A Maldives Resort Is Hiring A Bookseller & You Get To Live In 5-Star Luxury For Free
The flight is also included!
A woman riding a bike on an resort holding a book. Right: One of the bookshops by Ultimate Library.
If you love reading and could picture yourself living on a tropical island, then you need to apply for this dream job where you can get paid to do exactly that — rent-free.
Ultimate Library is partnering with the 5-star luxury resort Soneva Fushi in Baa Atoll, the Maldives, to hire a bookseller for a pop-up book store on the island.
This is the company's third year of running the bookshop and hiring a barefoot bookseller, and one lucky person will get selected to live the island life while living around books for an entire year.
“With Soneva Resorts best-loved for its Robinson Crusoe-style laidback luxury, the return of the Pop-Up Bookshop creates the ultimate vacancy for a desert island bibliophile: barefoot bookselling, in one of the most beautiful places in the world,” reads the release for the application.
The chosen applicant will be flown to the Maldives in October for free to commence their 12-month placement role and will be paid US$750 (roughly CA $970) per month, reported TimeOut.
In addition to providing “guests with unforgettable literary experiences from writer’s workshops to personal reading consultations,” the barefoot bookseller will be responsible for carrying out the day-to-day running of the bookshop, such as engaging with customers and sales management.
Their duties will include stock management, reporting on sales, stock updates, managing the social media presences like Instagram and coming up with new and exciting literary experiences for guests, such as creative writing classes, literary lectures and tutoring.
Whoever takes on the role of barefoot bookseller will have to know how to engage with customers of all ages and have a passion for books.
The application page also says that “they will have excellent written and verbal English skills; a lively tone of voice to write an entertaining blog that captures the exhilarating life of a desert island bookseller, and the skills to host workshops and other guest experiences.”
They will have to write entertaining newsletters and monthly blogs highlighting the experience.
Aimée Johnson, the bookseller for 2019, said that “being the Barefoot Bookseller was an absolute dream."
'I got to meet amazing people, work with incredible books and live on a stunning luxury island," she said. "Very much the dream job!”
The required skills to be eligible for the position include having excellent written and verbal English skills, experience in bookselling and publishing, knowledge of running social media pages, blogging experience and in-depth knowledge of literature.
People that are interested in snatching the opportunity can do so by sending their CV and cover letter to Alex at barefoot@ultimatelibrary.co.uk.
In addition to sending in your resume and cover letter, applicants are required to send a 150-word paragraph on a book they recently read.
Beware that the role is in high demand, though — the company has been so overwhelmed with candidate applications that the closing date has been moved forward to August 8.