My Work & Travel Holiday U.S.A 2019
How it started?
Do you like travel?
If there is a chance where you can travel for months in a lower
cost and you might earned money back home, will you go for it?
Indeed, Work & Travel Holiday is an opportunity for us. For
the first time, I heard about this from my senior Yeong Chien, who went Work
and Travel (WAT) USA Winter 2015. He had a lot of fun and told me that I am
qualified to participate the program too!
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| Senior Yeong Chien WAT Winter 2015 |
Meanwhile, I am a final year medical student and is going to
have a long waiting period for housemanship after the graduation. I always
wonder how I can kill this 8-12months time. Since I love to travel and Yeong
Chien inspiration, I went to research about Work and Travel Holiday.
- Which country provide WAT?
- How long is the program?
- What are the eligible criteria?
- How much funding to prepare before going?
- Is it safe?
Hmm, apparently there were plenty of country provide WAT such
as Australia, Korea, New Zealand, Canada, France and etc.
Australia— Only 1100 quota and no job secured prior to
departure. We can stay up for a year. (No quota left when I check, period is too
long and I do not feel secure as a first timer)
Korea- I do not speak Korean. Skip.
France- I do not speak French. Skip.
Canada- Need to have CAD$2500 (~RM7500) during the stay (too
expensive for me and I do not have friends review)
New Zealand- Only 1150 quota/yr. Can go for 6 months and
need to have NZ@2250 (~RM6100) during the stay. (No quota already)
U.S.A- Many reviews, 2-4 months program, secure a job before
departure, have shelter to stay, supervisor will be allocated to monitor us, 24hrs
email helpdesk, legal education to protect us from human trafficking or work
abuse and baby steps to guide us on the application. (Since I have Yeong Chien
guidance and review. Alright, let’s go for this!!!)
Application Story
United States of America Country Profile
The United States was
founded after the American Revolution and 1783 Treaty of Paris. The country has
50 states and 2 federal district. From its founding, the United States is a
constitutionally-based federal republic with strong democratic traditions. The
country is almost 10,000,000 sq km with 319,000,000 citizens.
There are 3 agencies available in Malaysia for WAT USA.
1.
Speedwing (Yeong Chien’s agency, more well-known)
2.
Out of The Box (OOTD) (Has an office near KLCC)
3.
Infinity Abroad (I was not aware until OOTD
mentioned about it)
Funny story was that I approached all 3 agencies. As the
application involve substantial amount of money, I was skeptical about getting
scam and prefer to meet with the staff in person.
Speedwing Story
Apparently Speedwing Malaysia office closed down and I only
could communicate with them via email. They have Speedwing Training (Asia) Pte
Ltd in Singapore but they do not manage Malaysian student. Alright, let me
approach OOTD and see how it goes.
Out of the Box
(OOTD) Story
I visited OOTD office near KLCC, the officer was a helpful
lady. She gave me an insight on WAT and emailed me the vacancy. I told her
about Speedwing story and my concern. After the discussion, she asked me to
checkout Infinity Abroad.
(Infinity Abroad please say thank you to this OOTD stuff
because she referred me to you. Lolz….)
Infinity Abroad
Once I visited to Infinity Abroad website, I decided to
choose Infinity Abroad as my agent!!
Check their website yourself and you will know why I will
choose them!
- They have all the FAQ and details about Work and Travel, from what to expect from Day 1 until tax refund.
- They have the most choices of vacancy as compare to the former two agencies.
- Their email and Whatsapp replies are almost instantly to within 24 hours.
- I met one of the person in charge, Favian physically. He shared me about the students’ story and built my confident on the agency (not getting scam).
- Payment also by stages, so we have enough time to fundraising.
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| Mr Favian Cheng from Infinity Abroad |
Get started (From
Infinity Abroad)
Work & Travel USA has two program each year, summer and
winter. You can choose whichever program that suit for your time.
Summer (May 25 to Sept 15)
Winter (Nov 25 to March 15)
Eligible Criteria:
- A full-time university/ college student, OR a graduate no more than 6 months before the start of your program
- Between 18 to 28 years old
- Possess average English skills (My English level was MUET band 4 yet American said Malaysian is one of the best English speaker at my area, around advance level)
- Able to honor at least 2.5 months’ work commitment in the United States
So I signed up WAT from Infinity Abroad and tried to
convince my best friends to participate together with me. However we faced the
dilemma of the final year medical student.
- What if we fail the exam and need to repeat the semester?
- Will all our money burnt if we paid for the processing fee and pass the interview and then we fail the exam and repeat the semester?
- If we pass the final year, our convocation is in the middle of the program and the university does not allow us to defer the convocation.
- If we go before the convocation, we may skip our once in-a-life-time convocation or have to pay extra cost just to come back for the convocation.
- There is a risk that our VISA is a single entry instead of multiple entry which will not allow us to return Malaysia for the convocation.
- If we go after the convocation, there is only 1 job applicable (Cedar Point) and only can work for 2 months which could not cover back our expenditure.
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| Flew back from USA for my convocation. |
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| “The whole purpose of an adventure is to gain some spiritual or emotional insight. When you compromise the process, you compromise the gain.” |
Where I work?
As a typical Chinese, there are a few factors leading me in
the decision on which employer to choose.
- Is the paid high?
- Is the cost of living high?
- Any chance of getting a second job?
- How much is the flight ticket?
- Whether the boss will allow me to go back Malaysia a weeks for convocation?
I would praise Infinity Abroad again for the assistance,
they recommended me WonderWorks, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee! (sob… sob…)
I can say they are the kindest boss I had ever encounter
throughout my working life! Not only releasing me back for my convocation, the
boss, supervisors and the staffs always helped me throughout the journey!
 |
| WonderWorks Colleagues |
There were Malaysian, Dominican, Turkish, Peruvian and
American colleagues worked together. We were allocated to work as rope course
attendance, concession, box office and ride attendance. It was very fun to work
with people from difference culture.
At the same time, there was a hidden staffs’ benefit in
WonderWorks---- the pass exchange program! As the employee, we have the free
access to 52+ attraction worth $1000+ and we can bring one companion for free
too! I literally went to one attraction each week and had fun!
- I showed some free places I visited in my WAT Holiday USA video, feel free to check the video below!
- WonderWorks and the attraction have the right to terminate the pass exchange program. I do not guarantee you will get it for free in the future!
What I did during
the 5 months in USA?
Well, I am not a good narrator and there were so much things
I accomplished during my stay. Please watch my video that summarized my 5
months story!
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| https://youtu.be/M2YQ2YwVvFE |
Basically I had good food, met new friends, attended some
cultural activities, working and travelling around.
Special credit to two big groups of NGO that helped the
students a lot during this summer. They are World Harvest Embassy and First
Baptist Church Pigeon Forge! Both group provided the students free
transportation from the airport to Pigeon Forge, free transport to send us to
Knoxville to make social security number, provide free lunch and dinner, free
laundry, free English conversation lesson, organized a lot of cultural activities
and trip for the students. I admired their enthusiasm in helping the students
and I felt so glad to be able to WAT in Pigeon Forge!
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| Tatiana and her husband Alexei and volunteers helped us a lot! |
At the same time I would like to thank to all my fellow
couchsurfer hosts for volunteer to provide shelter during my grace period
journey! I saved a lot of accommodation cost! Basically I only paid for 3 days
hotel during my one month grace period trip!
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| My favourite couchsurfer host, Corwyn. He likes to play board game. |
Reflection
I almost burst into tear when I watched my WAT video again
and again. There were so many love and kindness given throughout my journey.
Therefore, hereby I list down 10 reasons why you should Work & Travel
Holiday to U.S.A!
- USA is the largest economic country in the World!!!
- We should learn why a country can be so strong and make ourselves strong too!
- We can earn USD and spend for our trip! Inexpensive way to travel and explore around U.S.A.!
- There are many diversity in the foods! The portion is gigantic and delicious too!
- We can make many international friends! Some found their girl/ boy friends here too!
- The people are generally open minded and kind. I felt humanity and love!
- There are many beautiful cities, scenery and events for us to explore!
- WAT is only for 18-28-years-old university/college student! Once you miss, you cannot join anymore!
- We will learn to appreciate our country and our parent. For example, providing us good food, transportation, shelter, hot shower and strong WIFI signal.
- We can shape our independent, adventurous personality, social skill, communication skill and learn to live and help each other in a group.
* If you have any question regarding to Work and Travel Holiday, check my video to find out the answer ya! ^^
