Ski & Snowboard Instructor Interview & CV Guide.

Ninety seconds, not five minutes. Where you're from, what you're doing now, how you got into skiing, why you want to teach it. Finish on why you're sat in front of them.

It's the only question you can genuinely rehearse, so do. Say it out loud three times in the car. Everybody fumbles this one and it sets the tone for the whole call.

The honest answer is usually a mix of loving the sport and wanting a winter in the mountains. That's fine. Just make sure teaching is in the answer and not an afterthought.

The best version I've heard came from somebody who remembered the instructor who got them off the magic carpet, and wanted to be that for somebody else. Have you got a version of that? Use it.

They know you applied to one place through a provider. They still want to hear you've looked at it. The terrain, the size of the village, the type of guest, the reputation of the snow school, the fact it's a family resort rather than a party town.

Fifteen minutes of research is the difference between "it looked amazing" and an answer that sounds like you've half moved in already.

Be honest and be concrete. Weeks on snow, where, what terrain you're comfortable on, what you're still working on. "Happy on any blue, getting more confident on blacks, my short turns need work" is a brilliant answer because it's the answer of somebody who can be coached.

Overclaiming here is the single worst thing you can do. It gets found out in week one of training, in front of the whole group.

The most important question in the interview, because most of your lessons will be children. Give them ages, group sizes, and one story. Coaching, camps, clubs, cousins, scouts, swimming lessons, a Saturday job in a soft play centre. It all counts.

If you genuinely have none, say so and then say what you'll do about it. Offering to help at a local club this autumn is a proper answer and it lands well.

Not a trick question. Take a break, get everybody off the hill, into the warm, hot chocolate, check hands and feet and faces, tell the snow school desk. Then decide whether the lesson carries on.

The key word is everybody. You don't leave four children on a run to take one inside.

Keep the rest of the group together and stationary, radio or call it in straight away, and let the mountain do what it's set up to do. Lift staff and patrol find lost children all day long, and they find them faster the earlier you tell them.

The number you take up the mountain in the morning is the number you bring back down in the afternoon. Carry that one principle into every scenario answer and you'll be fine.

There's one right answer and they need to hear it without hesitation. Christmas fortnight is the busiest, most profitable two weeks of their year. Everybody works, nobody goes home, and the whole season's hours can hang on how that period goes.

If you've got a wedding, a graduation or a flight home in that window, say it now rather than in November. Bad news early is manageable. Bad news late is a problem.

Know your arrival date, your training dates and the day your visa runs out before you get on the call. Somebody who can stay through to closing day is worth a lot more to them than somebody leaving in February, and they will ask.

Don't invent flexibility you haven't got. If your dates are fixed, say so and say why.

Have one ready. Any job where the public could be rude at you will do. Say what happened, what you did, and how it ended. Twenty seconds each and you're done.

The trap is making yourself the hero of a story where the customer was an idiot. Show them you stayed calm and sorted it, not that you won.

Listen first, don't defend. Tell them what their child did achieve, be specific, and explain what's next. Then tell your supervisor before the parent does.

They're testing whether you'd hide a problem. A new instructor who flags things early is a gift to any snow school manager.

Lining up children, carrying skis, working the meeting place, helping at the desk, shovelling, standing in the cold at the bottom of the magic carpet for an hour. Some days you'll get no lessons at all and you'll still be on shift.

Say yes and mean it. This is the question that separates people who want a job from people who want a lift pass.

A fair question, especially if you're eighteen and it's your first time away. Talk about anything you've done that's similar, camps, a season, uni, travelling, and be honest that you expect a wobbly week or two.

Homesickness isn't a red flag to them. Pretending it could never happen is.

The weakness question in a woolly hat. Give a real one and pair it with what you're doing about it. Early starts, the cold, remembering ten names at once, keeping the energy up on your sixth day in a row.

"Nothing, I'll love all of it" is the worst answer in the deck. Nobody believes it, including you.

Never say no. Two good questions is the right number and there's a list of them in the next section but one.

Write them on a sticky note and put it next to your laptop. Reading one off a note is not a crime.

Twenty to thirty minutes on Zoom or Teams. Don't be shocked if there are two people on the call, it happens now and then and it isn't twice the grilling. Sometimes it's easier to chat between three of you than one on one.

Completely fine, they know you're coming to learn. Lean on your people skills, your experience with children or groups, and your willingness to work hard. Nobody expects you to be an expert, that's literally what the course is for.

The unwritten rule is somewhere around thirty to fifty hours of working with children as a minimum. It's not a published requirement and nobody audits it, but it's the level where an interviewer stops worrying.

If you're short, now is the time to go and get some. A local club, a holiday camp, a few Saturdays coaching. Be careful what you claim, because they may well ask for a reference.

List whatever you have, whichever governing body it's with, plus first aid and any avalanche training. If you haven't got any instructing qualifications yet, don't worry. You're about to earn them, that's exactly what you're going out to do.

Please don't. Every year somebody asks the manager what the accommodation is like or how they get from the airport. Stay in your lane.

A snow school manager isn't your rep and isn't us. They're deciding whether to hire you to look after the little darlings walking past their office. Keep your questions about the job, the mountain and the snow school. Anything about your internship, ask us.

Tell the snow school as far in advance as you possibly can, and tell us at the same time. Things happen and they're human about it, but try to avoid it. It's far better to get it done on the first go, and a reschedule always costs you a bit of goodwill.

Completely. Have a laugh with it. "Look, I'll be fine, I just need to ease into it" is a very human thing to say and your interviewer has heard it a hundred times. First interview or fiftieth, a few nerves are normal and nobody holds it against you.

Yes. It doesn't happen often and when it does it's usually availability, dates or a gap in the paperwork rather than the person. In all our years, the handful who have failed came down to preparation every time.

If we think you're a long shot, we'll tell you before the interview rather than after it.

The questions are the same and so is the preparation. What differs is which resorts run snowboard teaching places and how many, so check that with us before you set your heart on somewhere. It's a scheduling reality rather than anything about you.

Yes, twenty minutes on their website is enough. Know where it is, what it's known for, and a fact or two that shows you've done your homework. Write down a couple of questions while you're there. It shows you care about the place and the role, not just the snow.

Not a suit, not a ski jacket. Tidy and casual, the way you'd turn up to meet a new manager. Clean top, a bit of effort, good light on your face. That's it.

Not in one season, and we'd rather tell you that now. A first winter on Level 1 wages, with quiet weeks in January, doesn't repay the course cost. Some people earn more than they expected and plenty earn less.

What it does buy is a qualification that works for years, a season's experience and a route to Level 2, 3 and a career on snow if you want one. If the maths only works when it pays for itself in one winter, there are cheaper ways to spend a season and we'll happily talk you through those instead.