The USA and Canada are great destinations for career breakers who want to train or work as ski or snowboard instructors, do other paid work like being a summer camp counsellor, or simply travel around. You might even find a volunteering placement here!

The USA and Canada are an amazing destination for a career break. Whether you're travelling through on a round-the-world ticket, or heading over there to do a course or some paid work abroad, the USA and Canada will give you an unforgettable experience.

Your paid work options are basically:

  • Work as a ski or snowboard instructor
  • Become a camp counsellor
  • Do other paid temporary work
  • Volunteer

There are very few volunteer opportunities for career breakers in the USA and Canada, but they do exist!

If you don't want to work, many career breakers visit the USA and Canada simply to travel around. The countries are perfect for road trips of course, but you can also cross them by rail if you prefer - and of course, flying's an option if you're short of time.

Ski and snowboard instructor courses in the USA and Canada

Many career breakers go to Canada (and less commonly, the USA) to do a ski or snowboard instructor course. You can get your qualification there, then you'll be able to do paid work abroad in ski resorts around the world! Many of course, stay in Canada to teach skiing or snowboarding, and some course providers will even guarantee you a job!

After you qualify as a ski or snowboard instructor, even if you don't have a guaranteed job, your course provider will give you help finding an instructor job, either in Canada or the USA, or in another country (remember, seasons are the opposite way round in Australia and New Zealand!). They can also help you with visas or work permits. You might also be able to find a ski or snowboard instructor internship - it's still paid and gives you valuable experience.

Some career breakers of course do a ski or snowboard beginner's course. You can either do this to brush up your skills before moving onto an advanced or instructor's course, or just for fun! They tend to be shorter and cheaper than the instructor courses.

A ski or snowboard instructor course in the USA or Canada doesn't come cheap, but it does enable to you to work and earn money in some of the best ski resorts in the world. They usually start at over £5,000 but this includes your accommodation, a season pass, all training, all exam fees and job-finding assistance (or even a guaranteed job). These courses have very high pass rates, almost always over 90% and sometimes 100%!

Working as a camp counsellor in the USA

Camp counsellor work is a fantastic way to spend a summer in the USA while earning some money. With the USA's tight restrictions on work visas, this is an easy way of working there.

Summer camps are common throughout the USA and are places where children spend a couple of months in the summer learning sports, doing activities, and making friends. And of course, they need people to work there!

You don't need any experience to be a summer camp counsellor, but you will obviously need to be good with children, and any childcare experience will help your application. If you're experienced in a particular sport or activity, or a qualified instructor, you can apply to teach this at summer camp. If you don't want to work directly with the children, you can apply to be part of the support staff instead, but you must be a full-time university or higher education student to do this.

The visa programme for a summer camp counsellor is specific to this kind of work - it's called a J-1 visa. You must apply through an organisation (called a sponsor) to get both the visa and the job. You must be from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico or a specified European country (the camps will also have American counsellors there). 

You won't make a huge amount of money as a camp counsellor - the placement is more about developing experience, confidence, leadership skills and adding something to your CV. You will get enough to fund your onward travel and day trips out though, plus of course, your accommodation, food and some of your other costs will be covered.

You will have 30 days to travel in the USA after your camp counsellor placement finishes - you will have doubtlessly made friends with your fellow counsellors by this time so you can go in a group if you like!

Other paid work abroad in the USA or Canada

Both the USA and Canada have a working holiday visa programme.

If you're a UK citizen, you can still work for the summer in the USA, on the same visa that you get if you apply to be a camp counsellor. Again, you'll need a sponsor and you'll only be working in temporary jobs, such as bartending or dishwashing. If you want to stay for longer than the J-1 visa allows (it varies according to the programme you are on), you can apply for an internship, which allows you to stay for up to a year.

If you're a citizen of Australia or New Zealand, and a full-time student, you can work in the USA on a working holiday visa for a year.

You can also work in Canada on the International Experience Canada programme, which is very similar to the Australian and New Zealand working holiday visas. You can work in different temporary jobs for different employers. You need to be under 35 and you can stay for 1 or 2 years. You must also be from an eligible country which are: the UK, most of Western (and some of Eastern) Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The rules and processes for working in the USA and Canada can be quite complicated and it's quite competitive. So if you're interested in working abroad in the USA and Canada, start your application early!

Volunteer in the USA or Canada

There's very little full-time volunteer work in the USA and Canada for career breakers, but there is the possibility of volunteering in a national park. Wildlife conservation is about the only field of volunteering open to career breakers in developed countries, and it's really worthwhile! Conserving the natural environment for generations to come is as important in the western world as anywhere else!

Travel around the USA and Canada on your career break

If you're working in the USA or Canada, you will normally have some time at the end of your placement to travel around - that's the idea behind the working holiday programmes.

If you're just going there to travel, you are in good company, as many career breakers on a round-the-world trip will pass through North America. Some even go there on an open jaw or continent pass and just experience one or both countries - they are so big that you're spoilt for choice when it comes to things to see and do!

Some popular ways of travelling around the USA and Canada include:

  • Small group adventure tours - going off-the-beaten-track to find places and people that tourists normally pass by. Going on an organised tour for part or all of your career break means you have safety, a ready-made group of fellow travellers, and the chance to experience things that you might miss going it alone.
  • Greyhound bus - a stalwart of American travel, Greyhound buses criss-cross the continent. Good for meeting people, especially "characters".
  • Rail - a good way of travelling long distances if you don't want to fly, getting around the USA and Canada by rail is a popular choice for a slow traveller.
  • Flying - if you want to see a few highlights, flying between cities (or getting connecting flights to smaller places) is for you. It's not the cheapest way to travel, but you can get good value flights and it's sometimes worth it for speed and convenience.
  • Road - ah, the great American road trip. One of the best ways to experience the USA and Canada, you can hire a car at one location, drive where your will takes you, and drop it off somewhere else. This is a great way to travel if you like stumbling upon the unexpected (sometimes literally).

If you're thinking about spending some or all of your career break in the USA or Canada, see all our organisations with work, course and travel options there.