If you’re the “outdoorsy” type, prefer to work on a team, have a positive attitude and are a confirmed “people-person,” you may fit right in as part of a yacht crew. Though jobs on most yachts are seasonal or part-time (depending on when someone rents it for a cruise), you will gain an incredible amount of experience while sailing your work days away.

A few yacht crew jobs include the following:

Chef/Cook
Diesel Mechanic
Flotilla Skipper
Host/Hostess
Sailing Instructor

You can apply for positions with private yachts; exploration ships that travel far and wide; commercial vessels; or megayachts and superyachts, liners or tankers. But, where do you find these jobs, anyway?

There are several yacht crew-finder services for vessel owners and employers around the world. Remember, this is a global industry, and though you’ll have full decision-making authority on things like what kind of vessel you’d like to sail on and when you’re available to crew, things like salaries or whether you will work a working holiday yacht cruise or as a voluntary crew member are largely non-negotiable, particularly for entry-level jobs.

You can also work on shore-based jobs related to the yachting industry, such as outfitters or suppliers for deck and overall yacht needs like linen services or glassware.

And think about this: You pretty much get to decide ahead of time whether you’d prefer to work on Carver yachts, Catalina yachts, Seaward Yachts, Pershing Yachts, or pal up with a few friends on the ship of your choice. The other good thing about yacht employment is that, because it is seasonal work, for the most part, there is a lot of turnover, so you won’t have to “paddle the waters” very long while looking for a job!

Another good tip to know is that vessel owners are usually very generous and pay their crew very good (tax-free) wages, along with job “perks” such as the obvious, like travel expenses and great accommodations, plus a free vacation!!

David Dunlap is the owner and founder of Only For Yachts, an online resource for everything related to yachts. Visit http://onlyforyachts.com to get information on yacht charters, yachts for sale and also sign up for the free yachting newsletter.

Voice Over Training

EdgeStudio.com is one of the busiest production studios in existence. EdgeStudio.com also runs one of the country’s best voice over training programs and are renowned for hiring their own voice over training graduates. This gives anyone trained in the EdgeStudio.com voice over training program a distinctive advantage in the voice over talent industry. EdgeStudio.com is a VoiceSTA certified voiceover studio that has gathered over 1,000 clients and completed over 8,000 voice over jobs in it’s over 20 years of experience. Edge Studio has offices in New York City, Washington, DC and Connecticut, but also features an innovation method of voice over training: tele-training. In a day and age where more and more people telecommute in order to affectively preform their jobs, voice over work does not stray from the telecommuter pack, with most jobs being produced via telephone.

Many voice over actors are quick to give advice to anyone interested in taking on voiceover acting as a career. One rule of thumb, and overall act of courtesy, is that a voice over actor obtain the proper pronunciations for common and seldom used words before the first take. Certain names can be pronounced more than one way, depending on where the emphasis is placed. You should be mindful of the intended pronunciation beforehand. Assuming that you know the pronunciation is not recommended. This is something that should be up to the discretion of the client and reviewed shortly before the clock starts running on the studio time. Making sure that you annunciate distinctly and properly, and that you revise any words that give you difficulty in the initial read through are the first steps to a job well done in the production studio.