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 allow employers to post vacancies to us for free so JAB can contain as many jobs as possible. Then, we go and find more on other websites to share with you.
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 wonderful 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 requiring lots of qualifications and experience. We focus mostly on short and medium term jobs 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 and we post our vacancies and information in both good faith and the certain knowledge not everything will be applicable to everyone. We also post out of state travel type jobs for Americans to find in their own vast country.
More information on using our boards can be found here.
For employers and businesses, we offer both premium and free options to fill job vacancies and find volunteers and participants in gap year programmes.
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.
JAB advertisers have included:
Abercrombie & Kent Africa & Asia Venture African Conservation Experience Agriventure Alliances Abroad American Council for International Studies American Work Experience Anglo Hellenic Teacher Recruitment Association for International Practical Training Athenian Domestic Agency Au Pair in America Au Pairs Recruitment Azafady Bear Creek Outdoor Centre Bloomsbury Bureau British Educational Schools, Sudan British Trust for Conservation Volunteers BSES Expeditions BUNAC Busabout Canada Cambridge Camp Counselors USA Camp Walden C & N Recruitment Canvas Holidays Carisma Holidays Challenges Worldwide Chandler Macleod Health Choice Hotels Europe Concordia Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland Coral Cay Conservation Cross Cultural Solutions Crusaid Crystal Holidays Cuba Solidarity Campaign Cultural Destination Nepal Dicks Tea Bar Dongya University Earthwatch EcoVolunteer EF English First Equity Travel Eurocamp Eurogroup Europe Conservation Italia Experiment in International Living Explore Worldwide Family Concept Family Match Finca Roots First Choice Ski Free Radicals French Au Pairs French Life Holidays Frontier Fruitful Ltd Gap Adventures Gap Sports Abroad Glacier National Park Global Action Nepal Global Vision International Greenforce Habitat for Humanity Holiday Inn Hotel Jobs Scotland Hotel Ivory Plaza Hotel Valera Beach IAESTE UK Imaginative Traveller Impact Youth Services Inlingua Quito Interlocken International Voluntary Service Inter Sejours International Student Exchange Center i-to-i JD Wetherspoons JMC Holidays Jobs in the Alps Jolly Italian Au Pair Agency Jubilee Sailing Trust Keycamp Kibbutz Representatives Kids Etc Kingsbrook USA Kings Sports Camps Lotus Supertravel Madventurers Monkey Sanctuary Mountain Highs Nanny Connection Natives.co.uk Naxos Camping No Limits Watersports North Strand Beach Services Olympic Holidays On the Piste Orangutan Foundation Origin Care Outback Staff Oxford Ski Company Peace Brigades International Peace Corps PGL Young Adventure Philoxenia Hotel Picasso Mexican Restaurant Planet Au Pair Powder Byrne Project Trust Pro World Purple Ski Quay Appointments Quest Overseas Raleigh International Resident Entertainers Savoy Holidays Score Europe Ski Beat Ski Staff Ski Total Skiworld Simply Morzine Snowlife Snowseekers Solihull Au Pair Agency South American Explorers Student Partnerships Worldwide Sudan Volunteer Programme Sunsail Sunseed Desert Technology Swiss Travel Service Teaching & Projects Abroad Thomas Cook TotalNannies.com Travellers Worldwide Travel Recruit Trees for Life Trekforce UNA Exchange US-China Education Exchange Venetian Museum Venue Holidays Village Camps Visions in Action Visitoz Scheme VOOVS VSO Wind, Sand & Stars Worcestershire Lifestyles WWOOF YSE 3D Education and Adventure
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.