Crystal Ski Rep Interview

A snowHead

Hi all,

I have an interview with Crystal for the post of "Resort Rep" later this month, and I was wondering if anyone has had any experience of these assessment days, or has any general advice.

I know the basics such as turn up in a suit looking smart (duh) and be confident, but not anything more specific as I am only 17 so have only ever had one proper interview before. I have had experience in this kind of work but never skiing, but I know a little bit about the industry, but should I do a lot more research on the package holiday market as a whole as well as Crystal's position in it?

Thanks!

A snowHead

madskier27, I can't comment on the ski-rep specific stuff, but in terms of general interviews, make sure you study the advertisement carefully. It will probably provide details of exactly what they are looking for - a "person spec". Work out exactly how you fit the bill, with recent and specific examples of the particular qualities/experience they are looking for. Not just a series of assertions ("I am a good team player" "I have lots of initiative" "I am a self-starter" - complete waste of time). Time spent doing that is probably better than doing loads of research on the package holiday market but you should certainly do a bit of homework on Crystal. And you could do worse than search snowheads on "Crystal" AND "resort rep" - might come up with some examples of what customers expect. wink

I thought resort reps were generally rather older than 17, with some wider management experience. But good luck! snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I will be 18 by the time the season starts wink

But thanks a lot for the advice, very helpful.

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make sure you know what their "corporate values and objectives" are. They will have a mission statement so find it and understand it and think how you fit in to it and evidence your qualities and strengths. Don't be bland be specific and evidential. This goes for any job really

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

It's likely that there will be a lot of group activity. They will be looking at how you interact with others, how you respond under pressure and how well organised you are. Don't be surprised if you have to do a team activity (such as building the highest paper tower) where you will need to make sure you contribute but don't go dictator on the group!! Can you listen to others and take on ideas.

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someone posted a link to a new seasonaires site a few weeks ago, might be some useful info to be found there. Can't remember who posted it or what it was called though. Anyone remember?

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Get a brochure, if such things are still published, and read the first and last pages as these list all the dangly bits about customer satisfaction guarantees and whatnot. These are useful stuff to be able to churn out. You could also read the first message here http://www.natives.co.uk/forum/jons-gude-to-getting-a-job-with-total-ski/1762/3 and then do a general search for interview or assessment on that site as I doubt recruitment practices have changed.

After all it is free

Oh, and the very best of luck by the way.

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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

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Crystal know your age, as it is on your application form. Your age is therefore not a barrier to this job, they would not waste your time or their time if it was.

The reason they want to meet you in person, is because how you deal with people in person is what the job involves. When you meet customers, you would be the face of the company. A tour operators main advantage over DIY ski trips, is the organisation and seamless passage from transport to resort and dealing with problems without language barrier.
Your job would be to make the travellers journey easy and relaxed. They are on holiday.

People who are young tend not to irritate people, and they also are keen to serve. It is this which make youth in resort reps an advantage. Imagine if it was a 50 year old bloke who everyone was being served by. This might irritate a lot of the travellers.

They also probably have a picture of you, and how you present yourself. What they want to see is you smiling, and putting them at ease in the interview. Be relaxed, and try to put them at ease. Consider them as a customer of a tour operator, and deal with their questions with confidence and be courteous. You do not need to know all the answers, you do not need to have a lot of experience, you just need to be nice, presentable, and easy to speak to.

Good luck

snowHead

ps. Consider who might be interviewing you. Think about what their age/sex might be and their status. Who would they employ? - it is probably to your advantage that you are young, and need training. Just seem eager to learn, but confident and nice to deal with.

Read War and Piste to fully prepare you for your season Happy

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I did some interviews for school leavers, to give them some practice. I was never going to employ a school leaver (I was too far up the ladder to do so), and so what was interesting was which pupils the school teachers decided to let me interview.

I also was a school leaver myself, and remember what I was like then. I had a few interviews at that stage too, but primarily for university places and sponsorship. (summer jobs as well)

People who interview well, tend to be confident communicators, relaxed, and not afraid to sit silently. Remember, the interviewer could be more nervous than you. Like when you meet a wild animal walking in a remote path, the animal has no idea of what it is up against. You will be led into the interview hopefully, but if you listen to the interviewer and play their game, then you will interview well. People who interview well, do not always do well in the job. This is because they have false expectations and hopes, and often are not aware of all aspects of living in a ski resort as well as trying to work. Drinking all night long, getting infected with the flu, skiing too much, and having to fend off advances from ageing skiers (I have never done this to a Crystal rep)

Smile is a good hint. Smile and let the interviewer speak. Try not to dominate the conversation, you want to be a ski rep. Ski reps listen, and deal with the problem in a nice way.

snowHead

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Group interviews are designed to determine how you interact within a team. Often they will involve people analysing each person within the group, and writing notes on what they do to solve a problem, whether they support, lead, watch and listen, etc.

There is no right or wrong way to behave within a group other than to recognise that the group you are put in is likely to contain several people who "want" to be the leader but will in fact just try and dominate the group by talking the most. When a team is put together, it will require people who contribute in many ways.

If she is interested in dominating the group she should consider who she is trying to dominate. In my experience with Crystal, the ski reps have been dominated by females. Perhaps this is only what is seen, and the males all work in the background. Maybe this was because of the ski resorts I tended to visit. In the main though, if you are a male in a group dominated by females, (a lot of them likely to be bossy), if you want to work in that environment you will need to be a chameleon and play their game.

Interviews are about looking for evidence of suitability to the job. There may be some aspects like having to share dorm accommodation in resort with other reps. This may become a problem if you are not popular within a group of antagonistic and competitive room mates who are also work mates, and may not be mates at all. Independence is quite an important attribute, and being politically astute in how you manage a group and your contribution to it.

If you do not want the job, go to the interview but be an antagonist in the group. It will be great experience for other interviews.

Laughing

Panel interviews are a different kettle of fish. In such interviews there will be many of them and one of you. These interviews are designed to test you ability to cope under pressure. You will have many questioners. One of the people on the panel might act as your friend and another might be the bad cop. Chinese torture is another form of interview. The delaying tactics, and slow annoyances, are designed to see how you react to being mucked around in your mind. Just smile, and let the water run off the ducks back!

You'll need to Register first of course.

so many issues with bigtippers posts i don't even know where to start...so just going with Shocked

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Good luck.... my sister has just done a season with them, they pay you £50 a week, and dont feed you either.

Shes now having to fight for her wages, which they decided to dispute while she was out there, so she was working for free and not fed!!

After all it is free

mistral_ski, point her to the site in my sig to get some details on that before next winter...

Bigtipper, TO recruiters are retards interviewing from clipboards, you give them too much credit to think there's any purpose behind anything they do. Anyone who can walk and talk can wing their assessment centres; this is not the graduate milkround.

No problem, shes abroad at the moment but have asked her for you.

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mistral_ski, thanks, that's appreciated, but I meant to say that if she wants to do another winter take a look at the site to see who pays better!

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

albinomountainbadger, I do not give TO's any credit. Have you seen their balance sheets? They have far too much credit on it already. particularly the big two in the UK. They get most of their credit from people booking holidays in advance with them, and the assets they hold to cover that credit is called "goodwill" on their balance sheet. Something which can only be realised if the company is sold. Who is going to buy the big two TO's, a smaller company? One which obtains leveraged finance to buy them? The answer is nobody is going to buy them. They banks will keep lending to them, because if they do not the will lose their current loans. This will have a domino effect. Just like bank balance sheets, they walk on ice and hope that people keep booking holidays in advance in order to keep them solvent. When people decide on masse to stop booking in advance, they will be bust!

Yet their share prices go up, because people who buy these shares are more concerned about cash flow than balance sheets. Yes, whilst the cash flow is good the shares are worth their dividend yield. However, the risk of a downturn in an economy is just one black swan event away. Then like a grounding of all aircraft due to earthquakes in Iceland, their business model is defunct. There is a thread somewhere on here about this, but for the moment people are buying shares in TO's. Some have made massive profits buying TCG when its shares were penny shares. I do not see a massive change in the balance sheet yet. There is a turnaround in cash flow, and they have avoided being put into administration (which presumably was why the shares dived). However, as I said they are only one severe downturn away from the shares being worthless due to their debt levels.

rolling eyes

snow reports

Erm, misunderstood post alert maybe, or have I missed something?

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I understood fully the post regarding my giving too much credit. I was being a bit silly in posting a rant about their balance sheet. I would say that to some extent personnel departments are very professional in the way they do their work. I do not think I was giving them too much credit, indeed often I underestimate how good their skills are in weeding out people who will not perform well in a team.

On the other hand, the fallout rate by Christmas of people who take on these roles suggest that there is an enormous gap between expectations of the job and the reality. This must in some way be a function of the way they are recruited.

Laughing

A snowHead

A snowHead

pam w, I expect that those who leave by Christmas might have learned a lot too. They might have had a good time as well, and perhaps even coped. It is not exactly the busiest period in the run up to Christmas.

I do not know why they leave, and would not give much credibility to exit interviews. (particularly exit interviews performed by personnel deparments) They tend to miss out crucial information where it is detrimental to those doing the interviewing.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Many leave before Christmas because they are homesick and have never had a job before, so doing 90 hours a week with minimal instruction but persistent micromanagement is too much for them. This lot largely have themselves to blame and go home quickly.

Others leave because;
1) they realise the job / accommodation is poo-poo.
2) they get a better offer elsewhere
3) they hate at least one of the three roommates.

Most of these stay in resort but work for other firms.

There's a further category of those who were 'mis-sold' their job, ie waitresses and maintenance men who find themselves doing cleaning bedrooms. Here the fault lies entirely with London HR.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

You'll need to Register first of course.

You will likely be asked to give examples of times when you have :

Given excellent customer service.
Dealt with a difficult customer/situation.
When you have changed someones opinion.
Adapted to difficult situations.

Try to have several stories in the back of your mind that you can twist to fit the question asked.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

My step daughter is home for the weekend, she has done a couple of seasons with crystal. I will hand her the keyboard coz my one finger doesn't take dictation very well, here she is:

Hi.. I work for TUI for 4 years- my first two years was with crystal working in Slovenia as a ski rep.. But to actually answer your question about the interview- here's what I remember;

We were told before the interview we had to prepare a 3/4minute welcome meeting speech on a ski resort we'd been to/or liked the look of- the interview was in Kingston- Surrey- I live in the very north of Scotland and had to make my way there- pay for a hotel and pay loads for 3trains to get me there- the whole thing cost loads- and there was no guarantee of even getting the job.
When I turned up there was about 20-30 of us- all applying for various jobs such as kids reps and maintenence guys.. Anyway the interview lasted the whole day- we had team building exercises where they observed us- we had a maths test- a French/German language test (it's ok u don't have to speak another language they just really like those who do)also other written tests like 'what would you do in this situation..' and the scariest bit was when we had to stand up infront of the whole room of assessors and applicants and give our welcome meeting speech. When we broke up for lunch- before they let us back in- they called names from a list who could go back in the room for the afternoon final interview- about half the folk got through and they left all the other people just standing in the hallway- basically they just had to go home- felt a bit like an X factor audition was quite cut throat I thought. Then the final interview was one to one with an assessor and it was quite informal and quite chatty- then they called the next day or two days later I can't remember and told me I had the job.

It was a great job- long hours- hard work but was a lot of fun and made some friends il have forever- couldn't recommend it more! Good luck and enjoy!
Leah

After all it is free

Ah, davidof, fond memories...

Oh yes and scrambling the locals cars when the transfer bus fails to arrive... Eating trout every Tuesday for 16 weeks cos there's a trout farm in the village ... Endless evenings entertaining the guests ... Sleeping all day on day off rather than skiing powder to fend off the inevitable sleep deprivation ...

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Crystal Ski Rep Interview

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