Working outside the box

September 8, 2022

Jase’s Working Holiday experience in Canada expanded his idea of the perfect work/life balance.

“I remember taking a moment to myself, being above the clouds, watching the sunset as the last groomer left the mountain… I felt as though I had the mountains to myself.”

After several years working for various government agencies, Jase decided to go on an overseas adventure.

“In Australia, my career was very structured. The salary and working conditions were good, but my lifestyle didn’t fit my goals,” he said.

“Working in Canada, with the lifestyle I wanted, meant working outside of a structure. It exposed me to a much more resourceful way of getting work done.”

For example, while he was working for an IT department at Whistler, replacing a computer part involved taking a gondola up the mountain, snowboarding to the broken computer and then snowboarding back to the office with the broken unit.

“There was no scenario where I was able to do that type of thing with my Australian employers!”

His #CanAdventure brought him to Whistler Blackcomb during winter, where he worked as a mountain biking guide and Information System Technician. In very few places is it possible to perform such different types of work for the same business.

“Both Australia and Canada are a sort of cultural melting pot. Both countries have a long history of immigration, which continues today. I love this about both – your friends are from all parts of the globe and different backgrounds!”

After years of travel, he found Canada very welcoming, describing how people who permanently lived in a resort town, with few employers, are “usually quite resourceful [in earning an income,] either through seeking the best job opportunities or becoming entrepreneurial”.

“The Canadians we met were amazing. Very welcoming and interested in our story,” Jase said. “Similar to Australia, there’s a lot of diversity among Canadians, meaning you’re bound to find friends… We stay in contact with many of our friends today and hope to visit many of them, who have since had children.”

Jase admits that the hardest part of living in Canada was leaving.

“My wife and I both had jobs in Australia to go back to, and in a very short time span we made a new life in Canada. We rented a small duplex that we loved, we had a great friendship group, the local community was incredible, and the mountain biking trails were amazing,” he said. “I don’t think my wife or I ever expected how much we could feel at home on the other side of the world.”

The travel bug has continued for Jase, who has since travelled around the world and settled in Andorra, a small country in Europe where he has continued his passion for mountain biking. “In the end, we discovered we were meant to live a mountain lifestyle with a great work/life balance.”

To start your own Canada adventure through Working Holiday, Young Professionals or International Co-op Internship, visit www.canada.ca/iec.