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"A Year Out"

I might take a year out to go and work in Canada and get some money before university. Would be fun, until the cougars came.

Anyone else done the "taking a year out" thing, and not sat at home on their fat ass watching Richard and Judy and shoveling food into their gobs?


INFO

Cheers Meister Duck, it was the Bunac thing I saw yesterday that got me interested - althought I have always wanted to to go Canada as it is.

Although I have no experience with skiing or whatever I would still like to visit, although perhaps woring there wouldnt be a good idea unless I got another sort of resort job, or learn to ski.

I am considering applying to Club 18 - 30 to work a resort somewhere between june and september, I will get some cash stocked up for uni and also have a free holiday.

I think it is a good idea to work before going to university, that is it I decide to go to university at all.

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The opinion bit
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I ultimately want to be a writer, journalistic or creative it doesnt really bother me, however I am aware it is an area that a lot of people want to get involved in and I dont know how much of a chance I have of getting where I want to be.

I could quite easily waste three years getting a degree and never find any sort of work, which would place me deeply in debt and without the job I wanted. Alternatively I could look around for a job now and try and work my way up to becoming a writer or journalist, and not be in debt.

I'm not asking you to decide for me, but I want some opinions. Please.

I finished uni last year. I was going to go work in Canada for a year and get some money before doing a masters next year.

Unfortunately I got a tumor on my leg, had to cancel the trip for my operation, and my visa expired before I got to have the op.

So now I'm signed off (my leg now prevents me working), sitting at home on my fat ass watching Richard and Judy and shovelling food into my gob.


Though I'm thinking about doing something in the summer, if possible, after I'm recovered from the operation. I have my eye on teaching English in Palestine.


Canada tips (if you want them):

Visa:
With student status (you may need a NUS card) you can get a work visa allowing you to take any jobs for one year from the date you enter the country.
You have to apply through *** bunac.org.uk *** - the visa application costs about £150 (if I remember correctly), and you'll need to have return flights booked when you enter Canada (around about £300 - 450, depending on the time of year, required by the Canadian government) and insurance for at least the first 3 months (ball park of £100 without winter sports cover, I think. Required by Bunac, the sending organisation).
There are a few minor extras along the way, (eg, bunac membership), but for me they were less than £20 total).

And you'll also need a bit of money to keep you going until you find work. I'd allow a few hundred.

It does all mount up, but I'm sure you can do it for a grand or so for all costs and a bit of money to take over there. And when you're earning, if you chose to save some of your wages, you can come back with that much fairly comfortably.


Work:
There's a lot available in ski resorts. Not particularly well paid, but that's not really what you're going for. Plus you get free/discount access to the slopes, making it a sort of ski/snowboard holiday!

You'll get a list of some vacancies from Bunac.
You can also contact places directly (I e-mailed a bunch of pool halls!), and try recruitment web sites. Neither worked for me, though I was about to apply to a new HMV store which I'd probably have walked into, when I found out I had to cancel the trip, which shows there is stuff out there.

Either way, it's better to try. You'd feel so much more secure going over there knowing you have work guaranteed.

If you don't though, it's not the end of the world. Though unemployment is quite high, at around 10%, Canadian people I spoke to felt that was because of a shortage of mid to high wage jobs, and there were enough opportunities for the kind of work you'll be looking for (shop and stuff, and shortish term things).
They have job centres like over here to help you find stuff.


Living:
Short term: Join the UK's Youth Hostel Association - membership is international, and you can book places in canadian hostels over the internet. I had my first week booked there, for while I'd look for something permanant. (I had to cancel at short notice, a week before I was due to go!)

Longer term: If you book your flights through Bunac (you don't have to, but their prices are very good) you'll meet a bunch of other people going to Canada to do the same stuff, so you could get a group together to rent a house in a city or something.
Otherwise you could look for a 1-person bedsit or look for people advertising for a flat-mate. You may want to try asking with an estate agent that does rentals...


Questions?

You're a veteran then :) It's rather surprising to hear that even with your experience you're having difficulty. I can't bear thinking of coming out with a degree after 4 years and working for a call centre or something like that.

Icarus wrote:
> Wow. But you were once a rarity then, since businesses were only
> starting to take up computer systems to replace their manual ones,
> and of course the WWW.

Jesus. How old do you think I am?!?!?!?!??!!?!?!?!?!
Hehehe, Only 30.

> Nowadays, because there are loads more
> programmers, they're all treated like peasants (or the modern day
> quivalent) and the unofficial rule is that degrees are compulsory to
> progress.
>
> *sigh*

Yeah, I must adnmit I know what you mean. It would be vastly different now, but I had a run of about 6 "right place, right time" strokes of luck.

I'm trying to change careers, and am finding it difficult even getting a reply with a 2:1 degree and 6 years programming and analysis experience as a senior programmer (I do ALL the company programming)

Still, the IT job market is starting to pick up a little after new year. Fingers crossed.

Wow. But you were once a rarity then, since businesses were only starting to take up computer systems to replace their manual ones, and of course the WWW. Nowadays, because there are loads more programmers, they're all treated like peasants (or the modern day quivalent) and the unofficial rule is that degrees are compulsory to progress.

*sigh*

Icarus wrote:
> What sort of programmer did you work as?

PICK originally (you probably won't have heard of it) then on to C++, Vb, and Java. Also did OO analysis while at work. Started my part time degree after learning these languages and techniques, so it wasn't too much of a shock to the system.

I use all the above now, as well as managing the corporate website (Html, Perl etc etc etc)

I'm a Nerd (but a cool one) :) :)

What sort of programmer did you work as?

Icarus wrote:
> Which is good, since they save thousands. But then
> again, lots want to be lawyers, docs and programmers (had to put that
> in) etc. which all require degrees of some sort.

Not really. I was a programmer before I had a degree. I've just finished a BSc, but I certainly didn't have it before I started my coding job.

Well I didn't go to uni and thought I could work my way up into marketing or something from administration, which I did, but to do good marketing in a decent company, guess what - no matter how much experience, you are hard pushed to find a job that takes you on without a degree.

I am actually glad I didn't go to uni though, cos I've realised that I was in the wrong field, I would have done a degree in business and probably done really badly. Now I'm going back at 25 to do Zoology, which is my real passion, so I know I will enjoy it and be successful at it. It took me all this time to figure that out!

It's never too late though as they say, and I am much older and wiser now.

English_Bloke wrote:
> No that's not it. I'm just a little thick is all.

Could be that too :)