HELLO
Welcome to our November newsletter, packed full of useful and inspiring career break stuff and not a sniff of the C-word in sight!
We've got a bumper edition for you this month, with new stuff on the site, new stuff on other people's sites and a proper new "New career breaks" page (that didn't read very well did it?!). Our video and photo corner are still here to give you inspiration, and there's our message, tip, useful thing and joke of the month, which today is actually funny!
So take a break from worrying about all the seasonal stuff and work and everything else, and have a read!
SPONSORED: RALEIGH INTERNATIONAL - PROJECT MANAGER ROLES IN CENTRAL AMERICA
Hola amigos! Eager to explore and visit two fantastically diverse, lively and colourful countries in Central America? Want to meet new people and go on an incredible adventure all while doing something worthwhile? Raleigh International are looking for dynamic Project Managers to lead a group of young people in Nicaragua and Costa Rica for 13 weeks in spring 2018. Your work will focus on water, sanitation and hygiene, protecting vulnerable environments, building community resilience and developing young leaders. You'll be working with community members in rural areas, helping to create positive change in communities that need it most.
Central America is also a perfect place to develop and hone your Spanish skills, while enjoying some of the finest coffee on the planet! Both countries are home to an incredible array of natural environments; including stunning waterfalls, imposing volcanoes and tropical rainforest.
What are you waiting for? Click here to apply now!
FREE STUFF AND DISCOUNTS
Win a trip around the world, with one of our favourite travel bloggers, Nomadic Matt. You have to buy his book to enter, but it's bound to be a useful read for any budding career breaker!
Free ebook on how to travel long-term on a budget - just sign up to their newsletter using the box on the right of the page.
3 for 2 on Lonely Planet guidebooks, plus some other special offers from them.
Win a £50 Marriott voucher by entering their "Winter in Europe" photography competition.
Chip is a free app that helps you save money easily and without trying too much. Perfect if you're saving for a big trip! (Thanks to Savvy Woman for the recommendation).
Get 25% off a Europe and USA sim card with international data, from our friends at 0044 - thanks guys for messaging us this fab offer!
Travel to Live is a free app that's sort of like WhatsApp for travellers. Essentially it helps you create a travel plan with your friends (or family, if you're insane).
NEW AND UPDATED CAREER BREAKS
Very excitingly, we've made a new page on the site which shows you all our career breaks which are new or have been recently updated. Regular readers will find this useful. (Oh, and a secret: sometimes the prices drop and this is where you'll see those career breaks that have suddenly become a bit cheaper!).
Click here to see all our new and updated career breaks!
**NEW SECTION** NEW ON THE SITE
We brought back the much-missed organisations section. There are two reasons this is good for you, our lovely site visitors! The first is that you can see all organisations that work in a particular field (like volunteering) or a particular region (like Asia) - and it means you can access more career breaks than we can feature on our site. The second reason is that it lets you see at a glance which organisations are vetted and approved by the strictest process in the industry (ours)!
You can view the organisations in each individual section, or you can see them all here.
ON THE BLOG
Our first round-up of 10 favourite travel blogs was so popular, we did a follow-up, imaginatively called 10 more of our favourite travel blogs! Have a look to see if one of your favourites is there, or just get inspiration for your own!
We also published How to haggle successfully when you're British and you suck at it. Useful for other nationalities who also suck at haggling, there are 6 tips, the last of which is guaranteed to work under any circumstances!
Do you want to be featured on the blog? We're always looking for people to interview or write a guest post. Drop us an email and tell us about yourself!
PHOTO CORNER - YOUR MONTHLY DOSE OF INSPIRATION
The Ciwem Environmental Photographer of the Year competition has announced its winners and the pictures are amazing! Not always cheery, given the subject matter, but truly striking.
VIDEO CORNER - IT'S STILL HERE!
Videographer and controversial hairstyle sporter Mark Wolter has produced this nifty little video with 3 keys to success for long-term travel. Engaging, honest and useful!
ELSEWHERE ON THE INTERWEB
We finally got off our fat behinds (not really, we didn't need to for this) and joined Pinterest. We have obvs only just started but have got a few boards going and have repinned some fantastic stuff. Go there and start following us for some fab travel inspiration!
Our founder was also featured in this excellent article on increasing self-belief, on the fab Scarlet Thinking website. She used a CV technique, because we've done quite a lot of stuff on CVs as part of our "getting a job after a career break" work. Have a read, there's loads of useful advice from other people there too!
TIP OF THE MONTH
If you're travelling with any kind of digital technology, get your back-up sorted and automated BEFORE you leave. Unfortunately, things do get lost, stolen or fall into volcanoes. Having your important stuff backed up (including digital copies of your passport) will make recovery, both digital and mental, much easier.
If you have a tip for us, email us or tweet us.
MESSAGE OF THE MONTH
Thanks to feedback from reader JC (not that one) this month who told us:
"I tried an app that was mentioned in your newsletter.....the Google Trips one. I downloaded it and was astonished to find all my trip info. from my gmail organised with places and dates already there, scary, but I can see how it can be useful as it has information about emergency numbers and suggestions to eat etc. at the destination."
This is a reminder that although your linked accounts can be very useful, when travelling, you need to take your privacy and security more seriously than usual, because if someone gets into one thing, they can get into anything!
USEFUL THING OF THE MONTH - IT'S STILL HERE!
This is an amazing tool if you're properly budgeting your career break (which you should be!). The cost of living calculator shows how you can live a comparable lifestyle in the country you're going to. Don't forget that you probably won't be running a car, paying council tax or buying a ton of useless stuff on your career break, so the true cost of living may be even less!
JOKE
I have the heart of a lion...
...and a lifetime ban from London Zoo.
FINALLY
We'll be back a bit earlier next month, as we like to get our newsletter out before Christmas. It will be our yearly round-up of the best stuff we've made and discovered this year - but there's always room for new things too, so tell us if you want us to include anything.
Until next time,
Love,
The Career Break Site
xxx