New positions – recruiting from 29 May 2008

Based near Richmond, Expert Africa is a market-leading, award-winning specialist tour operator, with a growing client base and an excellent track record for African expertise and customer service.

Our small Africa team consists of eleven well-organised individuals: team-players who are naturally honest with a high degree of integrity. We're a member of the market-leading Sunvil group, and thus work as a group within a larger, lively office.

We are currently recruiting for two positions on this team:

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1. Assistant Africa Consultant

We believe that this is one of the best training positions within the specialist Africa travel industry.

Applicants will be conscientious and co-operative; they will take their duties seriously and make decisions carefully. Ultimately we want them to become relaxed and patient team-players, who are able to plan their own work to meet their own deadlines.

Excellent communication skills are important, as are solid basic computer skills. High levels of literacy and of numeracy are important: you will need to be able to write competently and use basic maths with confidence. As you progress, you will be encouraged to complete complex work using your own initiative, logic and creativity to excel.

Some travel industry experience would be an asset, but it is not essential. Travel experience in Africa, and a genuine passion for it, are vital; experience of some of the countries in which we specialise would be very valuable.

Experience of working with websites would be valuable, but enthusiasm, intelligence and ability are considerably more important. Initially you will split your time between two distinct areas:

a) Training to be an expert consultant for Expert Africa means learning on-the-job from one of our senior consultants, training in our state-of-the-art reservation systems, working with suppliers, and building up an exceptionally high level of first-hand country knowledge through trips that we send you on.

After your first six months or so, you'll usually enjoy two two-week 'educational' trips to Africa every year. These are planned for you as an individual – they're not usually group trips – so that you can really learn about these areas in great detail. We aim for you to gain expert-level knowledge of the areas in which you specialise before you even think about advising our clients on where will suit them best.

b) Working with team-members, and sometimes on your own, you'll help to develop, load and manage areas of our website. This requires internet-literacy, not specific web-building skills. It also requires the ability to write accurately, grammatically, and – ideally – with flare!

This position would suit someone who is keen and enthusiastic – and offers plenty of scope for progression within our growing small company.

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2. Tanzania Consultant

We're looking for a Tanzania-specialist who has at least 2-3 years successful experience in a specialist African travel company. We'd like them to have excellent, first-hand experience of a wide range of Tanzania's parks, camps and safari lodges. That said, we are aware that few applicants will have covered Tanzania in the detail that we need, and so we will expect to organise travel there for the right applicant to bring them up to speed.

The successful applicant will be enthusiastic and intelligent, with all the attributes of our 'assistant consultants' mentioned above. They will enjoy giving our well-informed travellers a high level of intelligent advice on the options for their trips, working as part of a friendly, very co-operative team.

Some knowledge of the Travelink reservations system would be useful, as would an acquaintance with Galileo GDS systems.

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Both positions offer huge scope for progression in Expert Africa, limited only by your own abilities, experience and motivation.

The successful candidates will join a friendly, relaxed and flexible working environment, where you're recognised as an individual within the team – and, ultimately, they'll work with a high degree of autonomy. We're looking for potential experts on Africa, who can advise travellers accurately and with empathy; we don't want anyone used to hard-sell sales techniques!

There's a competitive remuneration package for both posts which is commensurate with your experience. In addition to 20 days holiday per year, each member of our team usually enjoys an additional 4 weeks of research in Africa every year, travelling through remote areas – to help develop into a real expert on Africa.

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Applications

If you think that one of these positions is perfect for you, then please apply in writing to:

Chris McIntyre, Expert Africa, 9 & 10 Upper Sq., Old Isleworth, Middlesex, TW7 7BJ.

Send a full CV stapled to a concise, handwritten letter explaining why you would like to join us and the skills which you feel would make you an asset to the team.

Closing date for applications: 15 June 2008

Short-listed candidates will be contacted by 16 June 2008.

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Bona fide recruitment consultants are welcome to submit CVs; we pay a maximum of 10%.


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