Holiday and Resort Jobs
Working as a holiday rep or getting a summer job working the season in Europe or further afield is a brilliant way to earn money and get work experience on your year out or summer break. You will meet new people, work in exciting new locations, and hopefully get a bit of sun and have fun too!
Holiday Reps 
There are plenty of companies who are looking for young, enthusiastic workers and holiday reps on their resorts around the world. This is the kind of temporary, seasonal work that is ideal for a gap year job abroad. This is what they are looking for from their employees:
- Ability to work both in a team and make your own individual contribution, confident, approachable personality, heaps of enthusiasm and common sense.
- A determination to meet targets and deadlines.
- Flexibility and sales skills.
How Long Can I Find Work for as a Rep?
If you do find that you enjoy the work, you could work all year round theoretically, with big operators like First Choice needing summer reps from April to October, winter sun reps from November to March, and ski reps. They will be looking for people to commit for certain periods of time however, and competition is fierce. If your working gap year is going to last from July to the following August for example, you may struggle to find resort or holiday rep jobs that will fit in with your schedule.
If your main motivation for looking for summer holiday or resort work is simply to do something different, why not try PGL or BUNAC's gap year work programmes? These are both well established organisations who recruit young people to work in their activity camps. PGL have camps in the UK and Europe, BUNAC specialise in summer camps in the USA, amongst many other opportunities. If you want to work abroad, build your skills and experience for your CV and earn some cash, PGL's activity holiday recruitment and BUNAC's Camp America programme could be perfect for you.
Holiday jobs case study - working in Ibiza
Seasonal Jobs - Tourism & hospitality work
If you are interested in working as a club rep for a summer, many of the largest tour operators sell package holidays to Ibiza, and recruit for staff. This can be a great way to experience a summer in Ibiza whilst earning some money and working overseas. Thomas Cook and Thomson for example both recruit for entertainment staff, childcare, hospitality and sports coaches for their resorts. However this kind of seasonal summer job recruitment has pretty stringent deadlines, so you may find that by April many of the larger tour operators will have completed their recruitment process for the summer. For this reason many people hope to find holiday work abroad in resorts in Ibiza on a more "ad hoc" basis.
The population of Ibiza swells massively in the summer months and the main demand for staff is in the tourism industry during the summer. And be realistic - everyone wants to work at the Café Del Mar or in El Divino, but you’re more likely to find a bar job in a British pub in the west end of San Antoni or in one of the less fashionable resorts. The advantage of being British or English speaking in Ibiza is that there are so many bars, restaurants and cafes that are run by Brits or Irish people, that cater for the huge amounts of British tourists. This means that speaking English is going to be useful. However the competition for bar work or jobs in hotels is intense, particularly if you can only commit to working for a month or so, and can only arrive once the season has begun in May. People who can speak Spanish will also stand a better chance of finding a summer job in Ibiza.
To stand the best chance of finding a job in Ibiza you need to:
• Get there early in the season - start enquiring about work in January/February, be prepared to start work in May, and commit until September.
• Get good at whatever it is that you are proposing to do. Given the choice between an inexperienced Brit and a qualified Spanish barperson who lives on the island, most employers will choose the latter.
• Do your research - if you’re reading this you are doing the right thing. Then read some more and contact more people. The more employers you contact, the greater your chance of finding work.
• Be prepared to earn little and live in cramped accommodation while you are working.
Ibiza Bar work
There are hundreds of bars in the main resorts on the island, all of which need staff during the summer (obviously!) However, some will use the same staff year after year, and some will recruit from their family and friends, so there is little point in contacting them all. By far the best way of getting bar work for the summer is by going to Ibiza early in the season, checking out some bars and seeing where you would like to work, then striking up conversation with the bar manager after a few visits. Some British owned pubs like the Queen Victoria in Santa Eulalia, or most famously the Ship Inn in Sant Antoni, have job boards for seasonal workers and temporary jobs. Try calling some of the bars below before you arrive to get an idea of what they would be looking for from employees.
• Café Del Mar Sunset Strip - 971 342 516
• Café Mambo C/Vara de Rey 40 - 971 346 638
• Coco Loco Av Dr Fleming 6 - 971 346 665
• Savannah C/Balanzat 38 - 971 348031
If this all sounds like rather hard work, don't despair. You can find summer work and resort jobs with the help of well-established gap year organisations and programmes. Take a look at our Europe Jobs section for more information.
