 Poster: A snowHead
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Well as the title suggests im considering it, im on a gap year at the moment and im looking to earn while doing something interesting. Specifically im thinking of completing the rest of the ski season in Europe (France/Switzerland/Austria) and then maybe doing as season in Japan/New Zealand. While i think im a solid candidate for what vacancies there are left i want to speak to some people with experience, do employers look for anything specific in your CV?
Does anyone have any experience working in the french alps? (Dream location)
How should i prepare for a potential interview? I have experience working in the food industry (waiting tables) and in retail. Should i try to get some childcare experience ASAP?
Should i phone hotels specifically to ask about vacancies rather than applying online?
To be honest im just looking for any tips someone has in improving my application i know that getting a job at this stage of the season will be toucgh but I'm willing to put in the work.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Phone up the usual big TO's, Hotelplan (Inghams/Esprit/Ski Total), Ski World, Crystal etc. always drop outs during the season and you can be on a plane out here within a couple of days if you are lucky.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Agreed, by this point in the season standards might well be lower than at peak recruiting time pre-season. Get on the phone! Ski World, Ski Zenith, Neilson, SkiFrance and YSE have seemed to have less demoralised reps than others imo - try calling them first  But actually get on natives and see whats on there in terms of feedback for this season.
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| Quote: |
Should i try to get some childcare experience ASAP?
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No. Anyone willing to employ unqualified people to look after children is to be avoided.
VIP Ski have some vacancies for chalet staff, I believe. Better company to work for than most.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Lorde, you might also need to explain why it has taken you so long to get yourself organised.
Uni term finished back in June 2014 - 7 months ago.
If serious about doing this season, you really needed to be contacting TOs before that.
But as Sitter and a.j. point out, there is a certain amount of atrition about now among budding seasonaires.
You might be able to blag your way in on the back of previous experience
(Would that be Barman/Waiter and Packing shelves?  ).
Best of luck.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Some of the smaller ones too. Most TOs of all sizes 'lose' people in the first few weeks - injury, illness, homesickness and inability to balance work vs beer!!!! 
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Speak of the devil - zenith today on facebook :
Zenith Holidays
Getting busy over here in the Alps and we are looking to recruit another chalet host (maybe 2 hosts or a couple) If you are interested or know anyone who might be tell them to get in touch...
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| Jonpim wrote: |
Lorde, you might also need to explain why it has taken you so long to get yourself organised.
Uni term finished back in June 2014 - 7 months ago.
If serious about doing this season, you really needed to be contacting TOs before that.
But as Sitter and a.j. point out, there is a certain amount of atrition about now among budding seasonaires.
You might be able to blag your way in on the back of previous experience
(Would that be Barman/Waiter and Packing shelves? ).
Best of luck. |
I don't actually attend uni as of right now, i start on the 15th of september. As for not getting into gear until now it's been down to a few things, i didn't get my passport back until early December which obviously meant that i couldn't apply during the main recruitment drive around september/october. On top of that i had a holiday to the three valleys in early January which wouldnt have been possible to work around.
Still an update on my progress, I have just called Alpine Elements and i am about to call Crystal. One job applied for and hopefully a few more throughout the day. Fingers crossed for an interview!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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If you can operate a broom and a microwave your totally over qualified to work for alpine elements.
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haha, yeah i actually stayed at an alpine elements hotel a few weeks ago and the staff didn't exactly seems like they were intellectually challenged by the work that they did. Figured that's a good bet for a job fairly quickly, hopefully i hear back soon :')
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Sitter wrote: |
| Phone up the usual big TO's, Hotelplan (Inghams/Esprit/Ski Total), Ski World, Crystal etc. always drop outs during the season and you can be on a plane out here within a couple of days if you are lucky. |
Don't even need to be that lucky in my experience - we had plenty of people turning up through the season and they got worse as the season went on as the company got more desperate... I know a few people who went out mid-season as well.
I don't reckon it will be too difficult. If there's not a space the moment you ring them, one should come up fairly soon (assuming it's a reasonably sized TO).
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Zenith seem a nice company. Travelled with them a couple of times.
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Ok, Lorde, that all makes sense. Best of luck in your quest.
Interesting post by bobmcstuff - is it really like that?
I've done a fair number of chalet holidays: the staff seemed proficient and stable.
Was I just very naive?
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You know it makes sense.
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| Lorde wrote: |
| haha, yeah i actually stayed at an alpine elements hotel a few weeks ago and the staff didn't exactly seems like they were intellectually challenged by the work that they did. Figured that's a good bet for a job fairly quickly, hopefully i hear back soon :') |
Love your attitude to the service industries, i'm sure all the TO's are going to be falling over themselves to hire you 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Jonpim wrote: |
Interesting post by bobmcstuff - is it really like that?
I've done a fair number of chalet holidays: the staff seemed proficient and stable.
Was I just very naive? |
I think you were lucky Or different time of year maybe? We've had or been near some pretty obvious instability before in Jan - better resort managers hide it well, but I think it's pretty common, especially at the bigger firms.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| landlockedpirate wrote: |
| Lorde wrote: |
| haha, yeah i actually stayed at an alpine elements hotel a few weeks ago and the staff didn't exactly seems like they were intellectually challenged by the work that they did. Figured that's a good bet for a job fairly quickly, hopefully i hear back soon :') |
Love your attitude to the service industries, i'm sure all the TO's are going to be falling over themselves to hire you |
With all due respect my attitude online is far from how i am in reality, in real life I'm hard working and respectful. Still the job search goes on, phoning more TO's today *fingers crossed*
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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When you say "earn money" do you mean earn enough to save while working, or do you mean just about breaking even for beer?
If the former - no hope.
If the latter - then you're fine.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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thedrewski, I'm saving £500 a month. Decent chalet staff should make enough in tips that they don't touch their wages.
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| Lizzard wrote: |
| thedrewski, I'm saving £500 a month. Decent chalet staff should make enough in tips that they don't touch their wages. |
Depends entirely upon the chalet and guests*, not the staff.
I was working in a fairly upmarket chalet last season for about 6 weeks before leaving for a better job. Some weeks the tips were enough for one beer a day for the next week. Sometimes the tips were entirely non-existent.
Can't plan on tips. Can only plan on wages. Which are (generally speaking, but admittedly not always) relatively poor.
*and how expensive the beer is.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Lorde wrote: |
| Well as the title suggests im considering it, im on a gap year at the moment and im looking to earn while doing something interesting. Specifically im thinking of completing the rest of the ski season in Europe (France/Switzerland/Austria) and then maybe doing as season in Japan/New Zealand. |
Just as a heads up Japan is in the Northern Hemisphere so it shares the same Winter as Europe.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| thedrewski wrote: |
| Lizzard wrote: |
| thedrewski, I'm saving £500 a month. Decent chalet staff should make enough in tips that they don't touch their wages. |
Depends entirely upon the chalet and guests*, not the staff.
I was working in a fairly upmarket chalet last season for about 6 weeks before leaving for a better job. Some weeks the tips were enough for one beer a day for the next week. Sometimes the tips were entirely non-existent.
Can't plan on tips. Can only plan on wages. Which are (generally speaking, but admittedly not always) relatively poor.
*and how expensive the beer is. |
Yep, agree with that. I was never a chalet host myself but managed 5 chalets over a season (10 staff) and the tips varied from 250 euros a week down to less than 100, and sometimes nothing at all (and that was for a couple of hosts who had been doing it for 7 seasons and were flawlessly good at their jobs). 100 - 150 euros was about standard, and that was split between 2 people.
I guess the question is this; given that your meals are paid for over 6 days of the week, is 75 euros enough to get through the week paying for a few beers of an evening, lunch on the mountain once in a while, food and drink on the day off, and random expenditure here and there? It certainly wouldn't have been for me. Fair play to you if you can live on that sort of amount in a ski resort.
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| thedrewski wrote: |
| Lizzard wrote: |
| thedrewski, I'm saving £500 a month. Decent chalet staff should make enough in tips that they don't touch their wages. |
Depends entirely upon the chalet and guests*, not the staff.
I was working in a fairly upmarket chalet last season for about 6 weeks before leaving for a better job. Some weeks the tips were enough for one beer a day for the next week. Sometimes the tips were entirely non-existent.
Can't plan on tips. Can only plan on wages. Which are (generally speaking, but admittedly not always) relatively poor.
*and how expensive the beer is. |
Agree with this, tips tend to be better in the smaller chalets than the bigger ones in my experience, and sometimes you just can't tell if people are going to tip or not. I've had guests in the past who have moaned and complained all week, but left us almost €100 each at the end of the week, and on the other hand I've had guests who have been a great laugh, continually praising the food and staff, excellent GFF's and then left nothing at the end.
Honesty bars can massively increase pocket money at the end of a week. Buy beers for 50c, sell for €2.5/€3 each...
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Little update on this,
I GOT A JOB! As of sunday I'll be living in Morzine/Avoriaz, guess i should change the title of this to any advice for a new seasonaire :') Anoyone got any useful tips for me, there must be quite a few people n here who've done a few seasons before!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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With whom?
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| Lorde wrote: |
Little update on this,
I GOT A JOB! As of sunday I'll be living in Morzine/Avoriaz, guess i should change the title of this to any advice for a new seasonaire :') Anoyone got any useful tips for me, there must be quite a few people n here who've done a few seasons before! |
Only bit from me is that don't forget your common sense. You'll be surprised at the lack of such displayed by some of your new colleagues (sweeping generalisation, possibly, but after working the last 4 seasons it's been evident every single time, all over the world, with all nationalities).
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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thedrewski, I have no idea why it's called common sense. Ought to be referred to as 'rarer than sodding hens teeth sense' if you ask me. 
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| Lizzard wrote: |
| thedrewski, I have no idea why it's called common sense. Ought to be referred to as 'rarer than sodding hens teeth sense' if you ask me. |
I have a feeling it's been mispronounced all this time. It should actually be "come on" sense, as that's the reaction one gets when it is not displayed.
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