Dan & Jan - RV-Dreams Community Forum

NorCal Dan · RV-Dreams Family Member

Dan & Jan

Perfectlygoode · RV-Dreams Family Member

Well hello, Dan and Jan! Welcome to RV Dreams. You will find some truly wonderful folks here. I wish you both "Happy Travels"! We travel with two furballs, wire haired fox terriers name Cosmo and Belle. Would you mind sharing a little about Oscar? If you have not guessed, I'm a big fan of furballs all shapes and sizes.

Debbie

NorCal Dan · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hi Debbie,

We got Oscar from an animal rescue...he looks mostly like a pointing griffon but we know he isn't pure since his color is black. He is a smart and sweet dog and is currently undergoing training so he can be therapy dog. I don't want to fill the forum up with photo's...click my signature to get to my website and you will find a link to my blog.

-- Edited by NorCal Dan at 13:58, 2009-01-10

Speedhitch · RV-Dreams Family Member

Dan we have a dog too but ours came from Wally World...we lost our last pet 15 years ago and will not replace her...Welcome to the forum and hope to see you on here often. Sherri and I will be on the road in June of this year so our paths may cross....

Joe and Sherri and Putz

jdkblue · RV-Dreams Family Member

Nice to meet another Dan & Jan, we are Dan and Janet but most people jokingly call us, Jan and Danet. Good luck with your plans. We've been to Branson, MO and didn't much like it because it was too commerialized and there is secret sales reps everywhere you go, trying to get you to go on one of their time-share tours. Everyone one on this forum has been extremely nice and it's nice to find others that share the same interest.

NorCal Dan · RV-Dreams Family Member

Jan (MuttNutt on the forum) and I haven't been to Branson before so we are looking forward to working there. After spending 20 years in the U.S. Air Force we have learned to make the best of our situation. We are looking forward to catching some shows (if we can find someone to watch Oscar). He doesn't like being left alone in the coach.

I need to order one of Howard's hats so when we meet folks they will know we are RV-Dreamers smile

Dixie · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hi Dan & Jan

Welcome:)

We are in the process of going fulltime, don't have a rig yet, got to sell the house.....but plan on it all coming together by July 2009.

Anyway, you wrote that you were already workamping. That is what we want to do once we are setup so I was wondering if that was your first workamping job? Was it hard to get a workamping job if you had never done it before?

Was it what you expected? Anything you could tell us would be helpful.

Do yall plan on workamping all the time?

You have found the best forum on in the internet universe.

Thanks and Great to have you along.

Dixie

NorCal Dan · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hi Dixie,

Workamping was what made the full-timing decision for us. We didn't want to work 40 hours a week, but we wanted to be able to supplement our travel costs while enjoying this great country.

Yes, Oregon was a our first job. I subscribed to workamper.com for $40/year so we could review the available jobs. I get an email every weekday and a magazine every other month that lists all the jobs. There are other similar type services out there but I like workamper.

Was it hard to find a job? Well I didn't actually find the job. When I joined workamper I posted an online resume that employers can search. Both jobs we have had were offers from employers who saw our resume and called us.

Was it what we expected? Yes. There were no surprises. I bought a book about full-timing and working and it helped us come up with a list of questions to ask prospective employers. Because we had never workamped before I had no idea what to ask, so having the book really helped.

No, we don't workamp all the time. We like to work in the summer and travel in the winter. I prefer warm weather so that means we have to be in the south (along with all the other snowbirds) . It gives us time to visit family and friends as well as explore.

Workamping really means that a person lives in an RV. It has nothing to do with the jobs. A person could be a CEO for Cisco and be a workamper. I used to work for Lockheed Martin and one of my co-workers was a workamper.

I just don't want you to think that all workampers work in an RV park. Any job you can think of could probably be done by a workamper. If you join workamper.com you will see that there are many types of jobs out there. I joined workamper.com 2 years before we started full-timing so I could see what types of jobs were out there and get some ideas of what type of jobs would interest us.

Once you decide what type of work you want to do, be it cleaning toilets or being a ranch hand, write your resume to target those types of jobs. Workamper.com allows you to send your resume to employers via email and has tracking so you know who and when you sent your resume.

I would be happy to answer any questions...

Dixie · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks Dan

We also joined workamper.com about 6 months ago to see how it all works.

We haven't set up a resume since we aren't fulltiming yet but it is sure reassuring to know that they found you , you didn't find them.

I guess that means that there are jobs a plenty out there. smile

You said you retired from Lockheed Martin. We live about 15 minutes away from the Lockheed Martin plant in Marietta Georgia. Did you work there?

It is a huge place.

We are going to the Tampa rv show this week. Cant wait till we sell this big ol' house and get one on wheels!

Wish I were in your shoes aww

Dixie

NorCal Dan · RV-Dreams Family Member

Not all jobs are posted to the site or in the magazine. I don't know what motivates the employers to post a job or not. And I can't tell you what is in our resume that makes them want to call us. I get calls and emails all the time so apparently they like what they see. I followed the online suggestions for filling out the resume, then made a lot of tweaks to it until I was satisfied.

I have sent out resumes to employers and gotten responses from ads on the site. And while some of them sounded very interesting, we just never found the right one. So you can find a job from the listings, it just hasn't worked out that way for us yet. I have also found that not all employers will acknowledge your resume. I just assume they received more resumes than they could handle and that the job had been filled. I guess that's just the nature of the beast if they post an advertisement for help wanted.

For us, the hard part was deciding what kind of jobs would interest us. Now that we have done a hosting job I think we will stick with that type. We do the volunteer type job where the work pays for the camping spot. We like meeting people and making new friends, and as long as the park requires you to live in the campground you don't have to claim it as income, so no tax ramifications.

You can fill out a resume now...I did a lot of changes to ours before we went "live". Just put in a date when you think you will be available for work. Some employers like to get workampers lined up in the fall for the summer jobs so you want to get your resume out there well in advance. As an example, we had our summer 2009 job lined up in October.

Lockheed Martin is a big company. My division was out of Denver Colorado but the work was at Beale AFB in California.

My wife was a real estate agent for Century 21. The market in California dried up but we were lucky enough to sell our house before the collapse. I hope the market is better where you are located, and that the lenders are willing to lend money for your buyers.

Full-timing was the best decision we ever made and we absolutely love it.