We landed a job on a British country estate
Whether it's at a stately home or a prep school, positions that come with a roof over your head are now in serious demand, writes Jayne Dowle
The cast of Downton Abbey
Jayne Dowle
Sunday December 13 2020, 12.01am, The Sunday Times
Cooped up in city rentals, stuck at home with parents or simply hankering after a new direction in life, all kinds of people have been prompted by the pandemic to look for a new job with a roof over their head thrown in.
Debbie Barrett, director of HomeOrganisers, a domestic staff agency in Weybridge, Surrey, has been inundated by would-be applicants this year.
"We've seen 500 to 600 people applying for every job, when in normal years it's 50 or 60," she says.
Barrett, however, sounds a note of caution: "While the idea of transferring skills from a City PA to family PA, or waitress to housemaid, is hugely appealing, it is extremely rare for people with no experience of private service to be successful