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Many small business owners in Western countries are outsourcing tasks to “virtual assistants” in developing countries like the Philippines, paying them pennies on the dollar compared with what they’d pay for a local assistant.

Stephen Swintek/Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/Insider

Inside the hidden market for ‘virtual’ assistants

When Charlie Day, a 34-year-old sales coach in the UK, got serious about scaling her business, she knew she needed extra help. Day needed someone to help schedule emails, build pages on her website, and support her membership community, but her business wasn’t at the size where she could hire someone full time. So she hired a virtual assistant, a personal assistant who completes tasks for clients remotely. 

While outsourcing work has been popular for years in industries ranging from manufacturing to customer service, the growth of remote work and new technological tools has allowed the virtual-assistant industry to take off in recent years. Virtual assistants help small-business owners with tasks like entering data, managing email, answering calls, creating client invoices, handling live chat support, and bolstering social-media engagement. Day said her VA helped her significantly grow her income in the past two years. 

While being a virtual assistant involves many of the downsides of gig work — the uncertainty of scheduling, the lack of benefits — it allows people to work flexibly from anywhere in the world and doesn’t typically require specific qualifications. A virtual assistant can also earn more than they might otherwise earn in their country, if they find the right clients to work with. Day told me her assistant, who’s based in the UK, charges £30 an hour, or about $36.50 — about double the UK’s median hourly national wage. She said she felt the rate was fair for how much her VA helped her business. 

Other virtual assistants aren’t as fortunate. Many entrepreneurs in Western countries are outsourcing tasks to workers in developing countries like the Philippines, where the lower cost of labor allows them to pay pennies on the dollar compared with what they’d pay for a local assistant. But while these entrepreneurs are reaping the benefits of inexpensive VAs to jump-start their businesses, many of the people whose skills they’re profiting from are struggling to get by.

Virtual assistants are booming in the Philippines

While many developing countries have seen a boom in outsourced work generally, and virtual assistants in particular, one of the most popular countries for Westerners looking to hire VAs is the Philippines. While the biggest draw is the country’s low cost of labor — a fraction of what small-business owners could find in the US or Europe — the Philippines also ranked highly in the 2021 Kearney Global Services Location Index, which assesses a country’s ability to deliver digital services. The country also has a huge number of English speakers, thanks in part to its former status as a US colony. Now the Philippines’ virtual-assistant industry is a popular subsector of the country’s $29.5 billion business-process-outsourcing industry.

Many entrepreneurs in the West have been happy to take advantage of labor in the Philippines to grow their own businesses or simply make their lives easier. John Jonas, the founder of OnlineJobs.ph, a job board for virtual workers in the Philippines, first hired a Filipino VA in 2006. He indicated that he first tried to find a VA from India but ended up turning to the Philippines because of what he described as language and “cultural barriers.”

“The Philippines is very Westernized. They watch American TV and movies. English is government-mandated as a primary language — often elementary school is taught in English. Communication isn’t an issue at all,” he told me. “They’re honest, loyal, hardworking, and talented. They’re generally not entrepreneurial, so they don’t want to steal your business idea. There’s this whole culture in the Philippines that makes it really different than elsewhere in the world.”

Since Jonas launched OnlineJobs.ph in 2009, he said, it has become a leading platform for Filipino virtual assistants, with over 2 million profiles offering services. And Jonas isn’t shy about his own use of Filipino VAs — or how much he pays them. Jonas employs 39 assistants in the Philippines who work for him full time. He pays them $500 to $2,100 a month, depending on their skills and roles. In 2021 he was featured in a YouTube video titled “How to Hire a Virtual Assistant for $2.50 an Hour With John Jonas.”

A 38-year-old who lives in the UK and operates a business called NicheSiteLady used OnlineJobs.ph to hire a pair of VAs to help her run her business. She spoke on the condition of anonymity to prevent people from copying her websites. Her business makes about $35,000 a month from display ads and affiliate marketing, and she has previously sold one of her websites for a six-figure sum. 

“I put a job advertisement up asking for virtual assistants with no experience who were keen to learn how to edit photos and upload content to WordPress. In under an hour, I got 300 applicants, and the job automatically closed,” she told me. “I hired two part-time VAs so I would have a backup in case one didn’t work out, but they’re both great. I’ve given them lots of training using quick screen-sharing videos. Now that they have the required skills I’ve given them pay raises but am still paying less than what it would cost to hire someone local to me.”

She argued in a Twitter thread in November that it was better to hire two virtual assistants instead of one because having competition between the VAs can coax out better performance. “Your VA doesn’t want to be seen as the poor performer, so they may work harder knowing that someone else is doing the same job,” she wrote. In a separate tweet she added, “I pay them $2.50 per hour and they take a LOT off my plate.” 

On his website, Jonas has similarly touted efficiency gains from Filipino VAs — and the low cost to hire them. Next to a picture of his smiling face, it reads: “Yes, because of my Filipino workers I get to play a lot of golf, spend a lot of time with my wife and kids, and get out backpacking in the middle of the week. I work for about 17 hours a week because of the amazing work they do. However it’s not just better for us; it’s better for them too.”

‘Exploitation at its finest’

Jonas’ declaration that the setup is “better” for workers was roundly rejected during my conversations with Filipino VAs and experts. Cheryll Soriano, a communications professor at De La Salle University in Manila who studies the business-outsourcing industry, told me that while many people decide to become virtual assistants because they’re lured in by stories of people making six-figure incomes, the people behind this narrative are selling often unattainable visions of success and possibility. “It’s leading people to believe that maybe if I work hard, or maybe if I just accept tons and tons of projects and never sleep, I can get to that,” she said.

One 25-year-old Filipino who works as a VA and search-engine-optimization writer described NicheSiteLady’s tweets as “exploitation at its finest.” 

“Not only is she exploiting people, but she’s also bragging about it online,” the VA, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid professional repercussions, said. “I’m glad many people called her out, though, yet others also support her, saying we’re a third-world country and have a low minimum wage.” 

NicheSiteLady defended her pay practice, arguing that her rates are “double the minimum wage” in the Philippines. While there is no official hourly minimum wage in the country, and the daily minimum wage varies by region and industry, the daily minimum wage for nonagriculture industries in the capital, Manila, is about $10.30, or about $1.29 an hour for an eight-hour workday. She also said that she increases the rate as her VAs gain skills and that she’s given them a full month’s extra pay for the “13th-month” benefit all employers in the Philippines must pay their employees by December 24 each year.

“I can see why people think it’s outrageous that people work for $2.50 per hour in some parts of the world at first glance,” NicheSiteLady told me. “But what not everyone considers is that the cost of living is also much lower in countries like the Philippines.” 

But Kim, a 26-year-old Filipino VA who lives in Manila and has been working for clients in the US for the past four years, said people claiming that $2.50 an hour is a fair wage were missing important context. “When you work for a company in the Philippines, your company provides you with benefits. VAs don’t have that,” she tweeted in November. “VAs basically have to pay for their government benefits, healthcards, taxes, utilities esp. electricity, etc.”

The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis found in 2019 that the Philippines had the highest electricity prices in Southeast Asia, and they have continued to rise. And like many countries, the Philippines is struggling with rising inflation; in November, the year-over-year inflation rate in the Philippines was 8%.

“I get paid hourly — as of now my rate is at $15 per hour minimum for basic management tasks,” Kim told me. But this wasn’t always the case. When she started working as a VA four years ago, she was working six to eight hours a day and earning only $300 each month, about half of which went to pay rent. “After computing all my expenses, I was left with none because electricity was taking up a big chunk of my pay and I had no savings,” she said.

Soriano described the absence of benefits as a key issue in the virtual-assistant industry. She suggested that while workers often “extend effort to please a client” in hopes that the client will decide to pay them more or provide benefits like a work computer, clients are generally unlikely to do so simply because they like their assistant.

Kim said a lot of veteran assistants tell newbies to accept low-paid jobs for experience and suggest they find higher-paying clients while doing so. She said that while such a strategy could help early-career VAs gain a foothold, “it also hurts the VA industry in the long run — especially for future VAs when the current new ones continue to lowball themselves.” 

When I asked the 25-year-old VA what she believed a fair rate for Filipino VAs would be, she suggested  “at least $10 an hour.” She also argued that VAs in the Philippines should be paid based on the quality of work they deliver, at the rates that their Western employers pay their peers in the US and Europe, rather than on where they live. “We have the same if not better skills as workers in other countries do,” she said. “Why do we have to receive a lower income just because?”

Paying virtual assistants similar rates, regardless of whether they’re also in a Western country, is an obvious solution. Soriano also described a good client-worker relationship as “crucial.” She suggested clients consider their workers as human beings instead of just resources, enrolling them for insurance, ensuring work hours are manageable, and considering time-zone differences when scheduling meetings. 

“Virtual assistants work with a client constantly. So there’s really an opportunity to build a humane relationship,” Soriano said. “Many workers aspire to this. They find it very fulfilling when their clients become their friends. They really devote their time and energy to them. Those who feel fulfillment on the platforms are those who are treated well.”

Aimee Pearcy is a freelance tech journalist based in the UK. She covers digital culture and the creator economy. 

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Johannes Eisele/Getty Images

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Amazon saved up to $4 billion in 2022 by canceling or delaying warehouse openings, Wulfraat says.
The company scaled back warehouse expansion last year in the face of an economic downturn.
Last year, it still added capacity equal to about third of what Walmart built in its entire history, according to MWPVL.

It could take Amazon 3 years to recover from a pandemic-era warehouse expansion binge that left the e-commerce giant with too much space, according to new estimates from renowned consulting firm MWPVL International. A spokesperson for Amazon called this story “pure fiction.”

In 2022, Amazon grew its warehouse footprint by 52 million square feet, less than half the capacity it added in each of the two previous years, MWPVL President Marc Wulfraat said in a recent call with brokerage firm Evercore. Amazon grew its warehouse footprint by 125 million square feet in 2020 and 137 million square feet in 2021, Wulfraat estimated.

The pullback last year came in response to a slowdown in growth and a deteriorating global economy. Amazon delayed or canceled certain warehouse openings, while shutting down a number of projects and downsizing its total workforce. On Wednesday, the company announced 18,000 job cuts.

Despite the slowdown, Amazon’s warehouse growth last year was still big relative to Walmart, whose total US warehouse footprint is estimated to be roughly 150 million square feet, Wulfraat said. In other words, Amazon’s new warehouse space from last year alone was roughly a third of what Walmart has added throughout its entire history. 

“Amazon now has approx. 578MM sq ft. in the U.S. and 834MM worldwide. That’s a LOT!” Evercore analysts wrote in a note Wednesday after their discussion with Wulfraat. 

Amazon currently uses about 65% of its total warehouse capacity, lower than the 85% levels from 2019, Wulfraat estimated. That’s because Amazon over-expanded in recent years, with warehouse growth “materially” outpacing product sales growth, he said. It will need 2 to 3 more years to reach the 2019 capacity utilization levels, Wulfraat estimated.

‘Pure fiction’

MWPVL, founded in 2006, specializes in supply chain, logistics and distribution, and works with retailers, wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers. The firm has been tracking Amazon’s warehouse network for at least a decade, and Wulfraat has been tapped for his expertise for years by Wall Street analysts, industry players, and the media.

“This data is categorically incorrect and if Business Insider chooses to go forward with an article based on this data then the article is pure fiction,” Lisa Levandowski, an Amazon spokesperson, said in an emailed statement. A spokesperson for Walmart didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The company saved up to $4 billion last year when it scaled back warehouse expansion plans, according to Wulfraat.

Longer term, Wulfraat pointed to four factors that could help improve Amazon’s growth or profitability: Broader use of warehouse automation, like robotic picking arms; faster delivery; growth of its logistics business, including Buy with Prime and other fulfillment services; and international expansion.

Do you work at Amazon? Got a tip?

Contact the reporter Eugene Kim via the encrypted messaging apps Signal or Telegram (+1-650-942-3061) or email ([email protected]).

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Torres Medina says immigration makes it hard for good news to just be good.

Courtesy of Mindy Tucker

Felipe Torres Medina has been a writer at ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ for three years.
The immigration system was a hindrance as he was starting his TV writing career in America.
He says that while being a comedy writer helps him make light of it, the system could be better.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Felipe Torres Medina, a writer for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” It has been edited for length and clarity.

I’ve been writing for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” for a little over three years now, and I work with around 10 to 15 other writers. 

Being an immigrant comedy writer or comedian is so absurd. The whole process is Kafka-esque — mountains and mountains of paperwork. Finding the joy in it was the only way for me to deal. That’s not to say I didn’t get very sad sometimes — but it’s informed my comedic voice, and now I’m adding that to my work on “The Late Show.”

I recently got married to an American comedy writer, and she writes for “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.” We had a folder of paperwork that weighed around 15 pounds that we took to our immigration interview. Thankfully, they didn’t ask for much, but you have to have all these documents ready. 

I spent most of my life in Colombia before coming to the States

As soon as I learned that writing for TV was a job, I knew that was what I wanted to do. My family is artistically inclined, but they’re not artists — my parents are doctors. They were really supportive, though.

I moved to the States in 2013 when I was 21. I’d gone to college in Colombia for literature before I moved to Boston — I didn’t even go to my college graduation. I really liked the sketch and late-night space, so I applied to a grad program at Boston University to study screenwriting.

I also took classes at the comedy theater Upright Citizens Brigade. I’d take a 6 a.m. bus from Boston, get to New York at noon, and go to a three-hour UCB class at one. Then at 6 p.m., I’d leave New York to be back in Boston by midnight — and then I’d have class the next day.

When I finished my program, I moved to New York to try and break into comedy. I worked a lot of jobs in advertising and a few in publishing, and I kept doing standup, improv, and sketch shows at the UCB. I also started getting published in some humor publications.

People started to know who I was. I was invited to submit to several late-night shows, and eventually, I landed at “The Late Show.”

Applying to be a late-night writer is a pretty secretive process

Most late-night shows will invite you to submit a sample. Certain shows will ask you for a page of jokes; others will ask for a full monologue. They might respond if they like you, which can take forever. Shows are busy in general, so they take a while to get back to you. It’s understood and normal in the industry.

Late-night comedy has really changed — talking politics is the standard now. “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” changed the idea of what late night was. That spun up “The Colbert Report,” and then all the other late-night shows after that always had an opinion on politics. If you look at the recent late-night landscape — “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,” John Oliver, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon — all had or have a political bent.

As I was seeing these shows become more political, I felt like I had a new perspective I could bring. Immigrant representation was severely lacking in late night when I first decided I wanted to be a writer, and even though there are way more now, we’re still few and far in between.

You can’t just move to the States to try and be a comedy writer 

I came to the States on a student visa, and then after that I applied for an O-1B visa, otherwise known as an artist visa — that’s how I was able to stay here and keep building my career.

I was really stressed about getting a job right out of grad school because if you’re on a student visa, you can only get a job in your field — you can’t just move to LA or New York and get a barista job or drive for Uber while you pursue your dream. Legally, you’re not allowed to do that.

I had 90 days to find a job after graduation and 12 months to work in my field. Since I studied screenwriting, my visa requirements only allowed me to get jobs in writing, media, or content creation. If I couldn’t find a job within 90 days, I’d have to leave.

I had a panic attack the first time I got something called a “request for evidence” — the paperwork you have to submit to show you’re fulfilling the requirements of your visa stay. They don’t tell you outright what the problem is; they just say, “This isn’t enough.” It was the first panic attack I ever had in my life.

I was heartbroken every time a decision on my immigration got delayed. I’ve missed so many birthdays, graduations, and special occasions with my family because I couldn’t leave the country. 

Immigration also makes it hard for good news to just be good. You can get a job somewhere that you really want— but then you think “Well, I have to wait and see if they’ll issue me a new visa.”

I have 2 pieces of advice for immigrant creatives in the States 

One very specific piece of advice is to get an artist visa. The way information about this visa is presented online makes it seem like it’s only for people who have won an Oscar, Emmy, or Nobel Prize — but it just means you’re an artist and you’re very good at it. It’s not an easy process by any means, but it was certainly something I didn’t know could be done by people who hadn’t won the biggest awards in their field.

The other thing I would say is to try everything creatively and put yourself out there for opportunities. I played any small role I could because that meant that I was getting stage time in one of the biggest improv theaters in the world. I was also collaborating with people who were more accomplished than I was who could maybe later write me a letter of recommendation for my visa process.

More Americans should know more about how immigration works in the US

For many groups, not just immigrants, being really good isn’t enough. You can be excellent, formidable even, and still there can be a piece of paperwork you filed wrong.  

At each job I had in television production and journalism after school, I ended up having to explain the immigration system to my bosses, which is a really weird thing. People want to help if you’re talented and a good employee, but most times they truly just don’t know how.

Learning about the immigration system is so important. I’m not saying Americans should be perfectly versed in it, but they should know a little bit more because it affects the nation as a whole. Immigration is such a huge part of American politics. Everyone has an opinion on it, but no one knows how it works.

For me, filling in that knowledge gap is so important. That’s the big thing I want to do with my comedy.

If you work in Hollywood and would like to share your story, email Eboni Boykin-Patterson at [email protected].

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Taylor Futch, in the foreground.

Courtesy of Taylor Futch

Taylor Futch works at party hostels and does everything from leading pub crawls to manning the desk.
While she loves the hostel life, it comes with challenges like toxic bosses and cleaning up vomit.
She documents her daily life and travels as a hostel worker on TikTok for her 47,000 followers.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Taylor Futch, a 25-year-old hostel worker from Ocala, Florida. It has been edited for length and clarity.

My life is a series of hard goodbyes, but it’s also a series of life-changing hellos.

After I graduated from college, my work consisted of social-media-marketing gigs on Upwork. In January, while I was vacationing in Costa Rica, I met a girl who travels all over the world working in hostels and picking up odd jobs along the way.

I’d always wanted to do something like that. I come from a small town in Florida where everyone my age seems to be getting married and having kids. My family knows that’s not in the cards for me right now, and it probably won’t be for at least another five years or so. Listening to the girl share all her adventures was the push I needed to go for it.

The day after meeting her, I went online and came across a job posting on Worldpackers for a monthlong stint at the Cabana Copa Urban Jungle Hostel in Rio de Janeiro. I sent an email describing my interest in the job, and three weeks later — armed with a 90-day tourist visa that I applied for and was granted online — I boarded a plane from Florida and arrived during Carnival. Under the terms of my tourist visa, I couldn’t be paid for my work. Instead, I worked in exchange for meals and lodging in a shared room.

It didn’t take long to realize I loved party–hostel life

Party hostels are set up like regular hostels, but they’re geared toward backpackers who want to experience the nightlife in a place, as well as the cultural and historical sites.

This lifestyle allows me to save money since I always live and often eat and drink for free. I get to meet a variety of fascinating people who also love to travel, immerse myself in a culture in a way that a traditional vacation doesn’t allow, and pick up snippets of different languages. By creating social-media content for my 47,000 TikTok followers as part of my hostel work, I’m also able to build my professional portfolio for social-media management.

When I was stuck at home and unable to travel during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I downloaded TikTok because I was bored. In the past few months, I’ve stepped up my game. My following really picked up when I started working at hostels and showing my day-to-day life.

I’ve found TikTok to be a great way to share my experiences, connect with people, and even find work. I recently secured paid brand deals creating content for Hostelworld, which is kind of like the Expedia of hostels, and I can bring in revenue through affiliate codes on other sites, like Worldpackers. I list my affiliate links in my TikTok bio and my Linktree. None of these partnerships have conflicted with my hostel jobs.

I worked at 4 hostels in 2022 

After Brazil, I worked at one of Europe’s famous party hostels, Rising Cock Party Hostel in Lagos, Portugal, for two months and had an incredible experience. The best parts were the guests and the overall atmosphere. Everyone always came in with fun energy, and since it’s a well-known hostel, it was always full. I plan to return this summer for three months.

Not all experiences are like that, though. I worked at a hostel in Italy that wasn’t a good fit, so after a week and a half, I called it quits. It was a social-media role, and the manager’s expectations were unrealistic in terms of how long it takes to build a following. Since they already had someone on staff doing social media, it seemed like a huge waste of my time.

Another time, I worked for a party boat in Croatia doing social media after they found me on TikTok, but the micromanaging and toxic environment forced me to leave three weeks into the job.

During a burst of spontaneity, I wrote down a handful of countries on slips of paper and tossed them into a hat

I decided that whichever destination I picked would be my next stop. I pulled Guatemala from the hat, so I’ve been working as an event coordinator at the Mellow surf hostel in El Paredon. The village is so small that it just got its first ATM three months ago.

My job is to get to know the guests and host a series of nightly events like beer pong and pub trivia. Sometimes I DJ for fun.

Futch DJing.

Courtesy of Taylor Futch

Besides creating social-media content for the hostels, my favorite job is hosting nightly pub crawls, which I did a lot during my time in Portugal.

This means gathering all the guests in a common area in the evening for fun pregame activities where we drink and get to know one another. Once everyone is warmed up, I lead the group on a pub crawl to around four local bars.

In just a few hours, people go from complete strangers to best friends. I usually lead two pub crawls a week, and if I’m not on night-reception duty, I join the crawls even when I’m not leading because they’re so much fun.

It’s exhausting drinking night after night until 4 or 5 in the morning, and while I love meeting people, it can drain your social battery. To recharge and not get burned out, I’ll take some time off to be alone. Before I started working at the hostel in Guatemala, I did a yoga and meditation retreat, which was much needed.

My least favorite hostel jobs are running the reception desk on the night shift and cleaning rooms

On the night shift, you’re allowed to sleep, but since the hostel’s main door is kept locked for security purposes, there’s always someone buzzing the door to be let in.

Some guests are arriving after a long day of travels and just want to go to bed, while other guests are coming in after a night of drinking, making all kinds of noise and being rowdy. Some nights, I feel like all I do is babysit drunken people, telling them to be quiet and helping them find their way to their rooms or search for their lost phones or wallets.

One night, five different drunk guests vomited during my shift, which has to be some kind of record — and yes, I had to clean it up. It comes with the territory. Cleaning is another job I don’t like, though I do it. Stripping beds when you don’t know who or what has been in them is not my idea of a good time.

You’re bound to find some interesting things while cleaning inside a party hostel. One time, a guest defecated on the floor of their room. Luckily, I wasn’t on cleaning duty that shift, because I probably would’ve quit. Cleaning up someone else’s poop is where I draw the line.

So far, I’ve been to 34 countries, and I traveled solo to 19 of them

Futch writing in her travel diary.

Courtesy of Taylor Futch

Whenever I travel, I have my go-to list of things I take with me, including my phone, laptop, Mavik-Mini drone — which is compact enough to fit in my backpack and takes great photos — a tripod, a padlock to put on a locker at the hostel to lock up my laptop and passport, and a travel journal, which I write in daily.

Most times, I take a carry-on suitcase and a backpack with me, though I’m trying to downsize to just carrying a backpack.

My favorite digital resources are Worldpackers, Clear, which saves me time at airports, and a currency converter so I always have access to reliable exchange rates. I’ve gotten most of my jobs through Worldpackers, but now I’m able to use my network since I know people at hostels all over the world.

While my family is supportive of what I do, they get stressed out

I’ve done plenty of things during my travels that have raised my parent’s blood pressure, from bungee jumping in Australia and Switzerland to eating “space cake” edibles in Amsterdam to getting my nose pierced in Bali and Portugal to getting a tattoo in each country I visit, including one on a mountaintop in Brazil. But to counter all this, I make a point of calling home every day to let them know how I’m doing and what I’m up to.

I don’t hide anything from my parents, so if I’m going to a rave in a jungle, I’ll tell them, even though it doesn’t thrill them. When it comes to safety, I exercise caution, so at night, I always go out with a group and share my location on my phone with family and friends so at least 10 people know where I am at all times.

A postcard from Brazil.

Courtesy of Taylor Futch

About a year ago, I bought a postcard and wrote on it, “Hi mom Im Fine.” I carry it around with me and photograph it in different places and text her so she won’t worry, but, of course, she still does. The truth is, while it may scare my parents, I love traveling solo.

One of the few things that does scare me is flying, which is ironic considering the lifestyle I lead

I think it stems from a turbulent flight I took as a child, but it’s gotten worse over the years. Sometimes I wind up having a full-fledged panic attack. These days, before I get on a long flight, I need to throw back a few cocktails to calm my nerves.

I thought exposure therapy might do the trick, but the more I fly, the worse it seems to get, which frightens me because I can’t imagine my life without traveling.

In October, I turned 25. Initially, I wanted to do something epic to celebrate this milestone, like hike Volcán de Fuego, one of the most active volcanoes in Central America, but I decided to stay in El Paredon. My birthday fell on a Thursday, which is when my hostel has its weekly party, so I wound up DJing. At midnight, everyone sang “Happy Birthday,” and it was the best feeling ever.

Right before I was scheduled to leave Guatemala and continue my travels, I was offered a full-time position at the hostel for the next three months as its social-media manager, event coordinator, and resident DJ. I took the job. In three months, I’ll head back to Europe for the party-hostel and party-boat circuit.

Are you a hostel worker who wants to share your story? Email Lauryn Haas at [email protected].

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