How can I do a season as a Park shaper in Austria?

F

fruitstick

Member
Hey so next year I would really like to do a season as a Park Shaper/maintenance in Austria. When I mean park shaper im talking shoveling shit for features and jumps not looking for a role in designing's the park or anything.

I don't have any previous experience in shaping and my German isn't fluent but it is at goodish standard atm and I definitely will work on improving it immensely before I leave. The main thing that i want to get out of this year is becoming fluent in german and improving my park and backcountry skiing.The main mountains I have been looking at were Mayerhofen,Kitzsteinhorn, Stubai,PLanai, Dachstein but Im really open to anything I can get. Anyway is it easy to find work in a shaper job? Do the resort help in finding accommodation? Is accommodation in Austirian ski resorts hard to find?

If I cant get a job as a park shaper I guess the next job would probablly be looking at would be a lifty. Whats the procedure for getting a job in that?
 
all the resorts I've been to in Europe have had local crews doing them, not encountered any foreigners doing it. Best advice would be to email the general contact info for the resort that you would find on the website.
 
I doubt you would be allowed to do this unless you are an EU citizen, the minimum salary required for a Blue Card is simply too high for the kind of job you are looking for. Maybe Austria has something else inplace that would allow you to work there, but I doubt that it would make much of a difference.

In case that you are an EU citizen all you need is a registration certificate iirc.

I don't live in Austria though, so I might be completely misinformed about the subject, try posting to some expat forum.

Also keep in mind that austrian is kinda hard to understand even for some native (northern) german speakers.
 
Do you have an EU passport? I'm guessing not, but that can be a big obstacle.

Then the next biggest thing is how much park experience do you have, what are your skills.

Is it doable? Yes, but it can be difficult.

I finally landed a job in Austria with schneestern but I couldnt go because of a visa issue. By the time I got back to the states from my southern hem job I had a tight window on getting it done. I also had to apply in person in NYC. The austrian consulate was pretty good at jerking me around and wasting my time/money untill I had to find another job in the states and they had to find someone else to take my spot over there.

Wasn't the most fun experience. Pretty stressful and I wasted too much money. I think the visa app cost me around $150. I never got that back obviously. Plus the time and money spent to drive ti nyc and deal with the consulate.

They actually have a phone number as well but I tried at least 100 times on various numbers and got through twice.

I'm hoping to be able to work for the company this coming seasin but I'm going to try to work in Germany or some other country depending on what they need.
 
I just re read that and saw that you don't have previous shaping experience. I would say get a job next winter where you are at. Even in the states that can be tough to get the first job. It really depends on where you are, how legit the mtn is, and if you know anyone on the crew.

A few of the companies I know of in Europe barely hire outsiders that don't have an EU passport. And the ones that do are looking for at least a season prior experience minimum. As far as smaller individual resorts I'm not sure. Maybe see what places have their own park staff, and shoot them an emal asking.

It never hurts to ask. Maybe you will get lucky. If you do end up living there, mentioning that you are already in the country and have a valid work visa could help. Idk good luck.
 
Lucky enough to be an Irish citizen so yeah I'm in the EU and have all the benefits that come with it. I'd say in the park I can do like 80% of the features.

So if the shaping is difficult if ain't a local, are the any other jobs in an Austrian resort that would be feasible for me to work in? Preferably near the park but if I can settle for something out of the park.
 
13817344:fruitstick said:
Lucky enough to be an Irish citizen so yeah I'm in the EU and have all the benefits that come with it. I'd say in the park I can do like 80% of the features.

So if the shaping is difficult if ain't a local, are the any other jobs in an Austrian resort that would be feasible for me to work in? Preferably near the park but if I can settle for something out of the park.
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I'd say get a night bartender job or something at night in Austria and shred the park during the day.
 
13817344:fruitstick said:
Lucky enough to be an Irish citizen so yeah I'm in the EU and have all the benefits that come with it. I'd say in the park I can do like 80% of the features.

So if the shaping is difficult if ain't a local, are the any other jobs in an Austrian resort that would be feasible for me to work in? Preferably near the park but if I can settle for something out of the park.
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Thats a big plus that you have an EU passport.

As far as park jobs being tough. Its not so much about being an outsider but more regarding work experience.

Everybody wants to work in the park but most people dont want to work in the park. There are alwags a ton of peple trying to get park jobs. A lot of times, when they do get the job, they don't work very hard.

The notion that park crew doesn't do any work and the park builds itself makes the job attractive to people that aren't very hard workers. Plenty of people don't make it throughthe first year, a lot of people don'tgo more than a couple of seasons.

It makes it tough to hire people with no experience because you really have no idea if they will be any use to you.

Since you have an EU passport though ypu might as well give it a try. If you want to ski alot check out restaurants and bars like 50kal said. You can make decent enough money usually and work at night, ski all day.
 
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