Canada Mega Thread - Information and Advice
now just have to wait for the job applications for whistlers job fair to be posted
Why cant whistler just open their job fair already
lol
amen to that lol! i check everyday
Helloooooooooooo everyone. Hope those of you back in OZ are enjoying the snow down there (lol).
I finally got around to getting my mate to ship my board bag to me in Toronto, so here it is. In my room, ready to go. Wouldn’t mind a quick board back in Whistler 
Anyway, I’m not enjoying it much in Toronto after 3 months so I’m probably going to jet off to London UK as I planned to. Have any of you ever shipped a snowboard bag that way before? I can’t take it with me on the plane as I already have two suitcases so I’ll be paying extra for one of them. Who did you use and how much? It’s looking like it’s going to be about $500 one way which is crazy. Almost a new board right there!
Think paying for extra bags is cheaper than shipping to most places. It’s just the having to carry, collect and keep around you before and after leaving that gives you grief.
The problem is I need to go back to Sydney to get the visa, then off to London so it will add up. I might bite the bullet and just pay the $500 to ship it straight there.
Hi all
I did last season in Whistler and am still here and god knows when I’ll leave so I’ll give my 2 cents on what’s been said and hopefully help a little.
The main benefits of Whistler over the other resorts in my view are:
You have 2 mountains both Whistler and Blackcomb to ride on not just one and can swap from one to the other in 11 minutes on the peak2peak gondola.
You can walk to the gondolas. I used to wake up get dressed and in 10 minutes I was uploading. And if you are in staff you’re already on the mountain to begin with.
You are pretty close to Van so day trips are pretty easy if you need to go shopping for stuff.
Things that kind of suck here are:
Lift queues. Don’t even both going up over Christmas- new year. They aren’t to bad other times as they get concentrated on the lifts for the beginner runs but you need to use them to upload still. If you just jump in the singles line it’s not too much of an issue. With the new lifts coming in it should help a bit with this too.
It’s expensive but you can live cheap if you don’t party too much.
Cheese is crazy expensive. This may seem odd to mention but you never get over it.
Some advice now
Forget cheese ever existed.
Make sure you have some savings it helps a lot to have a safety net.
The prices on the first page for living don’t included tax and tip so ad 5% tax for food and 15% for alcohol and then 15% tip which is the standard. Make sure you understand tipping or otherwise you will be treated like crap if staff know you wont because the way the system works if you don’t tip the person serving you they have actually lost money not just broken even. I work in a job were I get tipped and you always remember the people who stiffed you.
Get your SIN in Vancouver and just use general delivery to get the card sent to Whistler. Don’t open a bank account in until you get to Whistler. TD is easily the best here they are open 7 days and are so easy to deal with. They still use physical cheques to pay you here in a lot of places so you will need to go to the bank and the 7 day a week thing is very handy. I use speak out for a phone which is through 7eleven it costs me $20 a month + tax won’t you find cheaper. Don’t worry about data plans there is free wifi everywhere.
Working for WhistlerBlackcomb does come with a pass but remember you work four days a week when the mountain is open and you don’t chose your days off and the free pass works out a less then $2 an hour over the season but you do get some extra discounts in their stores so weight that up. You can get a discounted pass through most employers also.
If you get here for the September job fair and get a job remember you probably wont start work till the beginning of December may be even the middle when everything is open. If you’re lucky it will be mid November when parts are open. In October the village is a ghost town.
Accommodation wise you will probably have to end up sharing a room and paying a lot for it too. And yes a cupboard can be used as a bedroom That is the benefit of staff accommodation is that it’s rather cheap but getting stuck with randoms doesn’t always end well. You also don’t need a job with the mountain necessarily to get it there is on building for the Fairmont that if they don’t fill it they let anyone in. If you can somehow get a place in the village take it. Catching buses becomes a real pain. Creekside would be my second choice it’s where I was over winter and it has it’s own gondola to upload so it’s a pretty sweet spot. Also it has the best bus service to the village.
Your uni degrees are pretty much worthless everyone has one so your job will most likely be beneath you but you came here for the snow not to work so get over it.
Yes it is called Whistralia for a reason but there is still a decent mix of people from other places too mainly the UK or Ontario. On the plus side they sell Vegemite and tim tams here.
You will end up staying for summer don’t fight it.
Hope this helps somewhat feel free to ask any questions and I’ll try to help some more.
Good news about the vegemite and timtams, how about milo?
Great read! Thanks for taking the time to contribute that.
If you don’t mind me asking, did u get a job with the mountain?
Great post at9!
Yeah good post mate. I updated the tax / tip part on the front page
Good news about the vegemite and timtams, how about milo?
Milo isn’t the same anywhere outside Oz so you’ll need some care packages sent over.
Great read! Thanks for taking the time to contribute that.
If you don’t mind me asking, did u get a job with the mountain?
I didn’t get a job with the mountain wasn’t that interested in working during the day when I could be riding. I worked in a restaurant at night’s mainly so had the days free.
Just an FYI, Sun Peaks has released their lifty jobs.
Though don’t steal them from me 
So to those going for the late Sep job fair at whistler. What the heck are we going to do for the month and a half before work potentially. road trip?
TBH I think a bit of travelling would probably be best. Then try to be in Whistler early to sort things out and bum around before the season starts
when i emailed employment like 2 months ago they said people come to the job fair then travel around north america for a month or so
hey at9, thanks for the awesome post, was a good read. what advice would you give to someone who is arriving there in december? ive contacted heaaaaps of places trying to secure employment before I go but it seems you have to be there (in whistler) for this, and it cannot be done from abroad.
ive already secured accom in an 8 beddy so thats sorted, right across the highway from the village, should be sweet. only thing im stressed on is late arrival date and job, is there anyone you would advise to contact? or know someone who knows someone sort of thing? any info would be awesome! cheers!