<p>My DD lives in the UK and attends university there, she has successfully worked proctoring exams, grading papers, etc. A friend of hers works in catering. They both got RA jobs (called Wardens there :)) for next year providing room & board. There is a limit of 20 hours a week on student visa’s in the UK.</p>
<p>plymeth, I am not sure that what I am sharing about my daughter is all that useful for you but I will surely answer your questions. Your situations are quite different, however. </p>
<p>For one thing, she was already in college and your gap year is not such a situation. She also was seeking full time work and not part time on the side while attending college. We also do not support our kids’ summer activities or trips while in college or after, so all her jobs had to fully support her living overseas and traveling, etc. We certainly paid for college but not for the summers or travels or job experiences. She did study abroad in Italy one semester and we paid for that.</p>
<p>When my D worked at the camp with French kids who were trying to learn English, I am sure one reason she was hired (besides her having work experience with kids previously) was due to her being pretty fluent in French by that time. It was the summer after her sophomore year in college and she had studied French in K-12 and also in college (though that was not her major). However, at the camp she taught at, the staff and kids had to speak in English so as to immerse the kids in English, but it helped that she could speak French (obviously the kids were not that good at English). That job did not require a college degree. Many of the staff were from France, however, and many were studying to go into fields related to children (though that was not her situation). She has remained friends with many of the staff members and has visited them all over (she just visited one in Paris two weeks ago and another came to visit her in Switzerland last week in fact and she traveled one winter to Asia with one of them). </p>
<p>When she interned at the architecture firm in Paris, she was a college student and it was the summer after her junior year. She found the job entirely on her own and actually there was no advertised position but she just asked them if she could work for them. </p>
<p>When she interned last summer for an architect in the French Alps, she was in graduate school for architecture and so had an undergrad degree at that point. She wrote that architect cold after having researched people she might want to work for. </p>
<p>And her job this summer and the one for next year…she has an undergrad degree and two years of grad school under her belt and has built up a resume at this point. Her field is architecture and she also worked one summer for an architecture firm in NYC as well. </p>
<p>The job working at the summer program for kids was not truly in her field, but she loves France and knows French and wanted to work overseas and since she had experience with kids on her resume, that led her to try for that kind of job at the time. Since that point four years ago, she has pretty much only taken jobs in her career field of architecture and has combined that with a love of travel or working overseas, etc. She did work part time this past spring in Cambridge, MA tutoring kids and actually her job in France in the kids’ program one summer helped show experience for that job. But that really is not her interest area itself. </p>
<p>Most of the jobs my D has gotten were not advertised positions. She has initiated inquiries and sometimes created her own positions. </p>
<p>Also, one more thing is that the summer of 2006 when she wanted to spend a summer working in France, she looked in two areas where she could say she had some work experience…one was working with kids and the other was serving food in restaurants (she had experience with both at jobs during high school). So, half her applications were to restaurants and half to programs for kids in France. She actually was offered one job serving food at an inn in France that included housing and was seriously considering taking it. I can’t recall the details now but there were some issues with the time line and she got the job in the kids’ program and took that one and loved it.</p>
<p>When my D went abroad- part of her prep was earning enough money not only for the airfare/lodging etc, but also to use for expenses that she might incur while there.</p>
<p>Especially if someone else is covering your major expenses, saving up spending money sounds relatively managable.</p>
<p>I know that it is extremely difficult to get a work visa in England- and if you don’t already know French- that may be a challenge to find work there- have you found a self study program?</p>
<p>My daughter has also traveled extensively in Europe and elsewhere for pleasure and not just living there. In those instances, she saved money up ahead of time. You could work the summer (or a little longer) prior to your gap year at home and then save up enough extra spending money for your long trip abroad. </p>
<p>I have another daughter leaving in two days for Europe for two weeks. One key is having other people fund your travels, ha ha. But she was asked to perform in Europe and so her flights and her stay for one week are all paid for by others (per her contract) and since she’ll be over there anyway, she is traveling for an additional week and has savings from her own earnings to do so ahead of time. She also was asked to perform something entirely different in Abu Dhabi in September…again, all expenses paid. Both my kids have managed to find ways to go to countries at others’ expenses (not mine or theirs).</p>
<p>Working at the State Department, Oxford educated or not, is absolutely not feasible as far as the term time goes. For one thing, there are not exactly part time jobs at U.S. embassies overseas. There are internships, but the deadline for Fall and I think Spring applications have passed. You could apply to be an intern at an embassy overseas for the Summer after your year abroad, the applications for summer internships in 2011 are due in November 2010. Most of the internships are unpaid, though you get free housing if you are interning overseas and an embassy driver will bring you to/from work if there is no realistic public transport. You also have to buy your own plane ticket to and from your internship post, so just factor that into your thinking. </p>
<p>Other than that, there are Stay In School positions which are term time internships for students which are low paying but as far as I know they are only available to students in the U.S. </p>
<p>So, now that we’ve gotten that notion out of the way on to reality: </p>
<p>What I did when I studied in Europe, was I babysat. It’s very lucrative, it’s short term, it works around your school and vacation and personal travel schedule. I advertised on GumTree, which is a website in the UK similar to craigslist. I mostly babysat for American expats or Canadian expats, usually people who had just re-located and hadn’t yet hired a full time nanny. If you’re willing to be a full time or a live-in nanny, there are even more jobs available. I also had a valid UK student work visa, just in case parents were interested in seeign it. They’re expensive, but you’ll need them to get any kind of legit job and to cover yourself legally speaking.</p>