ORLANDO, Fla. – When Joel Kondas transitioned back into civilian life after 32 years in the military, it took a few years to figure out exactly what he wanted to be doing.
Fast forward to now, where Kondas now lives in an RV with his wife, traveling from city to city and easily finding work wherever he goes with the help of an easy-to-use app. If traveling the country, seeing the sights and making some extra money in the process seems like a dream, Kondas proves it’s entirely possible.
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“We basically moved into RV about a month ago. We’re down here in Tennessee. And we bought a campground membership that allows us to go to any year at any one of their campgrounds throughout the country for three weeks at a time. So we’re here until the end of November. And then we’re going to go down to Texas for about about a month and a half to do two different campgrounds. And then we’re going to go to Arizona and Nevada and then out to the West Coast for about a year because there’s plenty there’s a lot of campgrounds out there in California, Oregon, and Washington,” Kondas said.
He said at first, he tried to make ends meet solely driving with Lyft and Uber while on the road.
“But the problem with those services is every state has a different requirement. If you’re in Texas, you have to have a Texas license, and sometimes you have to have a vehicle inspection. And then same thing in all the different state,” Kondas said.
So that’s where the app Instawork comes in.
“With Instawork, you could, just as long as you have your alcohol certification, which is pretty much nationwide, and your food handler card, you can work anywhere in the country,” Kondas said.
So now, the majority of the time, he works in kitchens or as a server for events, or jobs like that.
“It gives me a lot of freedom of where we live, and freedom as to what days we work,” Kondas said. “I usually pick evening shifts, because I work better at night. And so that work is really good for that type of a lifestyle. And it’s also cool that you can do it throughout the country.”
Instawork is now available to workers in the Orlando area with a variety of employers hiring Instawork Pros, everything from nationally-recognized hotels and restaurant groups to some of Orlando’s favorite local hot spots and sports venues.
The Instawork platform encourages both hourly workers and businesses to rate each other on a 5-star scale after each shift to help match future shifts with those who are best qualified. Among the benefits of signing up on the app, you can work as little or as much as you want with the ability to get paid the same day. Plus, Kondas said many of the jobs he’s worked are temp-to-hire, so he’s had the opportunity to take a fulltime position if that had been his goal.
He said the flexibility the app offers is great for veterans transitioning out of the service, or even for those serving in the Reserves.
“Some people transition to the Reserves and National Guard when they get out of active duty. And sometimes they have to go to individually training interspersed throughout the year. And then if they come back from a 6-month deployment, and then they want to work a little bit, it’s easier for them to get these little jobs here, as opposed to trying to get a full-time job when you’re only going to be there for another three months and then gone again for another 6 months,” Kondas said. “So it’s kind of good for those veterans, keeping money coming in while they’re doing these temporary deployment jobs. And another thing is, it gives you an opportunity to see if you do like, you know, working in a warehouse or being a line cook, or working as an event server. So it gives them a kind of a good way in a lot of these jobs with instant work or temp-to-hire. So it gives the employer an opportunity to see how they can work and an opportunity to see if the veteran likes working in that field without making a large commitment.”
Meghan Hermann, a senior strategic communications manager with Instawork, said the service has partnered with Hiring Our Heroes and other organizations to get the word out and get these opportunities in front of veterans that may need them. It features the ability to add a military community badge to your profile if you’re a veteran, active service member or military spouse. You can add the badge so that potential employers who want to support the military community can specifically search for people who are part of it to employ.
Of course, you don’t need to be a veteran to find work with Instawork, and you can create your profile and get to work in as little as 24 hours. The service currently connects pros with employers in 30 markets across the country.
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