Unemployed professionals find jobs at Lake Tahoe ski resorts

With new jobs hard to find, some of the unemployed headed to the mountains this winter to look for a job, even if the work only lasts as long as the snow.

Lake Tahoe area ski resort officials said they saw a significant surge in the number of applicants, many overqualified, for positions such as lift operators, parking lot attendants, ski instructors and chefs.

People with graduate degrees and years of professional experience laid off from their “real jobs” have been willing to move to the snow, live with roommates and work for minimum wage.

“These applicants were highly qualified and highly motivated, certainly in part because of the state of the economy and the unemployment situation in California,” said Kirstin Cattell, a spokeswoman for the Northstar-at-Tahoe resort near Truckee, Calif. “While many of our employees are perhaps overqualified for their job, everyone is passionate about winter sports.”

The majority of seasonal resort jobs, Cattell said, start at $8.50 an hour, 50 cents above California’s minimum wage.

Resort officials say Tahoe’s seasonal employees come from all over the country because jobs are scarce. The federal unemployment rate is 9.7% but has surpassed 10% this last year.

Jeff Carl moved to Tahoe at the end of 2008 after his retail advertising business went under and he was forced to sell his Aptos, Calif., home for less than what he owed on it.

Carl, 46, found work as a ticket-scanning supervisor at Northstar monitoring the hundreds of skiers and snowboarders climbing onto the gondola each day.

Pay at the ski resort, he said, is a quarter of what he made in advertising.

“I had my own business, and it got hit very, very hard,” said Carl, a divorced father of two adult children. “I took this job because there was nothing else out there.”

He tried to keep a career going, he said, but grew weary after sending out 300 resumes and getting only two phone interviews.

A passionate skier for 35 years, Carl took off to find work in the Sierra: “There’s really nothing out there. I took a year off from looking.”

Mountain resorts are used to hiring recent college graduates, young people who work for little money and ski for free before jumping into a career.

Many of this season’s employees, however, are older and of a higher caliber, according to Amelia Richmond, spokeswoman at Lake Tahoe’s Squaw Valley USA resort.

Squaw Valley received 3,000 applications for 1,000 winter job openings, Richmond said.

“They’re willing to take any job, more so than in past years,” she said. “They’re less picky, less choosy.”

Northstar had 1,200 winter openings, all of which were quickly filled, resort officials said.

“This past fall was one of the best hiring seasons we’ve ever been through in Lake Tahoe,” said Brittany Clelan, Northstar’s human resources director. “There were plenty of qualified applicants for every position -- many coming from a manager level at their last position and bringing a wealth of experience.”

Matt Zielinski, 38, ran his own real estate business in Ellicott City, Md., for eight years before landing in Tahoe this winter.

He said he was flying high with a six-figure annual income, big house and nice cars until the real estate market started its slide and he lost everything in bankruptcy.

Zielinski now works as a member of Northstar’s host department, helping visitors find their way around the mountain. He says he’s renting a three-bedroom house with three other people to make ends meet.

“I’m doing the minimum-wage thing and working with people half my age,” Zielinski said. “Three years ago, there was no way in the world I’d ever take this job. I’m working twice as hard for a quarter of the money, maybe an eighth.”

Moving to the mountains allowed Zielinski to recoup from the emotional pain of his financial losses. As a single guy, it was an easy move for him to make, though not one he plans to make permanent.

“I’ve been able to get 100 days of snowboarding in, so I can scratch that off my bucket list,” Zielinski said. “It’s time for me to go back home and rededicate myself to my profession. This experience has renewed my vigor.”

Carl hopes to find a marketing position with a technology firm in a big city. In the meantime, he’s enjoying the lifestyle that comes from living in the mountains and the free ski pass that comes with the resort job.

“I’m making the most of a bad situation,” he said. “The lifestyle is nice, but it is starting over.”

McCord writes for the Santa Cruz Sentinel / McClatchy.