Killington faces possible workforce crunch

Rutland Herald | October 17, 2017

By JULIA PURDY
CORRESPONDENT

A lift operator stands at his post at Killington Mountain Resort in January 2016. Killington has a short time left to hire and train hundreds of seasonal workers in many fields. STAFF FILE PHOTO

Killington — Killington Mountain Resort held its first job fair of the season Saturday at Ramshead Lodge as it ramps up for a busy winter that will include the 2018 Audi Women’s World Cup ski races. “The industry nationally is having some significant challenges finding staff and there’s challenges across the state,” said Rob Megnin, the resort’s director of sales and marketing.
“The overall challenge we have here is the winter ramp is very significant,” he said. “We have to bring on a lot of people and get them trained in a very short time.”
The resort’s workforce more than triples for the winter season, he said.
Even within a season, the need for labor fluctuates with visitor numbers and conditions on the mountain. Many positions are filled by staffers working on a flexible schedule or by volunteers.
But with Vermont nearly at full employment and with the World Cup approaching, Megnin said his department is developing aggressive recruiting campaigns, including direct recruiting at local colleges and internationally.
The new national immigration policy “ doesn’t help,” he added.
It’s hard to fill more specialized positions such as cooks, electricians, mechanics, Megnin said. The Snow Sports program uses 400 instructors in the ski school and it’s hard to fill those skill-based positions with certified instructors, he said. Some are local skiers and riders who work mandatory schedules, but many are from “downcountry.”
At the job fair Saturday, jobseekers from 20-somethings to middleagers checked in before heading to initial interviews with departments of their choice. While most applied online ahead of time, applicants could also apply on the spot at one of seven computer terminals, with the aid of a staffer if needed.
The on- site job fair attracted people from many different stations in life, all with a willingness to work seasonal jobs under sometimes challenging conditions on Vermont’s second-highest mountain. And many already have some tie with Killington.
Mokanna Weir and her boyfriend, Chris Pierce, arrived from Colorado two weeks ago and are staying at Pierce’s father’s ski cabin. The father volunteers for the adaptive sports program.
“We’re snowboarders, so we want to be on the mountain,” Weir said.
Pierce, who had interviewed earlier, was staying outside with their baby. Weir has applied for nine different positions “to get my foot in the door and work my way up,” she said. While Pierce grew up here, she had never been to Killington before.
Bruce Waterworth ran the resort’s wastewater treatment plant for years. “My wife and I came here in 1985 to work for the winter and learn to ski, and have stayed here ever since,” he said.
Now he is applying for a winter job at Pico because the season is shorter there, and his wife, a nurse, is planning to retire next year.
“ It pays the property taxes for the winter,” he said. Then they plan to go traveling “somewhere warmer.”
Chandler L’Esperance, who hails from Fairfield, attends Vermont Technical College. While checking Google maps enroute to Killington, he discovered he could apply online, so he hooked his laptop up to his phone and filled out his application by the side of the road. He applied to be a Sno-Cat operator, grooming trails and slopes.
“I don’t think there’s any other job that can come close to what those guys do,” he said. “If I can be doing something I enjoy, I’d rather be doing that.”
He skied in high school, he said, but never at Killington.
Resort department heads remembered what it was like to stand in the shoes of new applicants.
Roberta Hefner, a native of Brazil, was interviewing front-desk applicants. She first came to the mountain as an exchange student on a J-1 visa “many years ago.”
Judy Geiger, director of human resources, came from New Jersey in 1989, started out as a receptionist and held many different positions in Human Resources. She twice left for ski resorts elsewhere, and returned in 2001 “because this is where my heart is.”
Her experience is a common refrain at the resort.
“We bring people back all the time,” said Rob Megnin. “In Snow Sports, a bunch of them have been coming here for a long, long time. They have retired and now work in a seasonal, full-time role. They tend to be older. We have lots of situations like that.”
Once in the resort “family,” seasonals can “zig and zag” into other positions as they become open, Megnin said.
“ There are many stories like that in Killington — lifts to outside maintenance, to grooming to head of entire Outside Operations for Killington and Pico.”
Megnin puts it down to a lifestyle choice. “If you have a passion for it,” he said, “‘work’ isn’t a four-letter word.”