What is a Seasonal Job?

A seasonal job is an employment position with a contract for work for a period of time, typically 6 months and is usually in places with seasons. Ski resorts, summer lodges, national parks, ranches and farms, mountain resorts, or construction are examples of places that hire seasonal workers. Seasonal work typically includes your housing or cheap housing, some meals or discounted meals, and hourly pay or contract pay.

4 Ways to Find a Seasonal Job

1. CoolWorks: Coolworks is my personal favorite website to find FUN seasonal work. Coolworks is a platform for employers to create a profile and post jobs. Coolworks has a huge variety of seasonal jobs, however most in the recreation and tourism industry.
2. VegaJobs: Fairly new and similar to Coolworks, however different for the employer. Employers can search for employees and reach out to potential workers.
3. VailResorts: Although Vail resorts is highly scrutinized for being the largest ski resort corporation in the world, on their way to monopolizing the ski industry, they aren’t all that bad. They pay the highest entry level hourly pay of any ski resort, are sustainably forward thinking, and you have the ability to work within the cooperation to any of the 40 resorts.
4. Xanterra: Similar to Vail Resorts, Xanterra is scrutinized for being a large corporation managing a lot of resorts. They manage a lot of national park lodges, such as in Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Death Valley, Glacier, Zion, and Rocky Mountain National Park. I personally haven’t heard great things from friends who have worked for Xanterra, but you can travel and work in some amazing locations!
5. Department of Labor Seasonal Jobs: The DOL.gov posts jobs for companies looking for seasonal workers, mainly farms, agriculture, landscape, construction, and forestry and conservation. These jobs will feel less like a college dorm, and more like a professional working environment.
6. National Park Service: NPS hires seasonal workers for a variety of jobs from entry level seasonal work, to long term year round employment.
7. RanchWork: If you are looking to work on a dude ranch or a working ranch seasonally where the real term ‘work hard play hard’ comes from, RanchWork is your place!
8. RanchWorldAds: More for the working ranches, find a job on a cattle ranch where your interaction with tourists is much more minimal than dude ranches.
9. Google: Keyword for the search bar “seasonal” and a location you are interested in!

Applying for a Seasonal Job

Seasonal jobs typically are online applications. You will need a resume, USA work visa or social security card, professional and personal references, and sometimes a photo or video (horseback riding video for wrangler positions). Most applications take 10 minutes or less online.

Employers typically get back to you no longer than 2 weeks. If it takes longer than that, send a follow up email.

Questions to Ask Seasonal Employers

I recently applied for a ski resort job with Vail Resorts and ended up getting hired through an online robot after taking a personality test… WHAT?? I requested to talk to someone on the phone nonetheless. Remember you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you! Asking them questions to make sure you know what you are getting into and to see if you want to even do that job is very important as there are tons of other jobs you can do. Finding the right job is important. Here are basic questions to see if you would like the job. Try to talk to your direct manager on the phone if possible.

1. When does the working day start and end?
2. How many days per week will I work?
3. How many hours per week will I work?
4. How many people do I work with daily?
5. What is the pay? Is there overtime pay after 40 hours/week?
6. Where will I live and how much is housing?
7. Are meals provided?

Anything else that may be important to you, ask them!

Preparing and Arriving at your Seasonal Job

See my post on adjusting to seasonal work

Seasonal Lifestyles and Seasonal Work Schedules with Life

Working seasonally presents its own set of challenges. You work hard for 6 months or so, then you are cut loose and have to find a job for the ‘off season’ and the next season. I have many friends who return to the same seasonal job season after season. They work at the same ski resort they return to during the winter, then return to their same summer job in a national park during the summer. However, if you want to keep traveling and seeing other places (like me), you will be in a constant state of searching!! Which is partly why I love seasonal work, I love to explore and research and finding work and cool places comes easily to me.

You should look for jobs 2-3 months before the season starts. For winter jobs that start in mid November, start searching and applying at the end of August. For summer jobs that start in May, start searching and applying in February. This will give you the most job opportunities, open positions, and the highest rated places to work as an employee.