AlpenRock hiring for July 30 opening By Paul Andrew AlpenRock House needs some 100 people to run the show, so to speak. Numerous positions are available at the underground complex taking shape below Whistler Village Centre, but the main idea of AlpenRock is to keep people entertained in one way or another. So a team of pre-opening personnel from MagicCorp, a Toronto based company which co-owns AlpenRock House, arrived in Whistler recently to prepare the 40,000 square foot space for the public opening July 30. "What we’re looking for is people who are experienced in customer service and who want to grow with AlpenRock," said Brian Woodcock, vice-president of operations for MagicCorp. Woodcock is in Whistler as part of the team which expects to interview up to 400 people for the 100 new full and part time jobs in Whistler. Although AlpenRock is hiring for servers, bartenders, security, food runners, billiards and bowling lane attendants, as well as games attendants, Woodcock expects food and beverage servers will be most in demand. "Games pretty much run themselves, so I don’t think there’ll be that many people hired for that," Woodcock said. "But yes, we are hoping to have 300-400 people out on July 11 and 12 for the job fair. Our advertisement is running in the local papers and at least one of the Vancouver dailies." Whistler has a healthy pool of people experienced in the service industry and Woodcock and is confident AlpenRock will fill the 100 positions through the job fair. Based on an idea which has been called Europe’s most "successful gastronomic concept launched there in 50 years," the first AlpenRock, in Zurich, serves some 20,000 people a month. A nightclub area which seats between 500 and 600 people will be part of the second AlpenRock, in Whistler Village. Woodcock says part of the decor will be 17 Swiss chalets, 200 years old, which will be scattered throughout the complex. The Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra is scheduled to play at the July 30 opening. But first, Woodcock has to hire a staff. The process starts with initial screening at the Delta Whistler Resort’s Mount Currie room Saturday and Sunday. "What we’ll do is have applications available if people don’t have resumes with them. And we’ll take 15-20 minutes to talk to everyone on an individual basis. But it’s hard to get to know someone in that amount of time," Woodcock explained. Employees who are well suited to AlpenRock’s service oriented atmosphere will be asked back for an extensive interview sometime between the July 12 and July 20, at which time most people will be hired, Woodcock said. "There might be a bit of hiring during the job fair, but not much. We do hope to have everyone hired by July 20 though. Most of our upper level management have already been hired, such as Dave (Branigan), who’s handling the entertainment. But we still need a few people like that." The theory of AlpenRock and all that goes along with the centre itself will be part of a seven-day training period for employees. "I really don’t know exactly how much we’ll be paying. But I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the jobs are minimum wage. The servers base their income on gratuities though and depending on your personality, you could do very well."
