Working as a Ski Instructor
Working as a ski instructor can take you to places you’d never have dreamed. It can introduce you to people from all walks of life and broaden your horizons. If you’re making a huge career shift, it may not seem like an obvious career choice to the people around you. But don’t let that stop you. It is a viable career choice, with a huge amount of opportunities and benefits.
Daily Life
Working as a ski instructor, no day is ever the same. Working over a whole season this becomes very clear. Because as the time of year changes, so does everything else. This can include the type of guest you work with, number of work days on offer, condition and amount of snow or events happening in resort. Some things are inevitable though. You’ll be in your boots, on the mountain enjoying the beautiful scenery you’ve chosen to live in.
Skiing – all day, every day
When living and working as a ski instructor, you need to be able to get up and go. Whether you like skiing on blue sky day or in deep powder, you need to have love and enthusiasm for our sport to make the most of any conditions. Being a professional instructor requires training, therefore improving and practising your own skills is part of the job. Not least your own skiing technique. The only way to do this is to ski for yourself, as much as possible. Bonus.
Instructing
Working as a ski instructor is a rewarding profession and will be satisfying no matter the client you have. Therefore working out what your client wants from you and helping them achieve their goals never gets old. You can be the difference that makes someone’s holiday memorable or even leads them to pursue their passion for snowsports. Tailoring your lessons to the individual can be challenging and adds to the reward. Nothing is more helpful than experience when working with people from all over the world.
Location
A huge benefit of working as a ski instructor is getting to live in the mountains. Ski resorts can vary a lot depending on the country and clientele that ski there. This means you can pick a resort that’s best suited for you. Whether you’re into park, backcountry, steeps or long groomers. Whether you want to teach children, private clients or more experienced skiers, there’s a huge amount of variety. Being outdoors every day in some of the best environments in the world can’t be taken for granted.
Work Schedule
Working as a ski instructor is slightly different to the ‘normal’ work routine of others. First of all, it’s seasonal. This gives you the option to chase winter around the globe. On the other hand, it gives you time to pursue your summer adventures. Having another flexible or seasonal job is a great way to vary your income and lifestyle. Working hours vary depending on the ski school you choose to work for and the time of year. Over busy peak periods, there will be lots of consistent lessons running. In off periods you have more room to enjoy the quieter mountain whilst not missing out on income.
Meeting People
Working as a ski instructor you’re in contact with people from all over the globe. You’ll get to know the local people in your resort. Your colleagues and friends will become people from different countries and upbringings. You will teach people from every continent. As a result, you are opened up to new cultures and ways of life every day. Living in an environment with so much variety means the social opportunities are huge. You will meet like-minded people who can become friends for life. The people you teach can also become people you teach every year and consequently become friends with too.
Money
Wage and income when working as a ski instructor are variable. However, housing and living costs are often equivalent to earnings. Depending on the nationality of your clientele tipping is also quite common. This can be a big bonus and can definitely help buy essentials or boost the savings. One thing is certain, the higher the qualification level you have, the more you earn. If you’re careful with your money and take the work that’s on offer, there no reason to not have earnings built up at the end of the season.
Opportunities
Being a varied industry, working as a ski instructor can lead you on many different paths. After completing the lower levels of ski instructing your opportunities open up. Teaching guests is a very rewarding job, with plenty of options for future improvements and branching out. Running park sessions, race training, adaptive lessons, completing a second discipline, off-piste and more. There are many opportunities to find your niche or be multi-skilled in the industry.
Our aim at Subzero Coaching
Through our range of ski instructor courses, we want to be able to support snowsport professionals throughout their careers. Every year we research and develop new programmes as well as continuously refresh the “older” ones. This way we are able to provide cutting-edge education and insight knowledge to our instructors.
Through an expanding network of partnerships with ski schools across Europe, we are able to secure job opportunities for participants to our courses. At the same, this also allows employers to trust the new instructors will deliver great lessons. Elevating performance across the board.
