The best job in the world

A person riding a horse under a starry sky

Listen to the information about the 'best job in the world' competition and do the exercises to practise and improve your listening skills.

Instructions

Do the preparation exercise before you listen. Then do the other exercises to check your understanding.

Remote audio URL

Transcript

Once again the organisation which promotes Australia, Tourism Australia, is advertising the best job in the world. But this year, they have six jobs going, all for six months, with a great salary and extra spending money. If you think one of these is your dream job, you have to make a 30-second video explaining why you are the best person for the role. But – be warned. Thousands of people will be competing for each post.

The job of 'outback adventurer' is for someone with a passion for outdoor life, and in the Northern Territory there are plenty of wide-open spaces. The job is for someone to find out the best adventures and jobs for young people on working holidays. You’d be getting close to wildlife, sleeping under the stars in a bush camp and flying over stunningly beautiful landscape in a hot air balloon. Your duties will include getting to know about aboriginal culture and eating traditional bushfoods, maybe including the famous witchetty grubs – insect larva.

Like the idea of 200 days of sunshine every year? Job number two is a park ranger in tropical Queensland. It’s a wonderful state with ancient rainforests, the world’s largest sand island and the awesome Great Barrier Reef. Here your duties would include protecting and promoting native plants and animals, spectacular waterfalls, dinosaur fossils, untouched beaches and indigenous culture. You’d get paid to patrol the beaches of Lizard Island and live a life most people can only dream about.

Another island job is as 'wildlife caretaker' on Kangaroo Island in South Australia. If you love all kinds of animals, this is the job for you. The advert says you’ll be able to talk to wallabies (a kind of small kangaroo), play with dolphins, cuddle koalas and sunbathe with seals on the unspoilt beach at Seal Bay. You would get about the island on foot, by bicycle, kayak or boat, taking photos and leaving only footprints. There is one potential drawback, though. You’d need to be pretty brave since you might come face to face with great white sharks.

Maybe you are not quite so keen on the great outdoors and your talents are more journalistic. If you fancy feature writing, photography and making videos, you can apply for the position of lifestyle photojournalist for Time Out in Melbourne. You would be required to photograph and write about the city's coolest cafés and musical events. But you’d also cover tourist activities in the whole state of Victoria, including surfing on the Great Ocean Road, skiing at Mount Hotham or watching the little penguins at Phillip Island.

Are you a foodie? Do you know about food, as well as love eating it? If the answer's yes, you can apply for the role of 'taste master' in Western Australia. Your job would be to promote the best restaurants, pubs, wineries and breweries. You’d also catch fresh seafood off the beautiful coast and learn all about making wine and beer.

Finally, a fantastic job in Sydney. We’ve all seen those amazing firework displays in Sydney Harbour. Well, you could be one of the people making that happen next year. New South Wales is looking for a 'chief funster', who would be based in Sydney while travelling around the state and tweeting about the coolest things going on. This job would appeal to someone interested in everything: sports, the arts, entertainment, food. You’d also be involved in making the Sydney Festival, Mardi Gras and Vivid Festival as spectacular, and as fun, as possible.

Discussion

Which of these jobs would suit you? Why?

Language level
Topics
Average: 3.4 (13 votes)
Personal online tutoring
EnglishScore Tutors is the British Council’s one-to-one tutoring platform for 13- to 17-year-olds.

Comments

Submitted by ashley_odeth on Wed, 02/21/2024 - 17:47

I love animals and I think I would be the best candidate for the position, because we treat amimales and also know how to take care of them, apart from that I like life in the woods. I would like to have some experiences with other types of species and know them more, experience new things, such as the fact of going to live in Australia, I hope loamada to get the job.

Submitted by ARandomTeenager on Wed, 12/13/2023 - 14:27

In the 2nd exercise, why does the outback adventurer finds job for young people? Is it just a mistake or I didn't hear something?

Profile picture for user JoModerator

Submitted by JoModerator on Fri, 12/15/2023 - 08:03

Hi ARandomTeenager,

They say that the job of outback adventurer 'is for someone to find out the best adventures and jobs for young people on working holidays.' I guess that means that this person has to go to different places and find out where other young people could find work or exciting things to do, and I suppose they would then pass on this information on a website or in some other way. I'm not 100% sure, but that's my guess! I hope that helps.

Best wishes,

Jo (LearnEnglish Teens team)

In reply to by ARandomTeenager

Submitted by pomelo on Mon, 04/03/2023 - 15:07

All jobs are interesting, but if I had a chance, I would choose a chief funster

Submitted by Edaa on Wed, 06/08/2022 - 06:15

Everyone should do what they love, all things are good, I will do the same

Submitted by Caner on Wed, 06/01/2022 - 08:36

The best job in the world is the one you feel good about and love

Submitted by Callthenate on Tue, 09/07/2021 - 18:54

I think is very interesting to know the best jobs and now that we have multiple options we can choose betwen a lot of jobs depending of what type of person or what are we interested about.

Submitted by Vuquan on Tue, 08/17/2021 - 08:34

I know more about Australia in this lesson, I like it very much.

Submitted by Lich on Fri, 02/26/2021 - 15:18

Personally, I would like to be wildlife caretaker because, first of all I enjoy watching animals. Secondly, I would like to help wild animals and environment. Finally, I will be able to broaden my knowledge about animal life and the world we live in.
Profile picture for user Kostantinus

Submitted by Kostantinus on Fri, 02/26/2021 - 08:41

Park ranger, wildlife caretaker, outback adventurer, lifestyle journalist will fit me. I like nature, animals and have passion for all kind of edventures. My favourite subject at school is Biology. I like expore the world and I will be great park ranger. I also want to protect the environment. There is a lot of rubbish outside in my motherland Ukraine. If I would have a lot of money, I would buy a recycling factory and pay money to people who bring me the rubbish. In this way I could motivate people not throw the litter on the ground, but collect it and make some money by selling it. And a few words about lifestyle jounalist position. I like interract with people and to take photos and videos. I recently have started my own blog on Youtube about entertanment events in my hometown Dnipro and I am getting quite popular. So, I think, I worthy all these positions. Choose me and you won't make a mistake!

Submitted by Lich on Wed, 02/17/2021 - 12:26

I think it depends on your personal preference and interests. Any job is good as long as it suits one's lifestyle and broadens knowledge about the world we live in.

Submitted by edelietta on Tue, 09/22/2020 - 21:52

All jobs are interesting, but if I had a chance, I would choose a "chief funster".Firstly, I am interested in everything: sports,the arts,entertainment and food. Secondly, this job will be a good opportunity for me to discover new things about myself by doing the job. Also, I am interested, how directors organize such mass events,as the Sydney Festival.

Submitted by Vuquan on Tue, 09/01/2020 - 02:39

I like all the job because is cool.

Submitted by B02T63136N on Fri, 05/01/2020 - 13:22

All work is convenient as long as we do our job well and with great caution. What caught my attention the most is tourism, traveling and seeing the world. Why? Traveling is fun and trying new things is the most beautiful thing in our lives and knowing ourselves. To face our fears ... LIVE LIFE TO THE MAXIMUM!

Submitted by 1234567890 on Wed, 04/22/2020 - 11:55

I'm interested in the job of the lifestyle journalist because when I was younger, I always wanted to write stories and besides that, I also love taking photos. I think this is an amazing job because while you are working and doing what you like, you get to discover new places and try out new things. I would love it!

Submitted by 5Dnr5HKJ on Wed, 04/22/2020 - 09:11

I’d like to be the park ranger, so i could protect the animals from poachers.

Submitted by amartin on Mon, 04/20/2020 - 17:50

Well, I guess the job best suits me cuold be outback adventurer, because I love trying new sports in the nature.

Submitted by Lozovatka on Sat, 02/29/2020 - 14:13

Hi. Actually none of those jobs are suitable for me for its being dangerous. Advert says mostly about one side of the coin. One sentense cheered me up that in which was said that someone can sunbathe with the seals. Do you know how the seals smell?

Submitted by Askar100 on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 12:27

Of course, my dream job among this list is PARK RANGER!!! Who refuses to work as a park ranger? NO ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Profile picture for user fitnenpress

Submitted by fitnenpress on Sun, 10/07/2018 - 19:05

I would like to try lifestyle journalist, because since I was a child, I have been taking photographs of everything I saw. I looked at my father when he was taking pictures of flowers, fountains, insects and so on, and I wanted to imitate him doing the same. If I was offered a job like this, I would take it immediately.
English courses near you