Why 23,000 people applied for job with no hot water, electricity
When Alice Hayes and Billy O’Connor posted a Facebook advertisement for a job on a remote island off the coast of Ireland, they never expected to receive 23,000 applications.
In fact, given the job would require applicants to live a very basic lifestyle, they thought they wouldn’t get any at all.
Hayes and O’Connor needed two people to move to Great Blasket Island, an 1,100-acre island off the coast of Dingle Peninsula in Ireland, and run the island’s accommodation and coffee shop for seven months.
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But island life is very basic: there’s no electricity, except for a mini wind turbine that creates enough electricity to charge a phone.
“Posting the advert last year, we were concerned we would not find anyone willing to leave their job, pack their bags and move to a windswept island with no electricity or hot water in the middle of the Atlantic, off the Dingle Peninsula for 6 months of the year!” Hayes and O’Connor wrote on Facebook earlier this week.
“To date we have received over 23,000 applications."
While initially they received around 200 applications, the couple’s post later went viral on international travel site Lonely Planet, bringing in thousands more.
“We’ve had coverage in the most unlikeliest places,” Hayes told SmartCompany.
“We’ve had applications in languages we can’t even recognise. We’ve received applications from places like Iran, Argentina, Finland, Mexico, everywhere really.”
And her partner thinks it might have something to do with a desire to disconnect.
“I suppose people just want to disconnect from the rush of everyday life and get off the grid,” O’Connor said.
The couple said they’ve responded to around 1,000 applicants, but don’t expect to reply to the remainder.
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