Dream Job

A beautiful island off the cost of north Germany had a small lighthouse built in 1855. The light house was decommissioned in 1969. Since then it has been serving as memorial museum and a tourist attraction. Though is it not a super popular tourist spot, it draws quite a good number in warmer months.


As the current light house keeper is getting retired, about 2 months before, a job advertisement for the light house keeper was posted online and in local newspapers. It is just one man on this posting. He reports to the local municipal office. Typical all day work would be to take care of cleaning the premises, do small repair works if needed and issue tickets and souvenirs for the visitor of the light house. Occasionally destination wedding, Family parties happen on the location. Lighthouse is 39 meter high with 161 steps and Keeper has to walk up and down at least 2 times a day. The salary of the job is decent. Lighthouse is open all year except on holidays. Keeper has the duty throughout the year even in cold winter, stormy, rainy and hot summer days. 


The municipal office posted this job vacancy and expected a couple applications before the current keeper goes in retirement. Considering the shortage of workforce in the country, municipal office also had fears that nobody might respond to the job advertisement. 


To everyone's surprise in the municipal office, application for this jobs started pouring-in. Everyday the secretary in the local office gets a lot of emails which is quite astonishing because the current labour shortage in the country is such if you get more than 10 suitable application for a blue collar job, it is considered quite high in many places. Before the deadline, in two months time, the municipal office has received 1100+ applications. It is quite unbelievable for a hard labour job in a remote town in the north sea island. 


The job advertisement got viral in the social media, many people across the country, in-fact a couple of applications had come from outside of Europe for this job. This news has gone more viral in the media. In the last month, pretty much all the news channels covered this story. The current light house Keeper face appeared on all major television. The place has become more popular, people who never heard of this place now been planning to visit the place in the coming summer, thanks to the timing of Keeper's retirement.


Thinking of this story... why this has happened? how come such a huge number of applicants applied for an ordinary job? Logically, not much would strike the mind until you make a small effort to understand the mind of the applicants. The main motivation factor should be the work place. It looks nothing less than a paradise. Being close to the nature in a calm and beautiful place, a better chance for one can be in peace at work. Also no boss, you are the boss of the whole premises. And you get to work with people who are in vacation, hopefully relaxed and looking for fun. On a decent salary, a quite and peaceful life on an island is something many would wish to day dream or answer this, if asked, what would you wish for or what would you be rather doing? 

Here are the applicants who dare enough to take a chance to make that day dream into a reality. 



https://www.wangerooge.de/





                                 Light house premises


                                                   Light house
                                                

                                           Pictures inside the Museum


Steps inside the light house



    A tourist train running inside the island
     


    New Light House, Wangerooge




 

Popular posts

Lost Baggage

Image
                                    Travel is beautiful and adventurous, unless you are too lazy and home sick.Situations around you keep changing and sometimes surprises you every moment.You have to be prepared enough to enjoy and keep going,otherwise it would be maddening or vexatious and even you may end up losing anything. sometime it could even cost your life.Travel demands not only healthy body but also healthy mind. Here comes a short story from my recent travel experience.... Its 2:15 PM, Landing at Frankfurt Airport-Germany I returned from my homeland-India after summer vacation.12 hours of travel...with drowsy eyes and barotraumatic ears, i dragged myself  to the baggage counter after completing immigration check. Looking at some pretty fellow passengers,air hostess and cute children playing around, i waited to collect my heavy weighted two suitcases from the conveyor belt.When i took out my baggage, i found one of my suitcase wheels was missing...looking at that, I w
Read more

Christmas Guest

Image
24 th December 2015 It was 8’0 clock in the evening, Christmas Eve prayer just got over in an Evanglische church located in the outskirts of a small town deep inside of black forest in Germany. Church volunteers were wrapping up the things after the event.   As one of the residents in the church building, I was also invited for the Christmas Eve function; I stayed in a room on the second floor of the same church building which was rented out by church management.  There were totally seven rooms, all were occupied by students from nearby towns and villages who studies in the local college. Black forest is one of the most beautiful regions in the country, not densely populated; sharing borders of Switzerland on one side and France on the other side. I enjoyed my summer time touring around every single holiday, but then came winter, it was heavy, almost snowing every day, weekends were terrible for me, there wasn’t no-much friends for me there and more over neighbor ro
Read more

I'm a Finisher

Image
                   In the year 490 B.C, there was a war between Greece and Persian kingdoms. Greece dint have enough potential but their solders outshine Persian tactics and won the battle of Marathon. This news had to be carried to capital Athens along with a warning message that Persian army might attack the city through sea; So Army general had chosen pheidippides (a messenger/runner) to send the message to Athens. He had run all the way from Marathon Battle Ground to Athens around 26 miles. After delivering the message of “Joy to You”, Pheidippides died shortly thereafter from exhaustion. He had died not because of just 26 miles run.. He was sent to contact Sparta army 140 miles away from the battle ground to seek help.280 miles of running (66 Hours) on rugged mountainous path followed by a day of battle and again 26 miles of running (3 Hours) to Athens on the same day wasn’t an easy challenge. He pushed himself past normal limits of human endurance. Later modern Olympics
Read more