More shameless remarks by Larko

My application reviewed

I just received a confirmation e-mail saying that my application for the best job in the world has been accepted. This means that the application is formally correct (i.e. the video is shorter than 60 seconds and there is no obscenity etc). So I did not land into the trash box yet but it is just one of 34.000 entries.

My video has also been added to the site. Since it is done through YouTube I am able to stream it here but if you want to give me stars and stripes, you should do it here.

Applications closed for good

I was somewhat frustrated on Saturday for not being able to upload my application for the best job in the World. The applications were apparently prematurely closed due to a script as 30.000 applications had been entered. Looks like that happened at night local time and the applications were subsequently reopened as the good folks of Queensland Tourism returned to their posts. I managed to upload my application shortly after midnight UTC yesterday.

As the pre-announced deadline fell for about an hour ago, the applications are definitely closed. At least 34.000 persons have filed an application so there is certainly a hard competition to the 50 applications to be short-listed. The server must have been under a heavy load since reportedly 4000 applications were submitted during the last hours.

Even if my chances to proceed are practically nil I am still glad to have participated in this event. All of us 34.000 plus applicants can make a claim that we were considered for the best job in the World. Nobody can take that away from us even if the actual consideration did not last more than five seconds.

Whether you applied to the job or not, you are welcome to join the Island Caretaker community if you are interested in following the enterprise. Here is my profile page in the community. Thanks, Susie, for kicking it off.

Now that Queensland has shown that a new sort of approach in tourism promotion gets this kind of a huge response among the worldwide blogosphere, I would imagine somebody else to follow suite. I am definitely going to keep an eye on similar gages. If it is not outright North Pole or something like that, I would be inclined to apply even for a smaller salary than 150.000 Australian dollars for a six month contract.

That said, investing in me as a full time blogger would give any organisation value for their money. What I am trying to say is do not hesitate to make me an offer if you want to get something done different than you are used to doing.

Premature closure

Who would not like to get the best job in the World? Basically a six month well paid vacation for a blogger. It is not quite a matter of life or dead to get the job but I thought I would make a try, just for the kicks of it, so I attempted to submit an application.

It says right here that the deadline for applications is on 22nd February 2009 at 2359 UTC. That is tomorrow midnight. I tried twice to upload an application today 21st February around 1530 UTC, which is about 32 and a half hours before deadline and received this error message:

Like I said, it is not a VERY BIG deal but it would have been fair to let people apply within the announced time frame. I did put some work for the required video so I am a bit more than annoyed. But it is not the end of the World.

Edit: About 24 hours and 45 minutes before the announced deadline, the error message has been changed. It now looks like this:

Apparently, there is a small print somewhere saying that they can close early if the number of applications reaches 30.000. However, that statement is not where you would reasonably read. And the error message appears only after you have filled in the form, attatched your video and photo and attempted to submit.

As I wrote here, I would not feel bad at all if they had thrown my application in the waste basket (I would not even have known if they did) but I feel really pissed off that they do not even let me submit it.

Edit: The age of miracles is not over yet! Shortly after midnight UTC I saw a tweet of Gueensland:

Further information will come shortly, but applications are still being accepted. Visit www.islandreefjob.com to apply

Upon which I rushed to the site and made another (I guess about 30th) frustrated attempt to submit my application. I almost dropped down from my chair as I saw this:

So for all it may or may not matter, my application has been filed. As there probably are about 30.000 or more of them I do not expect anything else to happen than the application landing in the trash box but I feel much better for at least theoretically having a chance. After all, I know I am the best person for the job even if everybody else has a good reason to think the opposite.