Vail Resorts Interview Questions & Reviews

Interview Details – Apply online hope for a callback do a phone interview take background test get in person interview if hired required to do a basic training/ skiing evaluation. Personality more important than skiing skills. Lots of steps but it is a fairly straightforward. Season determines chance of hiring

Negotiation Details – Experience (time, certification) helps with pay but it is all standardized.

Interview Details – Position was posted the beginning of May. I applied for it the following week online and was contacted by a recuriting coordinator 4 days later. By the first week in June I had a phone interview with a recruiter who then recommended me to move forward in the process. It took 3 more weeks to get the phone interviews with the VP marketing and VP sales and biz development, which both went well. I had a follow-up conversation with the VP marketing and an initial call with a HR director two weeks later (mid/late July). I didn't hear anything until mid August when they asked me to fly out for a face/face interview in mid-Sept. I interviewed on a Friday from 8am-6pm, no breaks, meeting approx 15+ people, with a follow up interview on Saturday. They contacted me two weeks later to bring me back for a follow-up face/face interview, which was delayed for 6 weeks (end of Oct) due to scheduling issues on both sides. The second face/face interview was a shorter day, meeting only with key people - CMO (hiring manager), COO, HR, VP. Overall, the experience was intense, but enjoyable. I enjoyed everyone I met and we had great conversations about the business. I did not feel like I was being drilled, rather given opportunities through discussion to show how my background and experience is relevant to address business challenges, issues, and opportunities.

Reason for Declining – In so many ways this was the perfect job for me, given my background, experience, ambitions and passions. While I was initially unsure about relocation, I was ready to make the move. It ultimately came down to their unwillingness to negotiate on anything. While the relo package was adequate, the base and targeted percentage bonus was low (vs industry), and vacation policy was limited. I did have concerns about their reputation for these issues and others, which are noted in review on this site and seperately mentioned by networking contacts in the area and industry.

Interview Details – The interview asked some very personal questions on integrity, be prepared. I received a follow-up call that someone else had been chosen. I was then able to ask how I interviewed and any suggestions for the future. This was very nice to get response from the interviewer.

Interview Details – I had family who taught so it was with the help of their word and a phone interview with a supervisor. Very easy.

Negotiation Details – Corporate, set rate. No leverage without licenses.

Interview Details – Interviews are done very "by the book" as all references are checked even if a previous manager in the same department strongly recommends potential candidates. This will obviously lengthen the hiring process

Negotiation Details – There are no negotiations with Vail Resorts

Interview Details – Everything seemed great. Office appears clean and new and people are all young and healthy. Everyone seemed happy and to love their job. Started off with a referral from a neighbor that worked there which resulted very quickly in a phone interview with a recruiter. I was contact a couple days later to go in for a 1:1 interview with the hiring manager. About a week later I was contacted to go in for a panel interview with some people I'd be working with and then a 1:1 interview with the marketing director. Everything went smoothly and then I waited for about 10 days (during which I had been interviewing elsewhere). I finally got an offer but it was exploding (only had a day or 2 to respond) but I was still interviewing at another company that I really wanted to work for. However given my circumstances at the time I needed to take the sure thing.

Interview Details – Applied online at Skijob1.com.
Had a phone interview with HR to cover general interview questions.
Interviewed face to face with a manager.
Didn't get that job, but later was selected for an interview with another group (they do recycle resumes, something I haven't seen much in other companies).
Received a job offer the next day.

Overall, the questions were very basic, mostly consisting of questions to determine if I would work well with their group.

Negotiation Details – None, it's take it or leave it (at least at the lower position levels)

Interview Details – Applied online and got a call to schedule a phone interview about 3 weeks later. Interview was pretty standard... "how would you deal with angry guests" ... "what are 3 adjectives that describe you" ... "what is your proudest moment/biggest accomplishment" ... "why do you feel you'd be the right candidate for Vail" etc. Guy interviewing sounded pretty relaxed, pretty easy to talk to.

Negotiation Details – none.

Interview Details – I interviewed with the IT Head for Epicmix, in addition to the entire team at Epicmix.

My impressions are that they are stuck on .net-based CMS systems. They are also very Angry at Crispin Porter for building the first version of Epicmix.

For those that don't know Epicmix is a product that "takes your location," gives you stats on your vertical feet, upload and share pictures.

I have been doing Startups for over 5 years in the Social Space and I asked questions like, why don't you use the GPS on IOS and Android. Their answer was you can't because it does not work right, and besides we want to leverage our RFID checkin at the lift technology. I then said, so If I'm trying to find my "mom" it just tells me she checked into Eagle Bahn (a gondola) 5 minutes ago, but I still can't find her. I then said well, I know that mapmyfitness and Loopt offers API's and partnerships that Vail Resorts could leverage.

Big picture time. Say I just dropped 10k to fly my family to Vail or Brek and I get your app. It needs to tell me what to do there, foursquare integration with checkins and deals, yelp api calls for reviews on restaurants and businesses, mapmyfitness api call to track my mountain bike/ski/cross country ski/find my child (like Copper Mountain), not to mention uploading you pic and doing an Facebook activity stream integration as well as Twitter. At the end of the day you want that family to come back and drop another 10k next year, right?

In addition, the Epicmix team in Broomfield runs the main website, but I 90% of the users run the IOS or Android app. If 90% of your users run IOS or Android why would you not have Objective C and Java developers on staff? This might explain why the website and the apps have very different "look-and-feel" and why they don't have a truly innovative ideas on how to build out their platform. They really might consider hiring a UI and Social Media Art Director Web Producer to tie this thing together.

In the end I would not work there because they are paying 20% under the market, which explains a lot why they are running a mediocre product with a mediocre team.