Ben gets dream job

The sun is shining and Ben Southall is looking out over the clear sea from his huge £2.5 million house on an idyllic island. It may not look like it, but Ben is hard at work. His job, he says, is, 'to make people jealous'! Just a few months ago, Ben couldn't even imagine being in this beautiful place.

Things changed for Ben when the Australian state of Queensland advertised a job for someone to look after Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef. They knew it sounded like the best job in the world, but they were surprised when over 35,000 people applied for the job.

Then they had to make a difficult decision - which person to choose from so many candidates? After a lot of testing and interviewing, they announced 34-year-old Ben Southall from England as the winner. Ben now works for the Queensland Tourist Board and his job is to look after the island and to promote tourism there. Because of the unique nature of the job, the Tourist Board wanted a unique person, with a range of skills and qualities. It was a long interview process, involving a variety of tasks to find out about each candidate.

Fitness was very important; swimming ability was particularly essential. Ben can swim very well and he also likes running, climbing, scuba diving and mountain biking. It is clear that, physically, he can do almost anything. The ability to communicate was as important as fitness. For the last part of the interview process, the final sixteen candidates did various tests and tasks, including talking to TV and radio reporters. The competition was tough and the candidates needed to show what they could do. The interviewers were interested in how the candidates performed in the tasks, how they handled the press attention and their ability to write about their adventures in a daily blog The candidates did their best to impress the interviewers and they knew they couldn't make any mistakes at this final stage, v

Before he went, Ben was confident about his abilities to handle the challenge. He couldn't do everything they asked him in the interview, as he can't speak any other languages, but he felt that his other skills and his personality were impressive He made a huge effort during the interview process and he was able to convince the interviewers that he was the best person for the job. Even so, he says he was amazed when he got the job; he couldn't believe it! He hopes to do a good job and promote the island successfully: he has to get to know every part of the island and tell the world about it in numerous media interviews. When you read Ben's blogs from his interview tasks, it is easy to see why they chose him. He is funny and easy-going and he will certainly get the attention of any potential tourist to this beautiful place.