Working Holiday

Category: Other

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9/9/2010 Austen "Schmausten" T. says:

So, I was supposed to be starting a master's program in London at the end of this month... Unfortunately, I had visa troubles, and I've had to defer my admission til next year. This leaves me with 12 months with no plans. In lieu of my new found free time, I've been thinking about getting a Working Holiday Visa and working in either Australia, New Zealand, or Singapore. I know this is a pretty popular thing to do, so I was hoping some of my fellow Yelpers might have some experience that they could share with me. My hope is to get an internship before I arrive (rather than get a bunch of short-term jobs and travel around a lot), but I'm not too sure how feasible that would be as I'd be interviewing from afar. I'd be interested in any stories or advice about any first or second hand experience you might have  had with this. Thanks!

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   9/9/2010 Nicole "the Antipodean one" H. says:

   I have been away from home (Australia) for a few years now on working holiday visas. I first spent 1.5 years in London (England) and i've been in Canada since last May. I'm a grown person who really should be spending her time working on a career, or something-or-other which adults do, but i've still enjoyed it mostly! If you're using it as a stop-gap before school then I would *definitely* go for it. Living/working/holidaying overseas has been a totally fun time - just be prepared to make friends that you will inevitably have to leave behind.
   
   I'm not sure what sort of area you're studying in, I think that would make a difference on whether or not you could get an internship. Aus isn't as big on internships as North America is, so you might want to look into that thoroughly before you go for your particular field of interest. I've been temping (administrative work generally) for the past few years and it's been a livable way to make money, so that's always something to consider. I never had a job lined up before I moved to either the UK or here, so if you're going to do the same, make sure you have a good buffer of money to live on when you arrive (something you'll probably have to show proof of to receive your visa anyhow).
   
   If you have any questions about Australia specifically, throw them at me and i'll try to help out! NZ is a lovely place also, but i've only visited and not lived there. (Maybe one day!)

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   9/9/2010 Karl "Kid Don Cornelius" R. says:

   You could also do the teach english abroad thing. Save 10K a year in Korea no probs. That might give you some padding for your education.

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   9/9/2010 Lauren "Lo-BAL" M. says:

   Honestly, I would say it's nearly impossible to get an internship before arrival when you're traveling on a WHV (working holiday visa)
   
   WHV essentially = lots of short term/temp jobs + traveling around a lot. If you want career related work, it's pretty damn hard on a WHV.
   
   I did 3 years in London on a WHV and 1 in Ireland.
   
   In London I got extremely lucky and managed to get sponsored from my company to stay, so I stayed on an extra year there. From what my friends are telling me, in recent years the job market has been far crappier for working holiday makers and it's not as easy to get a job.
   
   I went to London hoping to get career related work (advertising) but the industry was so different over there no one would hire me. I did ended up working as an EA though and making shitloads of cash, came home and landed a pretty awesome job at an international consulting firm as result of all my overseas working experience.
   
   I suppose anything is possible, but I wouldn't count on a WHV being a good venue for securing a work-related internship. WHV is best used as it is intended to be - a way to experience living abroad and an awesome opportunity to sustain yourself whilst traveling.

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   9/10/2010 Austen "Schmausten" T. says:

   Wow, thanks for all the great tips everyone. How difficult is it to find jobs on arrival? I just think it could be a bit risky to spend a bunch of money on a flight and whatnot only to get to Australia and not be able to find a job at all. While I'd rather find something that would look good on my resume (I'm an economics major, and I'm planning on going into consulting, banking, or something of that sort), I'd be alright working at a cafe or something like that if I needed to. Do you know if there's a sort of organization or community of other people doing this sort of thing that can help out with finding jobs?
   
   I also have thought about the option of teaching English abroad for a year, but I've only been able to find programs with one-year minimums, and I'd need to be back to start my master's program before a year would be up. A lot of the opportunities I saw looked kind of sketchy as well, so I'm not too sure how good of an idea that would be.

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   9/10/2010 Nicole "the Antipodean one" H. says:

   When I was in London, although I couldn't get the kind of job I wanted in a museum, I was still able to temp at museums as administrative/personal assitant type roles by finding a temp agency that placed in those sorts of things. What you might be able to do is hit up recruitment/temp agency websites (Career One and Seek are a couple that come to mind) that serve banks/various economic companies and that way at least you'll be working in a job related to your industry rather than just slinging coffee. I don't know about specialised recruitment agencies, but you could find stuff by a bit of handy googling.
   
   This job search is a government-run one, and while it's not an agency or anything it could be a good place to start: http://jobsearch.gov.a...

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