Trying to move out west for the season - Any Advice?

Hi everyone,

So I'll be graduating from college this December, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to spend the remainder of the season working and skiing.  The problem I'm running into is that most leases and jobs begin in November, and I won't be able to move until late December / early January. 

I was thinking about trying to find a place in Salt Lake City, but I'm open to moving anywhere.  I guess it would be a farther drive to the mountains if I were to be in SLC, but I was hoping that might be easier to get a lease that doesn't start so soon.

I was wondering if anyone has any advice, whether on where to try and go or on how to go about finding somewhere to stay?  I have some money saved up, (maybe a few thousand) but I was hoping to get some kind of job as well.

Thanks!

Ski bum jobs are a dime a dozen, as long as you pick an area with lots of resorts nearby, you'll be fine.  As far as finding a place to stay, try craigslist or wait till you get into town and can find roommates. 

 I  graduated in December and couch surfed for a month before I found a place to live. I wouldn't worry about a lease until I knew were I wanted to live.  What are your priorities?  How long will you stay?

Slc is easy because your housing pool is huge, but it's NOT a ski town.   

Ski town jobs used to be a dime a dozen, but actually this season finding jobs in ski towns is the hard part and finding housing is the easy part.  It varies from resort to resort, but I'm hearing in most ski towns this year the same thing... jobs are tough to find.  Here in Steamboat, basically all of our seasonal positions (ie lifties, dishwashers, snot-wipers, etc.) are ALL filled, no joke (and have been filled for about a month)... the only things left on the job board (online and in the office) are a few supervisor and volunteer jobs.  Same thing goes with jobs at other companies in towns, the newspaper has just a handful of seasonal postings (if any).  So sorry, not trying to sound like a stick-in-the-mud, just giving you a bit of reality for this season.  There will probably be a few openings due to people leaving mid-season, but I would highly recommend trying to find a job first.  If you're looking at SLC, might not have to worry as much about employment since it's a big city, but if you're looking at the resorts, be prepared to be on the jobhunt a bit longer.

Yeah, here in Whitefish, both my daughter and I applied for jobs at the mountain about 6-8 weeks ago.  Basically we were told all their old employees came back this year.  There's NOTHIN' posted right now.  The Help Wanted column in the paper?  Less than a full column.  And some of those ads are ads about "scams", not real ads.  The ads are for nurses, mostly.  I'll be interested to see if the lifties are imports this year or locals.  The last few years have been imports, which will be really irritating given the level of unemployment around here these days. 

We had a record number of employees returning. If you got something, you hold on to it right now.

Harder, but I wouldn't say really hard.  The resort I work at definitely cut back a lot on labor, but a college grad with a good personality probably wouldn't have that hard of a time getting a job.  

hard to argue its not a ski town when your at the cotton bottom, lone star, or the any of the many bars in Sadny, Midvale that pretty much only skiing and climbing bums go to.... yeah it can be decidely ski bum.