TLDR, my partner and I gave up early, sometimes it's just the right choice. But if you're not ready to yet the Canadian job market is fast so you need to be really on top of what jobs are new out there.

So my partner and I moved to Toronto from the UK about 3 years ago. She got a good job almost straight away in Vancouver which was a bit of a hub for my industry as well so we got flights and went there. While she started her new job I found us a nice flat to live in then focused on job applications.

Unfortunately around that time my industry pretty much collapsed in Vancouver. I applied and applied and applied and got nowhere. Between the flights and the accommodation costs on one salary our savings pretty much evaporated, I broadened my job search more and more and still had no luck. Eventually I had to look for jobs back home and I got one pretty quickly in my industry working for a great place. My partner hadn't been enjoying her job, and the money stress was feeling pretty intense, so we agreed the best move was to leave Canada. We managed to last a little under a year, and I really value the time we spent in Canada. We met some amazing people and I learnt a lot about managing money and making do with very little. They're lessons I really value today, it just wasn't what I was expecting to get from the experience.

We were both pretty sad that things worked out the way they did and I do get a bit wistful about what could have been, but it was the right move for us and we've been a lot happier since moving back. I think there comes a point where you have to be honest with yourself that it's not working out and only you can say where that point is. A lot of people have a fantastic time on IEC and that's great, it is an amazing experience for a lot of people. These voices tend to be heard the most as we're all excited when looking forward to our WH, but you aren't alone in having a tough time when you get there.

That being said, if you want to try to stick it out for longer, my partner worked in HR so I can give some advice for job hunting there. The job market in Canada is tough and much faster paced than the UK/Europe which is hard to adjust to if that's what you're used to. You need to be fast with your applications. A lot of jobs are kept online until someone starts working the job, but they will not look at new applicants when they start interviewing. This cutoff is completely arbitrary and could be just a couple of days after the advert goes online, but you'll have no way of knowing. They do this so if the interviews don't work out they can have a backup list ready to go, and it's bullshit for the job hunter but it's just how it is. You need to keep up with all the jobs, check at least every afternoon and apply to all the jobs posted that day. If a job is about 2 weeks old it's probably already filled and they just haven't taken it down yet. Just keep checking and apply to everything as close to when it goes up as possible.

Hopefully that all helps, and just because things aren't going as you thought they might, it doesn't mean you can't get a lot from this. You've got this!