USA, tent erectors in Germany, training managers in Oman, and caretakers in Uganda.
Many of these jobs are wonderfully rewarding experiences in themselves. Some just pay the bills. Some are paid, some are not. But what they all have in common is keeping you in Barcelona, Bali or Buenos Aires for longer. Though competition for some of the plum jobs out there can be intense, we don’t deal in highly paid skilled positions needing lots of qualifications and experience. We focus mostly on short and medium term jobs that most of us can do, or learn to do.
While anyone is welcome to use our site, our core readership is British and Irish, EU nationals, Americans, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders. Work and even tourist visa rules mean some nationalities will find it harder to work and travel overseas than others. We post our vacancies and information in both good faith but also the certain knowledge that not everything will apply to everyone.
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JAB media mentions include:
“Having difficulty finding a temporary job abroad or funding a gap year trip? This site has a wide range of links to organisations that can help as well as many resources of its own. ‘Tramp News’ has information and features for budget travellers and ‘The Jobs Abroad Bulletin’, produced as a monthly email, includes vacancies around the world for voluntary work, conservation projects, TEFL and work in ski resorts.” The BBC Webguide – Best of the Web
“Extensive information on working holidays and jobs abroad for gap year students and the not-yet-seriously-employed (who appear to include the site’s authors)” The Good Schools Guide
“Young, opinionated rag offers an alternative view on gap year organizations” Daily Telegraph
“A host of websites promise to provide free on-line recruitment services for travellers. These include the excellent non-commercial free Jobs Abroad Bulletin….” Work Your Way Around the World
“An excellent website with jobs and info for gappers – you can sign up for a regular email jobs bulletin.” The Gap Year Book (Lonely Planet)
“You can teach English in almost any country in the world, often earning decent money and sometimes with free accommodation, paid holiday and even money towards your flights thrown in too. See jobsabroadbulletin.co.uk, …for vacancies in destinations from Brazil to Bulgaria.” The Guardian
“Several commercial websites provide free online recruitment services for travellers. Some are geared to Britons such as the admirable monthly e-bulletin on working abroad, Jobs Abroad Bulletin.” Verge Magazine
More media mentions can be read on our big page o’backslapping.
Nice things said by JAB readers
“On the one hand I have to say Thank You for your bulletin. Unfortunately on the other hand I have to say Aargh! simply because it makes me want to work abroad again and I am now probably too old at the advanced age of 57, almost 58!” Catriona
“Many of our trainees who graduated from our various training programs are aided greatly by the announcements that you regularly make in JAB. They have landed fabulous jobs abroad, thanks to your great publication.” Remedios R. Flestado, Laguna, Philippines
“I adore your newsletter… thanks for all the work you put into it! You’ve created a great resource!” Haley
“Thanks a lot for the effort that goes into the newsletter – it is fab! I spend hrs on the i-net looking for stuff like this and when i get your e-mail it is just the sorts of things I am looking for!” Keilly
“Just a quick note of appreciation. I always enjoy scrolling down in hopes of an adventurous type of work. I am doing it now, getting paid to witness the incredible daily life of the humpback whales, smiling back to the dolphins, freediving in 75′ water and basically loving a happy, healthy life.” Caroline
“We found ourselves teaching English in Greece through your bulletin, thanks a million, we’re having a really cool and rewarding time here teaching kids of all ages.we would have been stuck in Amsterdam on a fast road to nowhere if it wasn’t for your regular updates, we’re so grateful, keep up the good work!” Paul & Karen
“I have just subscribed to the newsletter and would like to pay my compliments to you as I have found it very helpful and also very interesting, thanks for the help!” Alana
“Thank you for all the information you sent me.. please continue to send me such good information on working overseas…” Jemma
That’s quite enough blowing our own trumpet, thank you very much. For balance, here are some reasons why we are simply awful and you should stay away from our website.
The editors
The Jobs Abroad Bulletin is put together by Shane Donovan, who has successfully evaded a real job for many years – though he has worked behind a bar for four hours in Turkey, transported restaurant flyers from Bolivia to Peru, and taken a lion for a walk in Thailand – and Deirdre Higgins, a veteran of the working week in France, Belgium, Peru, Britain and Ireland. We have taken a number of extended trips ourselves, including travelling the world for a year, and have lived in Peru, Greece, Thailand and Turkey. We work on our website as we travel and have helped people find paid and volunteer jobs in Australia, France and China while we have been in, among other places, Bolivia, Lebanon or Malaysia.
Highlights from our travels include standing on a baby in Peru (it was dark and, seriously, why put your baby on the floor by the bus door?), and almost falling off a cliff in Indonesia. We pat every dog we see, even the scabby ones (update: we’ve started to rethink this).
Though we make our living and fund our own travels through our sites, to call us a commercial organisation would be a bit of a stretch. We are simply two backpackers that like to share the stuff we find when researching our own trips.
We are not an employment agency, find it flattering that some people think we have offices in London, Paris and New York and we don’t have any brochures.