Home > Dream Job Holidays > Paul Duchene
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Car Critic and Writer
Auto: Paul Duchene, Portland, OR
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Do you have dreams of auto executives in Detroit calling you for advice and critique of their designs? Imagine driving down the highway with the hottest new car on the market and being the envy of all the other drivers. Would you think you’d ever meet (let alone work with!?) a member of the select group of people who test-drive and critique cars and then write about it for a living? Now’s your chance with your very own Car Critic and Writer VocationVacations® holiday with Paul Duchene.
The USA is a car culture and we've all been watching, working on, driving and appreciating the automobile our whole lives. Come and see what Paul and other car testers look for in what comes out of Detroit, Germany, Japan and Sweden. What makes the difference between a good car and a great one? Why does history love some cars and hate others? Was the Class of '57 really the Golden Age and should the Class of '82 never have graduated? Is the muscle car boom going to go bust? Learn how to look beyond skin-deep beauty into the reasons why automobiles have developed to their present form and discover esoteric facets of automobiling.
Paul Duchene (a Brit by birth but a true “American” for having his love of cars in his blood!) is an automotive writer who's been bashing his knuckles on cars and motorcycles for forty-five years, writing about them for thirty and is a regular free-lance contributor to The Chicago Tribune and The New York Times. Paul knows cars - he has owned about 150 of them over the years and consistently tests, races, rallies and restores them.
Depending on the time of year you'll be working with Paul, you’ll get a chance to be involved in some of the following activities:
- Test ride new cars along the scenic roads of Oregon and Washington including the Columbia River Gorge, Mt. St. Helens and perhaps the beautiful Oregon coast
- Test ride to see car’s performance at Portland International Raceway (PIR) and meet with PIR’s manager
- Visit dealerships and collections to illustrate design issues on new and old cars
- Research a story destined for a major newspaper or magazine
- Consult car magazine collector who tracks all the classic car auctions
- Visit expert automobile book collector as part of researching story
- Observe historic car races from announcer's tower, visit pits, talk to drivers (June)
- Watch motorcycle road races from tower, visit pits, talk to riders (monthly, April through October)
- Visit Portland swap meet - biggest on West Coast and study automobile design and development (usually first weekend in April)
- Attend Forest Grove, Oregon’s “Concours d'elegance” with motorcycle judge (middle of July)
- Travel to Maryhill, WA for “Hillclimb” on the oldest blacktop road in Washington (early October)
- Join in Mudfest test of SUVs and visit with 20 automotive journalists (early November)
- Consult with Collector Car Magazine editor
- Visit muscle car wrecking yard in Eastern Washington (all-year)
The Car Critic and Writer VocationVacations® holiday includes:
- Two days of one-on-one mentorship in your dream job as a Car Critic and Writer
- The ability to take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®), an online personality assessment designed to identify interests and skill sets
- The opportunity to participate in a total of one hour of pre- and post-VocationVacation career coaching from an accredited, affiliated VocationVacations career coach
- A pocket-size VocationVacations journal so you can document your dream job becoming a reality
- Light lunches with your mentor
Available: All year based on mentor's availability with exception of holidays
Price: $949 Per Person
Suggested Accommodations
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Hilton Portland
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Hotel Lucia
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| (Not included in the price of your VocationVacations® dream job holiday)
Other activities and tourist destinations while on your VocationVacations® adventure:
- Portland Oregon Visitors Association
An information resource for vacation, meeting, convention and travel planning in Portland, Oregon and the greater northwest.
- Travel Oregon
This site is designed to give you your bearings, but we encourage you to approach Oregon the way Oregonians do, with a sense of humor and adventure. For the most authentic Oregon experience, be kind to the environment when you visit.
Reservation, Cancellation and Rescheduling Rules and Conditions: Full payment of the VocationVacations dream job holiday is required to make a reservation. A $100 non-refundable fee is assessed if a VocationVacations experience is cancelled or rescheduled prior to 14-days of the scheduled VocationVacations holiday, based on the approved availability of the mentor to reschedule. A VocationVacations adventure cannot be rescheduled and is non-refundable if cancelled within 14 days of the scheduled VocationVacations holiday. Written notification of cancellation or rescheduling is required in all cases. In the US, Grounded Nomads, LLC and VocationVacations holidays encourage all customers to acquire travel insurance to cover any unforeseen expenses due to cancellation or rescheduling. In the UK, Grounded Nomads, Ltd and VocationVacations holidays must require all customers to acquire travel insurance to cover any unforeseen expenses due to cancellation or rescheduling and provide verification of such travel insurance to Grounded Nomads, Ltd. |
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