J – Jobs – Ski Industry Jobs
Without casting the net too widely to incorporate all jobs within the ski resort industry, “Snow Jobs” basically fall into two categories: on the snow jobs, and service.
On the snow jobs cover a wide variety of positions and with them differing degrees of expertise and qualifications. Ski patrol, and ski and snowboard instructors come top of the list in terms of experience, and there are likely “pecking orders” at each and every resort when it comes to trying to break in to either category. At Winter Park Resort, opportunities exist for involvement with the Competition Center (gate marshalling, course preparation, etc), the National Sports Center for the Disabled SCD (voluntary, but ski passes are traded out for hours orked), Mountains Hosts, etc. Operations cover all manner of technical disciplines, such as snowmaking, snowgrooming, ski technicians, lift operators, and maintenance, etc.
Service is much broader and, according to JobSearch, covers “food preparation, waiting and bussing tables, bartending, ski shop staff and janitorial work among other services. The hotel positions would cover reservations, check-in, valet and room service, maintenance and janitorial staffing. The positions that become open on a seasonal basis are usually at the entry level and don’t require a lot of past experience so the main criteria is good grooming, good personality and again, most importantly – dependability.”
Because the ski season is only about 5 months old, the ski resort industry relies heavily on seasonal employees, and thus attracts the traditional “ski bums”, fresh-out-of-college individuals taking a “year out”, international exchange students, and anyone who either has a seasonal summer job as well in the same locality, or who can go “down under” to Australasia and ply their trade there for that winter. Most people still in the ski resort industry would claim to be a ski bum at one stage in their life. I’m proud to say I was – at the age of 28 – taking a 90% pay cut to work for $2.50/hour for a ski lodge in Winter Park back in 1991. I had housing, meals, a subsidized ski pass, 4-midnight shift, skied 135 days and even had $20/day for beer, which was not enough as it turned out. However, I had an absolute blast, and I’m still here 15 years later!
