I don’t know how it’s in the US but I did my first year as a ski instructor in Switzerland last year, so maybe it still can give you an idea…
I finished my apprenticeship/education in august and I had the same decision to take as you. Starting in the «real» world, like all of my friends did, or spend a season in the mountains, the thing my heart desired the most. I couldn’t imagine myself sitting one day longer in an office starring into a computer screen for 8.5h/day. So, I decided to become a ski instructor for one winter season.
It is the best decision I could have taken; it was the first 100+ ski days season for me, I met so many awesome dudes/girls there, woke up every morning seeing the sunrise on mountain peaks and I finally felt free in a long time.
The job really helped me to get in touch with a lot of people there, just because you go drinking beers with all the ski instructors after work every day (yeah you’ll probably become an alcoholic there). It really helped me to make lot of new awesome friends and I never felt alone, which sometimes is little scary moving to a new place. (This will probably be the case whatever job you take at a ski resort)
What made ski instructor such a great experience for me, was that I discovered that I like to work with children. At first, I was sceptical about working with children. I’m the kind of guy who used to be like, is there some rohypnol or duct tape we can use?, as soon as I heard a child crying in an airplane or bus. As I started working at the ski school, I found out that I love to work with children. The smiles they have on their faces at the end of a ski day with you is so satisfying. Also it was really fun to tell them stories, playing snowball fights with them or build a snowman. It allows you to keep your inner child somehow ^^
Most of all you can teach something you personally think is something really important in life. Damn I was stoked seeing my 3y old student throwing his first 180 ^^
Of course, there is also a downside to be a ski instructor. You don’t have guaranteed working hours (and max. 6h a day). So, there is a big financial insecurity. During main season you might work 20 days in a row (yes also hangoverd af on 1. January) while the rest of the season you’ll have maybe no income for a week or two. Moreover, we only knew like the evening before if we had to work the next day. So, you had to be super flexible.
A risk I only thought about at the beginning of the season and never thought about later (luckily never had to): As a skier you probably get injured sometimes… Normally it just sucks to be injured but as a ski instructor in such a case you don’t have a job no more and still need to pay rent, taxes, insurances( don’t know if that’s a thing in the US) .
I went working in a office for 2.5 month before ski season, so I had some money left if there wouldn’t be enough work or I got Injured during the season. Luckily there was enough work and I could go skiing for myself the last 1.5 month of the season with the money I had left over.
For sure at some point it got me frustrated working like 20 days in a row with children on blue slope while my friends would go hit the perfect shaped park. On the other side over the whole season I had still enough time to hit the park being every day on the mountain.
If you want to ski as much as possible for yourself, I would recommend an other job in the ski town but if you think you would like to call the snowy mountains your office go for it, it’s an awesome experience!
In terms of getting a «real» job or go to a ski town… as said above, if you don’t do it now you’ll probably never do it. It’s not like you can’t search a “real” job/get a career next year, and a break as a ski instructor might also help you to figure out what you’re expecting from life/work for the future.
