Looking for a way to spend the winter on a beautiful tropical island? Perhaps you want to go to St. John, and spend a year or even a lifetime on this tranquil Caribbean paradise? If so, then you should first off start looking for work in order to make it all possible. Luckily for you, finding a job at St. John is easier than many might think. Due to the bustling tourism industry and a high influx of visitors during the winter months from December through to May, there are countless openings available for anyone who is interested in working on the island.
The most prominently available jobs are available here through the service sector, whether the employment comes from hotels, restaurants, visitor centers or even recreation management offices. In addition, there are a wide range of civil service jobs that open up to those who are interested and qualified to take on serious matters of city planning and environmental research. For example, someone with the appropriate academic or vocational degree could very well be accepted as an environmental specialist to manage the minimal urban planning requirements. Others who are looking for careers in the field of national parks could do very well applying to become a park ranger or any number of other opportunities for employment offered by the national park service based at St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands national park.
The best way to get a job at St. John is by applying ahead of time. This is largely because it just isn't ideal to show up to a far off tropical resort town without any guaranteed employment. Check out all of the hotels, restaurants, boutiques and bars that might offer employment to someone with your background, experience and language ability. After that, check out some of the diving, snorkeling and other sailing charters that might take you in if you demonstrate the appropriate qualifications. For instance, if you have received your certification as a scuba diving instructor it is important to flaunt this as much as possible so that interested charters will pre-select you for employment even before you get to the island.
To harness one of the government jobs available at St. John, start by looking through the national park and forestry databases so that you can easily find out what kind of work is needed along with what jobs are to be opening up around the time you plan to be arriving on the island. Be aware that these jobs require more qualifications than do restaurant jobs, although the pay tends to be better because of it. If you have no luck finding a job in advance, you are taking more of a risk by just showing up. Still, however, there is a high level of employment picked up by walk-in applicants to bars, restaurants and other service sector jobs. With the employment starting to pick up again on the Virgin Islands, your chances of finding work are pretty decent. For the service sector, pay generally starts around minimum wage and is handed out in the U.S. dollar. With tips however, a service person's income is raised dramatically. Higher qualified jobs usually go on decent salaries, but don't except to get insanely rich by moving to St. John.
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