Life/Career in the mountains

[Timberridge]

plumbing is dirty work...stick with electricity.

[stfu&gbtw]

He would need to be good at it.

Lol... shit, why didn't I think of that! Fuck this guy - I should have been Steven King!

[Timberridge]

What about a singer?

[smartyiak]

Hotel and restaurant managment? I don't know anything about it, but someone has to manage all those resorts.

[Art Shirk]

What suggestions do you have? Thx

Crack a beer and wait 6 months until he changes his mind.

If that doesn't work, crack a beer and wait until after high school when the necessity of money is a much less ethereal concept for him.

[yeahman]

^Yep, fuck college, go to trade school and become an electrician. Take winters off. If you're a good employee they'll always take you back come spring.

[MakersTeleMark]

Hotel and restaurant managment? I don't know anything about it, but someone has to manage all those resorts, from big cities far away from the mountains.

FIFY.

[My Pet Powder Goat]

Hotel and restaurant managment? I don't know anything about it, but someone has to manage all those resorts.

Never work management for hotel or resorts. You're the guy that gets shit on all the time from guest and employees alike; Buck stops with you. Perhaps if they have a swing shift manager job 4pm-12 Kinda gig, but still I wouldn't do it.

[Danno]

plumbing is dirty work...stick with electricity.

it's shocking that you would say that

[char_]

Did the seasonal thing for awhile. Best thing you can do is educate the young man on budgeting and planning for retirement.

Don't discount the long term effect of not contributing to retirement accounts as a seasonal making subsistence wages. As noted, lots of people do well the trades. Lots of people also seem to get caught unprepared for the inevitable downturns that come with that as well.

[babybear]

Lunch breaks from grueling office work are so much nicer in ye olde mtn towns tho...

[My Pet Powder Goat]

Lunch breaks? Office work? Pfffffft...we're trying to make a list of thing to do in a ski town, not a list of things not to do! ;-P

[El Chupacabra]

Depends on what it means to the kid to be "in the mountains."

If proximity to mountains is enough, SLC = pretty much any sort of job you can think of. Substitute other near-to-the-mountains cities/towns and you get the idea.

But if you mean living in a tiny remote town, that's a whole different question.

[TAFKALVS]

Lunch breaks from grueling office work are so much nicer in ye olde mtn towns tho...

I like a nice lunchtime ski tour.

[TahoeJ]

IT / Tech. Good money. A ton of jobs where you can telecommute. I can basically work anywhere with an internet connection and have a super flexible schedule. Even though I don't live in the mountains (I easily could and my family just closed on a second home there) I'll often ski mornings while answering a few emails on my phone while riding the lift - no PTO time needed.

As for trades, well, on the aforementioned second home I'm having trouble finding an electrician and a plumber on short notice because they're all booked up, so that market is far from saturated.

[Joey Joe Joe Junior Shabadoo]

I manage a holster company in a mountain town. I used to work at the ski area. Its less about the job and more about making the decision to live in the mountains.

This has been my experience. Most of the regular people, ie not trustfunders or those who made money elsewhere and decided to move here, I know decided they wanted to live here and then figured out how to make that work for the quality of life they wanted. Furthermore there is no magic job that will let you play in the mountains a lot and still make good bank. Not many successful(depending on your ideas about that idea) mtn town people I know are core/work-just-enough to ski types. They are around but most of those people washout after a few years. People that make it here work just as much as they play and take it just as seriously for a few reasons:

1. Living in a mtn town, especially Aspen, is usually pretty expensive. Even more so if you want to raise a family here.
2. People that want to live here and be successful tend to be intelligent, motivated, competitive people and take their day jobs just as seriously as their skiing, unless of course it's a powder day.

But at 12 years old tell him to stop stressing about that far in the future, work hard in school regardless of the subject, get as smart as possible, and spend all of his free time outdoors.

[My Pet Powder Goat]

But at 12 years old tell him to stop stressing about that far in the future, work hard in school regardless of the subject, get as smart as possible, and spend all of his free time outdoors.

Good advice. in a few years maybe encourage his enrollment in subjects relevant to Mtn living. EMT/WOFR training, JR patrol programs, Snow science classes. All would give him good direction, teach leadership, and skills for outdoors

[TAFKALVS]

1. Living in a mtn town, especially Aspen, is usually pretty expensive. Even more so if you want to raise a family here.
2. People that want to live here and be successful tend to be intelligent, motivated, competitive people and take their day jobs just as seriously as their skiing, unless of course it's a powder day.

Yup. And I have skipped out on powder days to work because I enjoy my job and want to grow the company. I can ski any day I want but I try to balance life with work and play.

[swerve]

If your kid wants to live in a mountain town then he should move there after high school/college and make it work. Once he's there he'll figure it out. I moved with nothing lined up and found a job/place to live once I got there.
Trying to plan things out at 12 might be a little early but summer jobs in landscaping/construction/catering would be good experience that translates to decent paying jobs in most ski towns. As others have said learning trade skills is a way to make good money without a 4 year degree.
I've done accounting for a couple ski resorts and while the money might not be the best the benefits have been pretty great in my opinion. I get to ski almost every day of the winter and on powder days my boss doesn't expect me in till 11 or 12, plus early lift access is nice on busy mornings. As baby bear pointed out having the right boss/office environment has a large part to do with having the flexibly to get out of the office. The summer is similar a similar schedule flying paragliders in the morning before work.
A friend of mine is an accountant and works remotely. With cloud based software there seem to be more and more jobs you can do from anywhere you have a good internet connection. I have other friends in town that do bookkeeping and seem to be as busy as they want, often turning away new clients because they have enough work.

[babybear]

Lunch breaks? Office work? Pfffffft...we're trying to make a list of thing to do in a ski town, not a list of things not to do! ;-P

I'm working on my early retirement

Yup. And I have skipped out on powder days to work because I enjoy my job and want to grow the company. I can ski any day I want but I try to balance life with work and play.

same here - but for the most part it's nbd to work on a powder day once in awhile. I've found a ton of people move to mtn/ski towns and then scoff at working office hours, but I'd way rather be a weekend warrior/ dawn patroller and easily get 50+ days in then have to work the same or more elsewhere to have enough money to get up here on the w/e's and maybe get 10 or a dozen days

[TAFKALVS]

same here - but for the most part it's nbd to work on a powder day once in awhile. I've found a ton of people move to mtn/ski towns and then scoff at working office hours, but I'd way rather be a weekend warrior/ dawn patroller and easily get 50+ days in then have to work the same or more elsewhere to have enough money to get up here on the w/e's and maybe get 10 or a dozen days

And the days I do get tend to be quality and unlike when I worked at the hill, I get to enjoy them all day vs watching other people enjoy them while I fetched mittens.

[mall walker]

same here - but for the most part it's nbd to work on a powder day once in awhile. I've found a ton of people move to mtn/ski towns and then scoff at working office hours, but I'd way rather be a weekend warrior/ dawn patroller and easily get 50+ days in then have to work the same or more elsewhere to have enough money to get up here on the w/e's and maybe get 10 or a dozen days

QFT. Also when you show up to work just having skied, and all your coworkers did was eat a pop-tart, that shit is win.

[TAFKALVS]

QFT. Also when you show up to work just having skied, and all your coworkers did was eat a pop-tart, that shit is win.

I get so much done when I've skied pow all morning.

[nickwm21]

Hotel and restaurant managment? I don't know anything about it, but someone has to manage all those resorts.

My friends in that biz have pretty terrible schedules, especially around the high demand times. I basically only see them during spring and fall....

Petroleum or mining engineer / mgmt...... Make $200k a year. Work a month on month off schedule.

[babybear]

I think people mentioned nursing earlier too, but I second that for a solid mtn town career.

around here they work a 3 or 4 day schedule and there's so much flexibility and if driven etc there is a ton more money to be made in various specialties (anesthesiology etc)
and unlike other mtn town jobs it's one of the higher ends that you can really move around different places and still command a decent salary