Economy

Faith Mangan

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On the Job Hunt: Ski Resorts

October 14, 2009 - 12:52 PM | by: Faith Mangan

If you are on the job hunt and love the snow, try a ski resort.  Many are still hiring right now for the upcoming season.  We went to Winter Park resort in Colorado.  It is almost done making its hires, but will continue accepting applications and offering jobs through the peak of Christmas Week.

Jobs range in type from ski lift operators to restaurant wait staff.  Pay starts around nine dollars an hour -- but comes with benefits like discounted employee housing, cheap eats and a shuttle to get to back and forth from work... so you don't even need a car.  But what draws most to the mountains for the five month long gig -- free ski passes to some of the best slopes in the country.

Resorts in Colorado are reporting they have had to participate in fewer employee recruitment fairs this year.  They have been able to secure many more local applicants than usual, while using fewer foreign workers on the H2B temporary guest worker visa.  For example, in a typical year at Winter Park Resort, up to 10-percent may come from abroad.  This year it's being cut in half with a focus on specialized workers, such as professional ski instructors.  Human Resources Director Karen Gadberry explains, "We're very sensitive to the unemployment situation and we want to put locals in Grand County to work, we want to put domestic workers across the United States to work and we just simply don't have as much need for those temporary guest workers."  She adds they're seeing people from a wide variety of professional backgrounds, including doctors, lawyers and MBA's who are using the downturn to "live the dream" before "moving on to the next phase of their career."

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Pamela

Hi, ya'll know the names of the ski resorts that are hiring people to work in the reosrts?

October 15, 2009 at 5:52 AM
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Steve

www.coolworks.com learn about the seasonal life

October 14, 2009 at 11:13 PM
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Blessed

Pay at a resort is $9 an hous w/benefits. Hmm sounds like if you are only going to work there for the money then McDonalds is paying more. You may not ski at Mickeydees but hey the benefits dont sound too promising for this gal here in Tx. Hope it sounds good to ya'll.

October 14, 2009 at 9:04 PM
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Alex

I just wanted to make it clear that the benefits we "enjoy" at resorts as employes only make life a little bit easier financially. Certainly not the only reason to work for a resort. It's not like we as employes get some outrageous deals... the deals we get only make the prices reasonable so we can live here and enjoy a little bit of paradise and try and make ends meat. Oh yeah and employee housing is a joke most resort employee housing looks like it belongs in a third world country... to put it bluntly employee housing options are terrible cesspools. Needless to say I enjoy my job working for a mountain in the winter in western Colorado. Just wanted to point out the fact that not everything is as great as it looks outside you five star hotel window. Oh yeah and hiring seasonal workers from outside the country is a very real issue illegal or legal.

October 14, 2009 at 8:14 PM
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Sandi

Have to agree with Karen here. I worked in the Tahoe area for a number of years as a ski patroller. If you think you can just walk in an say you want to be on ski patrol, it is going to take months of hard work outside of the ski area just to get your credentials. Then you have to know how to ski and ski very well, then you go through usually year of training (unless you are a transfer patroler). So, I doubt the bottom feeders and illegals are going to apply for that particular (and ski instructors as well).

October 14, 2009 at 7:58 PM
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Todd Little

Talk about perks! Free season pass for employees. Big Bear Mountain Resorts in Southern California is hosting a Job Fair this weekend (!) for a variety of ski jobs. http://www.snowsummit.com

October 14, 2009 at 7:26 PM
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Karen

Lauren is correct. When resorts hire foreign workers, we are heavily regulated by the US Dept. of Labor. We have to prove the need, and ensure no one is paid more - or less - for a job based on their home country. This is not an immigration issue and we do not hire illegals. This is a very specific temporary guest worker need in seasonal resort businesses. If you know of 50 professional ski instructors in the U.S. who need work for 100 days, please, send them to Colorado!

October 14, 2009 at 6:47 PM
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Bob

Kevin, that is an unbelievably narrow-minded comment. I live and work in a ski resort as well, and the hiring of foreign employees has nothing to do with "dems loving those votes from illegals," which is a statement that is void of any logical thought. In fact, since we are in a down economy and employers have more talented applicants locally to pull from, I bet you find that SLT will have more American workers this year.

October 14, 2009 at 5:37 PM
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Kevin

This is all fine and well but let me tell you this. I live in South Lake Tahoe and Ski Resorts around here hire foreigners, that's right folks, if you are a US citizen you may not get that job. Heavenly and others bring in foreigners every year to work. At a time when this country has high unemployment and even during katrina when heavenly could have brought people here to work, guess what, yep you guessed it, kids from Poland, Rio, Brazil, Australia and other countries, get the jobs. Our government should make it illegal to not hire US citizens, oh wait, that is the law, but the Dems love those votes from illegals, guess it won't change. Good luck to anyone looking for a job at a ski resort in Tahoe.

October 14, 2009 at 5:23 PM
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