By DENIELLE LEONG

alltherage@thestar.com.my

FINDING a job that you enjoy can be the hardest thing in the world. Fortunately for Melissa Toh and Lim Wei Tiong, they are just steps away from landing their dream job.

Bear in mind that this isn’t just any ordinary job. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime to work in Melbourne, Australia for six months as a lifestyle photographer for Time Out magazine. But here’s the catch – there is only room for one.

Toh and Lim are among the 25 shortlisted candidates competing for the position offered by Tourism Australia as part of their “Best Job In The World” campaign. Its first installment in 2009 saw Ben Southall of Britain receive a life-changing job as Island Caretaker of the Great Barrier Reef.

This time, “Best Jobs” is offering six new positions – Chief Funster, Taste Master, Park Ranger, Outback Adventurer, Wildlife Caretaker and Lifestyle Photographer, with a jaw-dropping salary package worth AUD$100,000 (RM304,000).

“We’ve taken one of the most successful tourism campaigns in recent times and made it bigger and better, by coming up with a competition which represents the very best of our country – our breath-taking landscapes and scenery, our unique nature and wildlife, great food and wine and, of course, our huge sense of fun,” said Tourism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy.

Of the 350,000 applicants, only 25 were shortlisted for each position.

Toh, 25, is an Australian-based photographer and videographer who does mostly behind-the-scenes production stills for music videos and short films.

“I want to be a film colourist one day. I like giving pictures a ‘look’. It’s like a painting,” she shared.

Her immediate goal, however, would be to get that lifestyle photographer’s position, but she’ll have to beat Lim to it.

Lim, an outgoing 26-year-old, recalls his early forays into photography way back when he was still a mischievous young boy in Sungai Petani, Kedah.

“My mother would scold me for spending so much money on films to use with her camera.”

Evidently, that did not stop him from taking more pictures.

His enthusiasm for photography flourished later on when he finally managed to buy a semi-pro camera and took advantage of a social networking site as a platform to showcase his works of art.

In 2011, Lim graduated with first-class honours in architecture at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, but opted for a different route after that.

“After graduating, I chose to further pursue my true passion – photography,” he said.

Lim and Toh will be required to attend an interview in Australia in June, where Tourism Australia and some of the partners of the campaign will decide who wins the job.

But Toh isn’t just sitting around waiting for the interview to happen.

“I’m putting up a lot of content and I’m making new ones for my campaign right now. I’ve had many sleepless nights!

“The job experience would be amazing and I would put it to good use in my future endeavours. It will allow me to grow and become a better version of myself every day,” she said.

* Show your support for Melissa Toh and Lim Wei Tiong by visiting their respective FB pages: facebook.com/melissatohphotographer and facebook.com/TiongLimButton.