Anyone done a working holiday in Canada?

mr tommo

mr tommo

mr tommo

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Hi guys I'm looking into the possibility of heading over to Canada (probably Vancouver) this winter to do a ski season there. May go over this summer to just do some general work so any experience would be very useful.

I've read up about the visa's I need and stuff but I was just wondering if there was anyone with first hand experience.

Ideally I'd like a bar job as the tips can be pretty good, or so I've been told. How easy was it to find work? I don't really know what to expect, I can't snowboard properly so giving lessons is out of the question.

Not really looked into to working abroad/travelling before so thought I'd start here.

I don't particularly want to go over there and blow a load of money I would like the job to be 100% sufficient to cover rent/bill etc. While I know bar work in Canada and the US isn't well paid, the tips are supposed to make up for that. My friend just finished working at Disney and she claimed to be earning up to $200 in tips on good nights.
 
BUNAC, google it. They work with a similar group called SWAP in Canada.

Went through them 6 years ago and it was very very easy.
 
Thanks, I found them this morning and had a very good read and requested a brochure for Canada.

Did you go to Canada?

I dont suppose you've got time to give a bit of an insight into how it went, job hunting, pay etc?

Never done anything like this before so its all a bit daunting! :o
 
mr tommo said:
Thanks, I found them this morning and had a very good read and requested a brochure for Canada.

Did you go to Canada?

I dont suppose you've got time to give a bit of an insight into how it went, job hunting, pay etc?

Never done anything like this before so its all a bit daunting! :o
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Yeah went to Canada, went to Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and a few random other places.

Jobs were easy to find, SWAP over in Canada give you free access to the internet at there officers all over the place and help you where to go/who to contact etc.

I used temping agencies, similar to what we have here as it was only for a year and seemed quite easy to do.

daunting isn't what I would call it, it really is nothing like that at all. Also, by going through Bunac your with heaps of other people in the same situation, they (SWAP) organise nights out every week so its not hard to meet people.

In regards to pay expect around minimum wage or slightly more, I was earning about hmmm $10 per hour or around that. Bills are cheaper over there too.

If you go through Bunac they will ask you to attend some group thing at a local university or other similar area and they will go through everything at the time.

Can't stress how simple/easy the whole process is.
 
.Lethal said:
Yeah went to Canada, went to Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and a few random other places.

Jobs were easy to find, SWAP over in Canada give you free access to the internet at there officers all over the place and help you where to go/who to contact etc.

I used temping agencies, similar to what we have here as it was only for a year and seemed quite easy to do.

daunting isn't what I would call it, it really is nothing like that at all. Also, by going through Bunac your with heaps of other people in the same situation, they (SWAP) organise nights out every week so its not hard to meet people.

In regards to pay expect around minimum wage or slightly more, I was earning about hmmm $10 per hour or around that. Bills are cheaper over there too.

If you go through Bunac they will ask you to attend some group thing at a local university or other similar area and they will go through everything at the time.

Can't stress how simple/easy the whole process is.
Click to expand...

:) great help!

Well I'll be doing it with my girlfriend so hopefully that would help with rent/bills as it would still only be a small shared accomodation.

Would you recommend Canada then? Im really into snowboarding albeit not particularly good at it just yet so I'd be aiming to get a job in a resort. Did you find it easy to get bar work? I have no experience but I know a bar owner over here that would be able to employ me for a month or so just to help me out with the CV.

Did you manage to save much money up or did the whole thing end up costing you?

We are saving for a first house at the moment but we both wanted to do something like this before we got tied down with a mortgage, so could do with either coming back broke even or with a little saving.

Edit : What would an average night be tips wise then? The person I know obviously inflated his by quoting 200 so I'll take everything he says with a pinch of salt from now. :)
 
Yeah, I'm married now myself and plan to move there in about 5 years.

Vancouver is the best place to go if you want to go snowboarding on the weekends, you should try and get a job at the skii resorts near the winter, there are literally HEAPS of jobs up there at that time of year.

Bar work is easy to find so is general admin/office work just doing crappy work for a salary. I think I saved about £1000-£1500 and I was quite lazy to be honest and I managed really well with lots of travel.

Accomidation is super easy to find, I used a site called easyroommate and had over a dozen appointments set up within a few hours. I shared with others too, it was great to be honest I still "somewhat" keep in touch with 1 of them today.

Tips would really vary on location, I wouldn't rely to much on them to be honest, just consider it beer money.

edit: Forgot to add people actually DO tip over in Canada, lots keep telling me they HAVE to tip at least 10% which I (being stubborn) kept denying on moral grounds.

I did tip at least 10% though ;)
 
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Just send my gf this link so she could have a read of that post. Getting pretty excited about it now. It's good to hear that jobs are readily available over there , was thinking that we'd do it for around 6 months and start off in Vancouver then moving up to one of the resorts (hopefully whistler) when the ski season starts. Should give us a headstart if we've already been working in the country for a couple of months.

Just wanted to make sure that two people working on bar/restaurant wages woul earn enough money to survive out there.
 
There are shed loads of jobs in whistler over the ski season. One company owns the mountain, ribs the lifts, the ski hire, the restaurants etc so of you get a job with them you will get a free lift pass. They also have cheap staff accomodation. You need to have your visa ready and arrive in the resort well before season starts (I am thinking at least 1 month). You could prob find some temp work in Vancouver before your job in the resort starts - I worked as a rubbish collector!
 
That sounds great. When exactly does the ski season start then? This is why I'm think myabe some temp work in Vancouver would do the job. To be honest the main reason I was hung up on bar work was because of the tips but seeing as they don't seem to be that fantastic a lift operator would be good! You don't happen to know the company that owns everything do you so I could have a look at their website?

Typing this On my phone ATM so can't properly research.

Thanks :)
 
By the way if you can ski or snowboard it may be possible to get a job as an instructor - it works differently in Canada to Europe so you won't need to be expert level to teach begginers.
 
Cheers for that link will take a look around.

I've been snowboarding once in Austria for a week and i'm nowhere near to a standard to teach even the most beginner of beginners :p
 
Could you get him in touch with this thread?

The more info I can get the better :)
The GF is well up for it and the only thing really stopping us is a wedding in August where she is bridesmaid. After that, my plans can all wait 6 months.
 
Thanks mate just did a search for him and found a thread from about a month ago mentioning that he'd been there for a year now in Vancouver and 9 months in Whistler so pretty much exactly what I want to do.

One thing I did read though, was that BUNAC stop taking applications at the end of March. :(
 
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