Winter Jobs and Gaps in Work?

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Permalink Reply by Brenda on February 7, 2009 at 9:30am

I'm going on 11 years as a seasonal and I have rarely worked in the winter. I mainly only do summer seasonal then go home and rest up until next summer.

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Permalink Reply by Kimberly Barnes on February 7, 2009 at 9:42am

Brenda, I assume you must have some other income inorder to be able to do that?? I can't imagine myself being able to save enough money to take the winter off.

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Permalink Reply by jackie morris on February 7, 2009 at 10:34am

we are starting full time this year at yellowstone and then will try to go south during the winters hopefully grand canyon or mt zion possible sequoia we will live in rv and travel for a few years till we find somewhere we want to stay all year. hopefully it will be as easy as it sounds. we are 46 and 48 years old we have saved for several years and have decided to enjoy now because you never know what the future will hold!

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Permalink Reply by Kimberly Barnes on February 7, 2009 at 11:29am

Jackie, my life has changed so quickly over the last couple of years that I say GO FOR IT!! People wait their entire lives to start living and then someone gets sick or dies and its too late. Like you say you never know what's in the future. I think its great you have a partner to travel with that must be so nice.

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Permalink Reply by Keith Larson on February 7, 2009 at 9:30pm

The seasons vary. The longest time I've had between was three weeks. That was a bit long then, but I've also started to look at some short term 'volunteer' opportunites if I have that long of time in the future. Ski resorts normally don't look to strt until sometime in November. Winter ranch season starts in Arizona in late September/early October. There are some Floridian resorts that begin Oct/Nov also. There are also some places that are looking year round that may have some availability.

I have used the vague January/June times for the best times to search. But there are some winter places that will look in May and some summer places that are recuiting as early as November. Some are later. There are also sometimes recruiters that travel to other locations, especially ski resorts in the Tetons/Yellowstone areas, and Florida winter places in the New England summer jobs along with the few eastern ski resorts.

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Permalink Reply by Dallas on February 8, 2009 at 4:13pm

I usually go somehwere warm (Florida, Hawaii, Arizona, ect...) and they usually will still have outdoor jobs plus you get to stay in the warm. My other friends have just worked at ski resorts or a winter ranch for the winter. Most places start hiring for winter in October but some places will hire sonner and later. There are times when it's tough to find a job, but it is never too early to start looking at places that hire around the time when you're done working. You can also ask people you will work with about where they are working in the winter. I've found some awsome places that I had never heard of and I was able to go there already knowing someone. If you have any other questions feel free to ask me or check out my website... http://www.outdoortravellife.com Good luck

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Permalink Reply by Ryan & Nicole on February 14, 2009 at 11:17am

We left Chicago in Nov without jobs lined up. We found employment within days of arriving in AZ for the winter. I was scared at first, but it has worked out great!

All of the places we have applied to are so use to seasonal workers that gaps in employment don't really mean to much to them. There are people that work different seasonal jobs year round, and some that only work in the summer. Seasonal resorts totally understand the "seasonal" lifestyle.

Gaps can be as long or as short as you would like. We are purposely chosing to have a month gap before our summer jobs start. Some places, like the Grand Canyon, are year round. You can basicly start as soon as you want.

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