Take the Thomas Cook Travel Test
Are you cut out to be an Overseas Rep? How worldly-wise are you?
1. You're wondering what to wear for your day at our assessment day. Do you go for
3. When it comes to working long hours, you’ll be
5. You have to be up at 6am for a trip to the airport. Do you
7. They need more dancers and singers for one of the Thomas Cook shows; your reaction is
9. You're missing your friends and family, and won’t see them for quite a while. Should you
10. On a sight-seeing trip, a customer has an accident requiring minor medical attention. You can’t translate your requests for help. Do you
11. The best way to get around any language difficulties is to
11. The biggest problem with living abroad is
You should treat your day at our assessment centre very much like any other interview. So we’d like to see you in shiny shoes, not flip-flops.
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Larnaca is the main airport in Cyprus. You don’t need extensive knowledge of world geography to be a Thomas Cook Overseas Rep, but you will need the sort of brain that quickly learns all the details of the resort where you're working.
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Long hours are part and parcel of an Overseas Rep's job. They go with the territory. So you should expect to finish only when your jobs for the day are done.
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The lira is the currency in Turkey. And, just so you know, one lira is made up of 100 kurus.
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Even if you've had a late night, our guests will still expect you to be on top form, no matter what the hour. Calling in sick would let down the team. Staying in bed for those extra 45 minutes and forgetting about personal hygiene is certainly not the way to go (yuck). So set your alarm for 5am, give yourself plenty of time, and you may even get to hit the snooze button. But just the once mind.
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Rice is the main ingredient of Spain’s famous paella. Chocolate! - what were you thinking?
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Not everyone is great at dancing and singing. But when our Reps put on a show, everyone puts in everything they've got to make it a great night for the customers and a great night for the team. So "Hello Broadway!" is the answer you should have given.
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The flight from London to Lanzarote takes 4 hours. Customers are going to ask you all sorts of things, so get used to finding out the answers!
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It's surprising how confident, outgoing people can become homesick when abroad. Sending text messages from abroad is going to be expensive. And you just won't have any time to spend with friends or family if they visit. But giving home a quick when you can call is definitely the best idea.
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If a customer has an accident requiring medical attention on an all-day site-seeing trip, your language skills might not be up to the situation. But going to find a phrase book or a medic would leave your customer alone with strangers. And taking them back to the hotel is unlikely to be the quickest way of obtaining medical help. Identifying someone who can speak English and help you to summon assistance might be a better approach.
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We're not expecting our Overseas Rep's to be fluent in the language of the country they're based in, but a few basic words and phrases will come in very handy indeed. And you'll be surprised at how quickly you can pick these up when living and working abroad.
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Please don't apply to be an Overseas Rep if missing your home comforts is going to be a big problem or if you don't like talking to foreigners. The biggest problem with living abroad is not wanting to go home again. With Thomas Cook, you can return home with confidence at the end of the season, as there's an excellent chance that we can find you another role to carry you through the winter, and another overseas posting next year!
Score one point if you got it right.