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On the Job Hunt: Ski Resorts
October 14, 2009 - 12:52 PM | by: Faith ManganIf 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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