Finding Work

Use Your Skills

If you have a trade or professional qualification, make sure you take certified copies of your certificates with you, an up to date CV and contact details for some referees. Plan ahead and make sure you can meet the requirements for interstate registration particularly if you’re a teacher or health professional.

If you are able to settle in a location for a few weeks at a time, you may find temporary work in your area of specialization. Country schools often struggle to find temporary relief teachers. Hospitals are dependent on very expensive agency staff. Accountancy firms have times of high demand. Mechanics are flat out at seeding and harvest times. Engineers and other fabricators generally have a backlog of work with which you may be able to assist.

Hairdressers and cosmeticians may find a welcome in a local nursing home or hospice. They are always worth a try.

Cooks, try the bakeries and hotels. They often struggle to retain skilled staff.

If you have a craft like knitting, painting, wood carving or photography, look out for local markets and car boot sales. If all else fails, ask the council’s permission to set up a temporary stall somewhere on a Friday or Saturday morning.

If you can sing or play a musical instrument, you can also try busking. After all, no one knows you and you have the means to make a quickish getaway!

Casual Work

Fruit picking is an obvious choice and many people follow the seasons. There are other seasonal jobs in farming and someone who can drive a tractor, truck or harvester will often find short term work at seeding or harvest time. At harvest time, there will often be temporary work at the silos as well.

Around the coast, there is a lot of turnover in the fishing and aquaculture industries so if you are physically fit and have good sea legs, check out the tuna farms and the abalone producers for a start. The fish factories are also a good bet and many will allow you to work on the packing line on the weekend on a piece-work basis.

If you have experience in customer service, try the local takeaway shops which often have high turnover and the supermarkets may also have some night work in shelf stacking. Depending how long you are going to be in an area, you may also find some bar and food service work in the local pubs and restaurants.

Market Yourself

One of the great benefits of movements like the Grey Nomads phenomenon is that rural communities can now have access to some skills that are normally non-existent in their part of the world. So consider running workshops and seminars along the way in your area of special interest.

For example, if you are an author, run a seminar for local writers. A stockbroker could run a seminar on investing. If you know something about marketing, run a marketing workshop for the local businesses.

All that it takes is the development of a simple program that you can repeat whenever you feel like it. Develop a folder or Powerpoint presentation of the key messages you want to put across, advertise through the local paper and school newsletter a week or two before you arrive and I guarantee the locals will make you very welcome. You’ll often find that the country pub will even give you a room for your seminar because of the additional trade you’ll be bringing through the door.

I have prepared a basic checklist for running a seminar which you can download here: Checklist for Running a Seminar