Ski Brodie is an independent guide and does not recruit for anyone. Applications go directly to whichever operator is hiring. What follows is what the work actually involves, which the adverts tend to leave out.
The shape of the workforce
A Berkshire ski area runs a small year-round staff and a large seasonal one. Winter hiring generally starts in the autumn, with positions beginning in November as snowmaking gets underway, and the season runs to early April.
There is a second, smaller hiring cycle in spring for the summer attraction park, which runs from late May to mid-October — see summer.
The workforce is a mix: students, retired people, second-jobbers from the surrounding towns, and a smaller group of people who move for the season.
The roles
Lift operations is the largest single group. Outdoors for the whole shift, in whatever the weather is doing, loading and unloading a chairlift. It requires no experience and a genuine tolerance for cold.
Snowsports instruction pays better and requires certification for anything beyond entry level, though most areas will train and certify someone who commits to a season. It suits people who can teach as much as people who can ski — the two are not the same, as anyone who has had a bad lesson knows. What the job involves from the other side is on ski and snowboard lessons.
Rental and repair shop work is technical, indoor and busiest in the first two hours of every day. Binding adjustment is a safety-critical task and is trained and certified.
Food and beverage, across the cafeteria, the taverns and the function operation. The largest employer within any resort and the one with the most transferable experience.
Snowmaking runs overnight through the cold months. It is hard, wet, cold, technical work on the mountain in the dark, and it is paid accordingly. It is also the reason the resort has a season at all — see when the hills run.
Grooming is the other overnight job, driving winch cats on steep terrain. Skilled, well paid and hard to get into without experience.
Ski patrol requires medical certification — usually outdoor emergency care — plus strong skiing. Many areas run volunteer patrol alongside paid staff, which is the usual route in.
Lodging, front desk, housekeeping and maintenance, which are year-round rather than seasonal at properties that operate in both seasons.
Reservations and administration, the indoor, conventional-hours end of the operation.
Pay, hours and perks
Seasonal resort work is not well paid in absolute terms. Most front-line roles sit near the regional minimum, with premiums for overnight snowmaking and grooming and for certified positions.
The compensation that matters to most seasonal staff is the season pass, which comes with almost every role, along with discounts on food, rental and lessons, and reciprocal arrangements with other areas. For someone who was going to buy a pass anyway, that is a meaningful part of the package — the standalone cost is set out on season passes.
Hours are weekend-heavy and holiday-heavy by definition. The busiest days of the year — Christmas week, the February school break, every Saturday — are the days everyone works. Anyone wanting weekends off should not apply.
Shifts start early. A lift operator on a hill that opens at half past eight is there well before it.
The housing problem
This is the constraint that decides whether a season here is viable, and it is rarely mentioned in a job advert.
Berkshire County has a small rental stock, and a large share of it is committed to short-term visitor letting through exactly the months a seasonal worker needs it. Some operators offer staff housing; many do not, or offer very little.
Anyone moving to the area for a season should establish housing before accepting the job, not after. The alternative is a long commute on winter hill roads, which is both expensive and genuinely unpleasant — see getting here.
For local applicants this does not arise, which is why the workforce here skews local more than at destination resorts.
Who it suits
Students on a winter or summer break, for whom the pass and the sociability are the point.
People already living in the county who want additional income in the season.
Career changers testing whether the industry suits them, for whom a season is a cheap experiment.
Retired people, who are a larger part of the workforce here than most visitors assume and are frequently the most reliable staff on the hill.
It suits nobody looking for stable weekday hours, a substantial income, or a job that continues in April.
Applying
Applications go to the operator directly, and the autumn is the time. Year-round positions are advertised as they arise.
Certifications — instructor qualifications, outdoor emergency care, a commercial driving licence — move an applicant to the front of the queue and are worth acquiring before applying rather than after.
Note that this site is not affiliated with any resort and cannot forward an application or answer questions about one. The contact page is for corrections to the guide itself.