Edwin Lee

I am a Canadian who is starting to plan a working holiday in London. I
am planning to get a job in the hospitality industry, probably
bartending. Has anyone here done this before and can give me some tips
as to where to live, where and how to look for work or anything else I
should do before I leave Canada? I'm planning to leave Canada near the
end of September and I will probably be working for about 6 months. I
know this is the "slow" time of the year so I am not sure how
successful this will be. Any information or pointers will greatly be
appreciated.

After the six months, I am planning to backpack around Europe. So, I
will probably need to find a place to store some of my belongings. Are
there such storage facilities available?

Thanks,
Edwin Lee

Thomas

    > I am a Canadian who is starting to plan a working holiday in London. I
    > am planning to get a job in the hospitality industry, probably
    > bartending. Has anyone here done this before and can give me some tips
    > as to where to live, where and how to look for work or anything else I
    > should do before I leave Canada? I'm planning to leave Canada near the
    > end of September and I will probably be working for about 6 months. I
    > know this is the "slow" time of the year so I am not sure how
    > successful this will be. Any information or pointers will greatly be
    > appreciated.

Bartending pays very low wages in London so you won't be able to afford a
place to live. Do what most Aussies and Kiwis etc on working holidays do and
look for a job that includes accomodation.
Best place to look is the Evening Standard Tuesdays and Thursdays I think.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/ for the online version.

Owain

"Edwin Lee" wrote
    | I am a Canadian who is starting to plan a working holiday in London.

You will probably need a working holiday visa.

The working holidaymaker scheme is an arrangement where a Commonwealth
citizen aged between 17 and 30 (at the time of application) can come to the
United Kingdom (UK) for an extended holiday for up to two years. You can
work, but we also expect you to take a holiday during your stay.
There are no restrictions on the type of work you can do as a working
holidaymaker.
There is also no restriction on the amount of work that you can do
(part-time or full-time), but we do expect you to take a holiday at some
point during your stay.

Please follow the "Do I need a visa" link from
http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/

    | I am planning to get a job in the hospitality industry, probably
    | bartending. Has anyone here done this before and can give me some
    | tips as to where to live, where and how to look for work or anything
    | else I should do before I leave Canada? I'm planning to leave Canada
    | near the end of September and I will probably be working for about
    | 6 months. I know this is the "slow" time of the year so I am not
    | sure how successful this will be. Any information or pointers
    | will greatly be appreciated.

Christmas and New Year are buoyant times for the hospitality industry
although you will probably find more work if you can do silver service
waiting. Jan and Feb are deadly quiet.

London is an incredibly expensive place to live. You may be lucky and be
able to find live-in accommodation, although just because the hotel is in
central London doesn't mean its staff accommodation is! You might also
consider another major town or city, and take trips into London at weekends,
or higher paid work than bar work.

"However if you have qualifications, it's worth aiming higher as many
backpackers in London are working in high paying positions in the lucrative
computing, medical, accountancy and banking fields."
http://www.bugeurope.com/work/workuk.html

Hotels maintain their own lists of casual staff, there are also employment
agencies that specialise in placing short term and casual hospitality staff.
You can access the UK Yellow Pages at
http://www.yell.co.uk

    | After the six months, I am planning to backpack around Europe.
    | So, I will probably need to find a place to store some of my
    | belongings. Are there such storage facilities available?

For a lengthy period you will probably find a self-storage facility cheaper
than the railway station places that charge per bag per day.

Owain

barney

In article <>,
(Owain) wrote:

    > You might also
    > consider another major town or city, and take trips into London at
    > weekends,
    > or higher paid work than bar work.

Good advice - slightly higher rates of pay in London don't make up for the
much higher cost of living. You're also less likely, outside London, to
end up hanging out with other Canadians and more likely to get to know
some Brits well (which presumably is part of the point of the exercise).