retail sales associate

instructor

forklift operator

equipment service technician

cook

Vail Resorts

A typical day at work: 

locked up the door, checked the "to do list" that the night crew left last night, if there is any projects or jobs to finish we started with that. Turn on all the machines and make sure everything is good and in order for the morning rush (Carleton Tuning is the most busy tuning centre in the whole whistler!) 

most in the morning its only pick-up, qucik/buff waxes and mayby someone who needed help setting their DIN-settings. 

when the morning rush is over, i was starting up the Montana tuning machine, all the rental stores use to pick up their skiis and boards just after the rush. Fresh ones out - used skis in! 
just start tuning! 

Normaly we was 2-3 guys in the shop, so everyone was helping eichother out with tuning and taking care of customers during the day, 

in the afternoon the night shift guys get in, hopefully before the rush starts, beacuse it can get insane busy! its just people, ski, snowboards, customers, worksheets and a looong line down the halway! so you really have to stay focused and calm on what you are doing! 

if you are working night shift, you make sure all the new rentals and customer skis and snowboards are done for the morning, you just dont leave the shop even if its christmas and its 03.00 in the morning! 

i was learning a lot and got some really good feedback from the experienced guys! at first just the basics, but when mastered that and you showed the senior guys that you where intrestead and wanted to learn more technics the senior guys showed me a lot of good tricks! 



at the end off the season i was doing everything that the senoirs did, sometimes almost even better.. 
the only thinh i havent done is a mounting a binding on a ski, i kind of know how to do but never done it my self.

Since Vail took over Whistler Blackcomb all things went downfall. Staff is required to work more and while prices rise like crazy the wages stay the same and the ratio of how much you earn for the company vs how much are you getting paid is insanely low. For example as a ski instructor doing 2 half day private lessons I'm making $1600 for resort, while I'm getting paid only $200 before deductions.
While all coworkers and supervisors are super nice and helpful, the management is the worst. There is no human resources at your work location, everything is done over very poorly working "direct connect" app and you never really get a chance to talk to someone to resolve your issue and the response time can take weeks. Vail is also not caring about their customers at all and as a frontline worker all the guest grudges against Vail are directed at you. I was proud to work for Whistler Blackcomb, now I'm ashamed to work for Vail.

Whistler Blackcomb is an amazing place to work for a season. Everyone is in good form and it is great for socializing and learning a new sport or improving if you have already snowboarded or skied. I would highly recommend to anyone aged 19-24 mainly but everyone can enjoy it. The reason for this is that it is quite a low wage to sustain yourself or save for a rainy day, but this is usually the case with working in an amazing location like this and it is worth the sacrifice (snow school instructor positions do pay very well). The perks are great - food and grocery discounts, free seasons pass, snow gear discounts, flexible hours, staff housing.It would be an excellent place to go before college while you decide what career to choose, as something to enjoy after studying, or as an amazing destination to go while travelling. It also really teaches you how to save and it really puts everything into perspective especially the work/life balance.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Access to development training programs. Working alongside an amazing team. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Corporate team cares more about profits than people. They are so concern about all of their resorts being cookie cutter, that they lose the individuality and charm of each resort. Their drive to ‘centralise’ their operations to save money resulted in many team members with passion for the resort and longevity at the company losing their jobs. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
They will only say yes if it doesn’t cost the company money. 
That flexibility we had before we were acquired by Vail resorts is gone. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Because of the changes they made and the way they treat their staff, the community doesn’t respect Vail. So now when people say that they work for Whistler Blackcomb, people feel sorry for them.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The perks and the experience to be working in the mountains

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The conditions working in the mountains are tough and personally affected me strongly in my mental well-being

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
They have different programs to educate their workers and another services to support them, like counseling for example.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
You wake up early as you need to upload in the gondola at 7 am, to rise the top of the mountain at 7:45 ish. Then you run whole day to be set up for service starting at 11:00 to 15:00 approx. Then clean up and take the gondie to download at 16:00 ish maximum, as after 17:00 the gondola stop working and everyone must be down in the village.

In the event department there were two different "typical days".  The first was the set up days, where we would spend time loading the necessary equipment for future events such as fencing, sound systems, branding, timing and communications equipment. The groomers would move equipment overnight and the following day our team would set up the venue.  The second typical day was an event day, where our team would work with a group of volunteers to finish set up of the event venue. As well as run the event ensuring the venue was well maintained, safe, fun and running as per the schedule.  I throughly enjoyed the people I worked with and made some life long friends.  It was also an interesting experience working and living with people from all over the world.  It gave me a great appreciation for other peoples cultures and personalities.

I had a great time working in guest services in Whistler. Wage was fair compared to competition (although not livable, that's just ski resort culture). The managers were great, flexible when possible and always doing events to say thank you. It could get busy and guests could be difficult but always felt supported. My partner however worked in food and Bev and hated it. His management were barely visible, didn't allow any flexibility and generally spoke to their staff in a rude and obnoxious manner.
Vail reacted really badly with Covid. They told all the staff they had to leave staff accommodation, so during a pandemic we were informed we would be jobless and homeless with two weeks to leave (ended up not being true). Were not offered any help at all. 

Working for whistler blackcomb while a great experience was not what I had expected. Working in a rental shop with little staff, saw me working more hours, with minimal wage than I had originally planned. While living is affordable through staff accommodation it remains difficult through high prices on food and other activities. 
I have however made many great friends and had many days on the mountain snowboarding while working here which is a major positive.

Within my rental shop a typical day at work is meant to be an 8 hour shift but busy days, long opening hours and poor staffing saw many of these days doing overtime without much of a say in it at all.

One positive I have taken from this experience however is my now increased knowledge about sis and snowboards, relating to all snow conditions and abilities.

The best part of the job was interacting with guests from all over the world. Spending your days off exploring all beautiful Whistler Snowboarding, hiking, zip lining, or maybe a day trip to catch a hockey games in Vancouver. 

Working with a diverse team also allowed me to grow my management skills and learn to interact with different people and cultures as well as making sure production and efficiencies were moving on target. 

hardest part of the job would have been some language barriers between some international guests. But we would always do our best to assist the guest in the most professional, friendliest way possible.

It was a dream experience and I am glad I had the opportunity to live, work, and play in Whistler.

Whistler Blackcomb's Sales Department was an excellent place to work.  The Sales Culture, learning and growth development was excellent.  There was a personal balance promoted throughout the company, which made it a fun place to work as well.  We supported each other, were motivated by each other, and we were able to work autonomously, most of the time.  There was some micromanagement that could have been easily avoided, if proper training was given to the managers.  Otherwise a fun, innovative and great place to work.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Retail sales associate 3 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour
Instructor 5 salaries reported	$28.83 per hour
Forklift operator 5 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour
Equipment service technician 5 salaries reported	$22.66 per hour
Cook 5 salaries reported	$21.51 per hour

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