GAP YEAR anyone?
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Hi all, have anyone of you have any experience of a gap year to share?
I've heard about an account from my friend on her gap year to US and it sounds really fun and fulfilling. She mentioned that there's singapore based companies that can find secure jobs for us overseas so that we can work and enjoy ourselves in the meantime while working overseas(working holiday). I trying to get more information from her and I would really appreciate of anyone can share their experience of a gap year or your views about it.
All are welcome to reply to this thread, Cheers! :) -
Gap years are very common in europe. Rather than just limiting yourself to USA, you can even try for a working holiday visa to countries in Europe and in Australia.
Working holidays are basically what a gap year is like; you are granted entry for up to a year and you can work in any job, do anything you like and leave after a year. I remember working in many parts of Australia doing a variety of jobs; picking fruits, mending fences, crewing a boat, cooking and cleaning, and you travel with the money you make. It would have been much better than army lol; but i consider my ns life a double gap year. Pay was decent and enough to live, depending on your jobs. YOu basically get a taste of what life is like on your own and you get a lot of freedom.Anyway. There is the US work and travel programme, search that and find out what you can do. But i am not sure if they restrict your jobs to "window cleaners" and other non-Asian-Friendly jobs (you guys dont like those sort of jobs right?), or it may be a sort of "do whatever job you like" kind of things. I never went to USA. But i have heard of a very old programme i want to apply for, its the camp instructor programme, you basically spend a summer in the countryside in some state in US as a camp instructor, they get a lot of europeans involved but its open to all states (i guess unless your from afghanistan or iraq). My friends say its really cool to work and travel after you're a camp instructor.
This sort of things has been going on for ages, all part of liberal economic interdependence bonding stuff so we won't go to war in future =). But don't restrict yourself to USA, there's the EU and Australia. [One day ASEAN will want it once they successfully resolve their differences and seek to be more like us ;) ]
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Hi lord! Thanks for sharing your views. :)
May I ask how was the planning process that you went through before you embark on the trip to Australia? As in like did you manage to secure a job before you even be in the country and is there a lot of technicalities and procedures to go through before you can apply for the visa and the system in Aussie with regards to foreigners going for working holiday. Did you go alone? Haha.
Hi all please share your experience too! :D
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I had a couple of gap years - most people called it NS.
Seriously, I don't think that Australia issues working holiday visas for Singaporeans. Most of the people that I know are on working holidays here tends to arrange for their own jobs, mainly in hospitality. I do have a friend who went over the the UK for a couple of years and holidayed in between causal HR jobs, but by then she'd already built a track record in the field and could bank upon that.
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Hi Ged! :)
Haha. Actually for me, I'm currently in NS and will ORD this nov, just that I will only marticulate next august which has a gap nine months in between. The idea of a gap year really sound very enticing to me thats why I'm trying hard to research on it and hopefully embark on a journey after my ORD. =D Have you been on a working holiday before?
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Nah, I turned up here to study and ended up staying. I had eight months before ROD (yes, it was that long ago) and starting university, and I stayed in Singapore and worked for six months, went over to the UK for a month's holiday, came back to Singapore, packed my gear and left for Melbourne.
I never had a working holiday per se, but over eight years at university, I figure I clocked up enough part-time work for me not to have missed it.
Anyway, if you're looking to have a working holiday anywhere, I'd recommend that country's immigration department as your first port of call. As far as I understand it, Australia has a working holiday arrangement with Malaysia but not Singapore: http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/working-holiday/visa-options.htm