Going Through A Supported Job Program Vs Independent Search

If you haven’t come across this blog before, me and my fiance are going to be moving to Whistler in Canada for 6 or so months on the International Experience Canada (IEC), a working holiday visa. For us to find a job, we had two options; go through a supported program to help us find work or find work independently. After a lot of thought, we decided to go with the first option and signed up to The Working Holiday Club. It’s not for everyone though, so thought I’d put together a pros and cons list to hopefully help anyone in the same situation:

Going Through A Supported Job Program

Pros                                                                                                      

– You can guarantee a job before leaving the country

– Less stressful, more support

– Meet a network of people

– Perfect if you’re travelling in a group or as a couple

Cons

– It costs to go through a program

– Essentially paying a lot of money just for a job

– More potential of ‘scams’ – depending on reputability of provider

The Planning Starts Now

I’ve been a little distracted from starting to plan our trip recently due to football. I’m a Bradford City fan and have just had the most amazing season which has been a huge distraction to anything else. For anyone interested in reading about this, check out my other blog here

Now the football season has officially finished, we can really start to plan our trip. If you’re new to my blog we’re planning on going to Whistler to do a working season there from November – April ish. Then onto America for 3-4 weeks to do a road trip then we’re planning on popping down to Brazil to the World Cup. It’s a dream trip that I still can’t believe we’re doing, especially since we’ve been talking about going to Canada for years. However…. we still have it pretty much all to plan and we seem to keep adding more and more to our to do list.

So far, we’ve signed up to The Working Holiday Club to get our jobs in Whistler sorted before we go. We know these job programs are a little bit of a con as you’re paying someone to get you an interview for job, however with neither having us worked a season before and are not able to go out until just before the season started, we didn’t want to risk not being able to find a job. We decided we’d rather pay to have the peace of mind, especially with two of us needing to find work. If I was going on my own I don’t think I’d have signed up to a program but at least this way we know we’re both guaranteed a job before we fly out. I’ve got my initial phone interview with a guy at the Working Holiday Club next week, then they arrange an interview with the Whistler mountain team in London in July. So in July we should know what jobs we’ll be doing and when we’ll be starting.

Visa – Check

Job – Check-ish (as long as I don’t attack anyone in my interview, I should be okay…)

Accomodation in Whistler – Check (going to live in the staff housing, but will see how that goes!)

Still to sort:

– Insurance

– Flights to Canada (probably going to go to Vancouver first)

– Accommodation in Vancouver

– Canadian Bank Account

– USA Road Trip Itinerary

– Flights from USA to Brazil

– World Cup Tickets

– Winter Clothes – Not sure whether to buy in Canada or here in the UK before hand