 Poster: A snowHead
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Anyone got any advice with securing a job (bar work or something along those lines) in Whistler/Banff for the 25/26 season.
UK passport, not sure on Visa requirements etc.
Is it advisable to wing it and go out without a job ready?
any advice greatly appreciated.
thanks
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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1 Work out how you're going to get a working visa
2 Bear in mind in the bigger resorts the constraint isn't jobs but accommodation so you need a strategy to lock that down or perhaps consider somewhere smaller
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need a working holiday visa. Get your application in now. Once your application is in their are lotteries throughout the year. Hope you get drawn out, but it's certainly not guaranteed.
Whistler has a job fair at the start of the season, which is a good option. A few years ago it was never that hard to find a job there at any point during winter. As said above harder issue is finding affordable housing there, it's incredibly expensive. If you work for the mountain you might be able to get employee housing, and they will give you a free lift pass, of course the hours tend to be worse than bar work for maximising ski time.
Banff is a bit less expensive, you could look at basing yourself of Canmore to save some money.
There are plenty of great smaller places you could consider which are much more affordable and have plenty of skiing to keep you busy for a season - rossland (red mountain), fernie, golden (kicking horse) are just some examples. Depends on your priorities though, if you are looking for nightlife, on snow activities, and all the bells and whistles nowhere beats whistler.
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Accommodation will be the issue in Whistler. My daughter has been out for 2 years and I'll doubt she'll return. Bar work is relatively ok to get. She got a job I ski school, so does that during winter. 1st summer she took kids mountain biking, then hung up Xmas lights in the autumn. This summer shed did landscape gardening. Apart from the ski instruction, she'd had no experience in any of those jobs.
Get your visa sorted and ideally a job before you go. Also get accomodation sorted before you head out.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Banff has the opportunity of “cheaper” accommodation in Camden.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| dode wrote: |
| Banff has the opportunity of “cheaper” accommodation in Camden. |
Sure you dont mean Canmore ?
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Where Banff might be an advantage is that by being in a National Park, businesses over a certain size need to provide a certain amount of staff accom. So that MAY make housing easier.
Definitely need a work visa beforehand for any work in Canada.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@johnnybegood, KK junior did a winter in Banff and a winter in Whistler.
There tend to be plenty of jobs and once in each town, he tended to find new work quite easily. For Banff try https://www.banffcollective.com/banff-careers
As several have mentioned above, accommodation is the issue, particularly in Whistler. As @TOLOCOMAN, mentions, accommodation has to be provided. In Whistler, he worked in a kitchen so accommodation was provided, but the waiting staff had to find their own. Apparently up to Can $1500pm for a 4 share room - 2x2 bunks! And that was 2 years ago.
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Just to endorse everything said above around accommodation etc. Whilst it is not as bad as Whistler the Banff / Canmore area isn't exactly cheap either. Also if you don't have transportation than it can be more challenging to combine skiing with work as Norquay, Sunshine and Louise are all a drive away.
Other ski resorts will probably be cheaper but are less "busy" depending on what you are looking for. The Okanagan resorts have quite an Australian contingent (the result of legacy owners) whilst others like Nelson and Red are further off the beaten path.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@johnnybegood, You need an IEC visa, applications are currently closed but should open any day now. Join the "O Canada! IEC Working Holiday Discussion & Support" facebook group, its very helpful. Get your application in as soon as they open and then just wait for an invitation to apply (could take a couple months).
Many resorts advertise jobs online, normally on their own jobs website starting early summer. You can also turn up to in person job fairs but seems most places don't do this anymore although I believe Whistler still does.
Whistler and Banff are very competitive and accommodation incredibly hard to secure plus expensive. I'd advise looking at all resorts in Canada, there are so many places that offer amazing skiing and they'll all have an international crowd of workers wanting to socialise and party if that's what you're after.
Source: I'm currently on a WHV in Big White!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Just to add: a bar/ restaurant job usually pays the best because of tips but working directly for the mountain gives many benefits, mainly; free season pass, discounts around the resort and staff housing.
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@archors, do you think I will still be properly considered given that I am 17 at the moment?
thanks very much
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You know it makes sense.
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@johnnybegood, no you have to be 18 to get the visa.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@archors, Will i still be able to get one in may?
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Poster: A snowHead
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@johnnybegood, are you turning 18? Then yes I don't see why not
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@archors, cool thank you
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Quote: |
Get your application in as soon as they open and then just wait for an invitation to apply (could take a couple months).
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All the applicants go into a lottery with names randomly* drawn out at a number of "rounds of invitations" each year (they haven't specified when next year's are yet).
You could get lucky and get drawn out the in the first round of invitations after your application is in. You may have to wait years - it certainly used to be the case it was massively oversubscribed.
If you want guaranteed working holiday visa NZ used to be on arrival for everyone your age. Same for Australia. Not sure if that's still the case.
* I've seen a few too many older people get selected just as they were about to go over the age limit to make me question if it is quite 100% random, but I have no hard evidence it isn't.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@boarder2020, I think I got lucky and got invited within a month or so but also my anecdotal experience from others is if you apply early enough you should get it before the winter season.
Japan is supposedly even easier to get.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Apply early enough? I'm not sure you understand how a random draw works. It makes no difference if you apply now or one day before the last draw next year. You have the same odds for that final draw. Of course the sooner you get in the more draws you can potentially be in. But there is no "should get it", it's just random and oversubscribed so theres a chance you don't get one! We don't even know how many visas will be offered next year so it's impossible to say how good someone's chance will be.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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It's not a final draw, they release invitations every few weeks or so and they run out after a while. So if you apply as early as possible you have many more chances to get invited, not to mention a smaller invitation pool.
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The number of draws is a bit of a red herring. The only thing that matters is total applicants Vs number of visas available. S we don't know those numbers it's impossible to say how good someone's chance is of getting a visa - regardless of when the application goes in.
It would be better for applicants to just have 1 big draw each year so they weren't sitting around twiddling their thumbs wondering if they were ever going to get picked out. Of course not so good for Canadians processing the visas and then potentially having a huge influx all at once.
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As others have said, look at smaller resorts and accommodation away from the lifts. When I did my season in Fernie I stopped in Sparwood which was about a 30 minute drive away but as a result the accommodation was very good value in comparison. Obviously you’d need to factor in the cost of a vehicle too but that’s useful anyway if you want to do trips to other resorts.
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