# Working Holiday Club?



## jellyfish (Feb 20, 2012)

I'm 21, moving to London alone, with no qualifications and not knowing anyone there (I know it sounds crazy). I've been reading about these working holiday programs (Working Holiday Club, Global Work and Travel, London Pub Company..) and can barely find any reviews on them. 

For someone in my position they seem like the best option, and I'm leaning toward WHC, but before I make any final decisions, has anyone used these programs/know anyone who has done them? Thanks.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

jellyfish said:


> I'm 21, moving to London alone, with no qualifications and not knowing anyone there (I know it sounds crazy). I've been reading about these working holiday programs (Working Holiday Club, Global Work and Travel, London Pub Company..) and can barely find any reviews on them.
> 
> For someone in my position they seem like the best option, and I'm leaning toward WHC, but before I make any final decisions, has anyone used these programs/know anyone who has done them? Thanks.


I haven't used them but be very wary - many people think they charge high fees for essentially very little, and they are only there to make a profit at your expense. 

Jobs are hard to get and fixing accommodation can take time, but there's plenty of free help available without going through commercial organisations out to exploit you. 

Book a week or two in a hostel and take your passport and CV and go around pubs asking for a job. Once you find something, get a flat share to cut costs.


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## erina (Feb 21, 2011)

jellyfish said:


> I'm 21, moving to London alone, with no qualifications and not knowing anyone there (I know it sounds crazy). I've been reading about these working holiday programs (Working Holiday Club, Global Work and Travel, London Pub Company..) and can barely find any reviews on them.
> 
> For someone in my position they seem like the best option, and I'm leaning toward WHC, but before I make any final decisions, has anyone used these programs/know anyone who has done them? Thanks.


I did the same when i was 19. dont go through an agency, i went through CCUSA and they were in a word - horrible! and a complete let down! As joppa said just go around handing your CV into pubs or apply for jobs online, and find a flat share. book a hostel for at least 2 weeks for when you arrive. agency's charge alot with no guarantee of a job especially in this economic climate. Go it alone and you will be much better off. You might even meet someone in the hostel and then you will have the luxury of being able to make your own plans where as with an agency you dont have that freedom of choice. Best of luck! And even more luck if you fall for a brit


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## jellyfish (Feb 20, 2012)

Thanks for the replies. Is it really that easy just handing in CVs to pubs? Especially with no experience. I've only had one job (at a fast-food restaurant), and my CV barely fills up one page, so it's not exactly impressive. I'm also quite shy (one reason I'm going is to help me break out of this), which never helps with a first impression.

Erina, just out of curiosity, what were the problems with CCUSA?


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## erina (Feb 21, 2011)

jellyfish said:


> Thanks for the replies. Is it really that easy just handing in CVs to pubs? Especially with no experience. I've only had one job (at a fast-food restaurant), and my CV barely fills up one page, so it's not exactly impressive. I'm also quite shy (one reason I'm going is to help me break out of this), which never helps with a first impression.
> 
> Erina, just out of curiosity, what were the problems with CCUSA?


It's not CCUSA that was the problem exactly, i think it's all agency's that try to 'guarantee' jobs in England and then find you horrible minimum wage pub jobs. I think the best option for you if you are shy, which I was aswell is to use CCUSA or IEP for work in a summer camp in the USA or Canada. You make LOADS of friends, meet people from all around the world, many from England im sure so you will have contact with someone in England which will make things a little easier if you do decide to move there after camp, and you will get a little more work experience and its a great test run to find out whether you can hack it overseas away from the comfort of familiarity and family. I recommend it more than moving to England as ccusa 100% do guarantee you a job in a summer camp. i was a shy person going into camp in the USA and came out a completely different person. It's a good stepping stone into moving overseas permanently. Use CCUSA if you go this route, this is their expertise and they do it well. If you do decide to go to England, go it alone, never give up and have LOADS of money saved up. Good Luck!!!


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## tyran (May 23, 2013)

Hey,

Three years ago when I just turned 21, I decided that I wanted to go overseas, specifically to canada for the ski season. Me and my two friends decided that we should probably go with a company coz we didnt know anything about canada. So, we called up a few companies, and sort of like you, it was down to a couple of companies. For sum reason, we decidded to go with Working Holiday club. To be honest, it was so much worst that we expected. they barely did anything, one of their staff members were rude, and when my friend tried to cancel, they wouldn't give him a refund. so, we were pretty much stuck in canada, not knowing what to do. we ended up finding OUR OWN work and WHC wasn't a help at all. I don't know... Maybe theyre better by now, but its wasting money if youre going to spend $800 on when it could be going toward a pair of skis or something when you get to canada. My advice is go with a company that has a good better business bureau rating and make sure they're legit.
Hope this helps, mate.


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## nyclon (Apr 3, 2011)

The post is over a year old.


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## snobum (Dec 18, 2013)

jellyfish said:


> I'm 21, moving to London alone, with no qualifications and not knowing anyone there (I know it sounds crazy). I've been reading about these working holiday programs (Working Holiday Club, Global Work and Travel, London Pub Company..) and can barely find any reviews on them.
> 
> For someone in my position they seem like the best option, and I'm leaning toward WHC, but before I make any final decisions, has anyone used these programs/know anyone who has done them? Thanks.


Hey Jellyfish, I'm currently living and working at Whistler Blackcomb ski resort and went through The Working Holiday Club (TWHC). Sure they did charge me but I did get a full time job, free season lift pas, staff housing, visa assist and all that so I can confirm they are decent. I actually got onto them from a mate back home who went through them to the UK and they hooked him up with a job in a hotel in London. Not pub work that you are looking for but yeah. They got some blogs on their website so you can just contact the bloggers direct if you have questions about the programme and job - tis what I did...


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## nyclon (Apr 3, 2011)

This post is nearly 2 years old.


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## Happyduck (Jun 21, 2014)

Okay, so I have been viewing The Working Holiday Club reviews online and have hardly seen any negative comments which I find really odd. As a client of the WHC I would firstly like to start my experience by saying DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY. I thinking it was a good idea agreed to go with WHC after reading positive reviews on it and it looked like it could really help me out to get settled in London. So you pay your deposit, get phone calls explaining from people what this package entitles you to, you then decide from all that you've heard that it's a really good idea and seems legit. You pay your $700 or however much it was for what you believe is a place to live, a job, a bank account, a SIM card, Hostel accommodation and god knows what else they dribbled. Little did they tell you that the Hostel you stay at is disgusting, rarely any hot water, mushrooms growing out of the bathroom walls (Have proof of this as I took pictures), my bed had dirty spoons in them, some had bed bugs and mice traps right next to their head.
So you confirm a date you want to start working, yet you dont start until the week after, you also dont get your room options until a few days later and by then your 3 free nights (not really free considering you pay $700 for nothing) are used up and then you have to start paying 16 pound a night. Yeah you all may think its only 16pound but when youve just spent $700 or more on this package youd expect to stay there for free until you find a place to live as that is apart of the package and especially considering you have only just got your house optionals and the hostel is disgusting. So you also think that you willl get to stay in a nice house, cheap rent, living in good conditions and have all the hard work done for you...think again. If you don't pay your deposit you supposedly get worse options (I didn't pay my deposit) however my options were similar to those who did and they all wish that they didn't. You get options of places ranging from prices of 400-850pound, however the cheaper you go the more disgusting they were, some people in the hostel said they wouldnt even let their dog live at the places they viewed. Anyway off topic, you get these options which are really expensive, yet at your orientation they tell you that you will struggle to pay 500 or more a month. They also really try to convince you not to find your own place because OMG SO MANY SHARKS OUT THERE (ITS CALLED COMMON SENSE). I looked at one option and it was gross, so after that i started looking at places on spare room, flat share etc. You could rent an actual house with other people for cheaper than a room for rent in a flat. 
The job, now thats a completely different story. Im sure you all have been told you will be working with celebrities, getting tips, doing this and that blah blah blah. So this work is done through elements, What you don't get told is that you get rostered on for eg. 6am-1pm. You firstly have to wake up at 4am as you need to meet an hour or half an hour before the shift, 1pm isn't actually your finishing time, you could be there for 14 hours before you're allowed to say you are leaving. If you complain before hand and say you have things to do than you will get sent home without pay despite the fact you could have worked 12 hours that day. You usually get one 30min break in your 12 hour shift, some places better than others with breaks. You could be doing absolutely nothing at work and they still wont send you home. Also if you call up sick you need to get an emergency doctors certificate (broken leg etc.) and if you do not than there will be a 30 pound fee which comes out of your pay. Most of the time when you're sick and can't go to work is because you have a migraine, vomiting etc, those things can't get you an emergency certificate so you are almost certain to lose that 30pound you worked a few hours for. If you finish at 3am than its your problem with getting home late at night, I hated that the most, as anything could happen to someone, especially a young girl roaming the streets at night alone in a place so unfamiliar. If the work was positive and the people were nice it wouldn't have been so bad but the environment was disgusting. You would get spoken to like dirt, treated like a slave and basically everything you did was not good enough. Some of my friends even went home early as the work made them feel so depressed and home sick that they couldn't bare it anymore. 
You also have to set up your own bank account, all they do is book an appointment, Oh an 10 other peoples appointments at the same time, so some people missed theirs as the bank was closing. The SIM card you get is terrible, don't even bother with it. You pay a deposit at the hostel of 30pound which most people forget about and they never remind you so unless you nag them for it they will give it to you. It took me a few weeks to get mine back when I had asked for it. Friends who had moved out of their accommodation and requested their 200pound deposit back from WHC didn't get it until about 2 weeks later, which is ridiculous as new people are constantly flowing in. The girls who do your roster are very rude and childish, abusing people if they couldn't make their shift because they were sick. They would say things like 'you have to go to your shift', 'so disappointed in you', 'If i were doing your roster I wouldn't give you shifts at all'. They can add and change your shifts anywhere up until 8pm the night before. They tell you the uniform is cheap to buy when really its not, probably over 100pound I spent and that was even going to Primark and Shoe Zone. You'd think you'd get it for free considering we payed $700. They also reputedly explain how your pay is much higher than most places, in some cases yes but a lot of other jobs pay higher amounts. 
In other words, after my massive negative essay I am assuming you understand what im trying to say, do not go through the WHC. You are better off coming to London, staying in a cheap hostel, finding your own accommodation through websites, use your common sense if something seems dodgy. Find a job online, dropping off your resumes, looking at Facebook pages or even agencies who help you find jobs. It seems like such a big effort but it's worth it and it will save you a lot of money you can spend on travels and yourself. Since not associating with WHC I have had such a better time living in London. I just wanted to share my experience as it seems not many people have shared the negatives and I know a lot of people agree 99% with me as everyone who Ive known who has gone through them has felt the same way.


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