Adventure at Black Diamond: We are ready for you!

Hello, my name is Marilyn Usibelli.  I own and run Black Diamond Resort Co.  We have been in business since 1995 and continue to grow and improve our operations each season.  We have a fantastic place located 10 miles from The Denali National Park Entrance.  We have a very unique and fun business and are looking for adventurous and motivated people to join our team.  We hire Approximately 120 people each summer from all over the world.  We have a fast-paced Restaurant, a 9-hole golf course, a horse drawn Covered wagon ride, and guided ATV tours, and a small 28 room hotel.  We have a very exciting business with a great working environment!  If you are looking for a fun summer job, we are the right place!

In 1995 my sister and I each had $2500 and a bunch of Land.  We decided to build a driving range.  With the help of our parents, the next year, we opened 5 golf holes, and we had an "on your honor can" to pay $12. The year after that, we purchased a building with no electricity or running water. The year after that we got electric, water, and opened our first restaurant with a Coleman stove and an outside barbecue grill. Today, we have a beautiful restaurant, and our tours are top notch.  We are well established and well known. We are still just a little family run business, so you are very much a part of our success, and we all get to know each other very well. We have a very simple system where each person is assigned duties and then we basically expect it to happen. We check in on you a bit, but we try to hire people who have great talent (and basically don't need to be monitored), are easy to work with and can work as a team.  So far this has been very successful for us.  We have so many jobs and we can often train our staff in many areas, so the summer is full of variety and fun. We are looking for multi-talented people who are flexible, positive, and simply fun to be around. Is that you? If so, please keep reading!

Because we are a seasonal business, we don't offer a lot of advancement. I hope this doesn't discourage you, because almost all of our employees that have come through Black Diamond tell me how different and refreshing it was to work with us. No matter how experienced, everyone can gain something wonderful from working for us. We do not offer bonuses, but we do have incentives to do a great job. We have a lot of returning staff to help with the transition for a new job, and we have other perks. 

With us being a seasonal business, we pretty much just break even every year and all of our profits either go back into our business to fix, maintain, or improve things, or we donate as much as we can, sometimes more than we can, to local charities, so even though we are not a high-profit company, I think we are a great company and our fantastic, talented staff is proud to work with us. Even though our wages are not the highest, we certainly provide a great environment and a lot of customers, so our staff can earn a good amount in tips and meet wonderful people from all over the world. Other than the $15 a day rent (which includes rent, all utilities, limited and basic food (enough to keep you full and happy), Internet, free laundry, dish network, garbage, propane, and water, there really is not many other expenses for living here.

Black Diamond Resort Co is located in a pretty remote location at the base of the Alaskan Mountain Range. The positions are very fun and exciting, it is a great day at work every day.  We have an extremely nice staff and are known for it. 

We have such a variety of staff that I believe anyone can have an amazing experience.  It is a tough place to come, the weather can be cold, rainy, snowing, hot, dusty, windy. I often tell people "Do not come to Alaska for the weather, but the adventure!" We say at Black Diamond that we do not cancel our plans, we simply change our clothes. We offer a challenging, rewarding, opportunity that will test you sometimes, and have you in tears when you are saying goodbye. Lifelong friends, unique and memorable experiences, and fantastic opportunities to be outdoors in the great wild state of Alaska.

One of the best benefits about working for us is we have a great working relationship with all the other local companies, so all the tours in the area are free to you space available. This is a huge benefit, and if you do most of the tours, this is like a $3000 bonus for you. It is amazing.

WHAT WE HAVE TO OFFER:

In a Nut Shell:

• You have a lot of creative leeway to make the job fit your personality
• You are trusted as an individual and given respect
• We are always open to new suggestions to improve and try very hard to be a place where you can make a positive difference
• A lot of our positions earn tips
• Housing is inexpensive, close to our business. A lot of the activities to do in the area are free.
• This is a position that is a lot of hard work but is very rewarding and fun!
• Overtime is not required, but is usually available to those interested. 

We hire a multitude of positions and offer great flexibility in scheduling and job opportunities. We do a lot of training with our staff, and we have both full and part-time positions and look for individuals who are willing
to do whatever is necessary to give our guests an outstanding adventure. We do hire specific jobs, but we are looking for people who will answer the phone for instance if it is ringing and no one is there, or will bus a table or help wash dishes. We need help all the time.

Our jobs are challenging and require a great deal of energy and devotion. We serve a fixed menu that has fresh Alaskan Seafood, Great Steaks, Gourmet Burgers, and fun and exciting nightly specials. We have been listed in
Alaska's Best Magazine and Fromers as Alaska's best find for our restaurant. We are a friendly place, and pride ourselves on providing the best experience possible to all of our guests. We seek self-motivated individuals
that have a high team player ethic and love people and adventure!

Black Diamond offers a cultural environment, not just for the J1 students, but also for us as a business, other employees, and the community.  We all benefit from this opportunity as people from all over the world come to live and work and travel like a local for a few months in Alaska.  Working for us is a great opportunity to learn more about other cultures and perspectives and make lifelong friends!

Some benefits we offer: Job performance incentives given throughout the Season, inexpensive housing, mid and end-of-season party, gift certificates for a wide range of things for good attendance, customer service, and other recognition programs of that nature. Please note that we are a completely non-smoking facility.

Not only can you do all the tours in the area for free, but we provide organized employee events, we offer rides to Fairbanks and around town for no charge when scheduled. We are often all super busy with work so it's kind of a work hard / play hard type of place. Our goal is for you to have the best experience, be challenged, grow, have fun, meet great people, and want to come back for another season, and recommend your family and friends to join us!

Housing is expensive in Alaska but not at Black Diamond. We have an employee housing facility that is within walking distance to work and is relatively inexpensive for the area. It is set back away from the daily operation so you have an area that is private from the hustle and bustle of the business. Our facility consists of 14 mobile homes that we rent each room for $15 per day per person, including all utilities. These are single and double rooms that 1 to 2 people stay in. There are 2 to 12 people per mobile home and each are set up differently.  We also have some random small dry cabins and even some revamped buses, but I recommend getting a room in housing first and after you arrive if something is open you can inquire about our rustic options - rustic being a kind word for some of them.  Part of what we have to offer is a great place to live and work with your co-workers that is inexpensive for the area.  You can share a room with someone in the housing if you would like. Several of the rooms are very large and a couple or two to three friends could easily share one room if desired. The cost is still the same. We are very flexible here. 

Please be aware that at the beginning of the season, the weather can still be very cold. Our water system is not built for Alaskan Winters so you might have to haul water to your home until we can turn the water onto the entire camp.  This is also the situation in mid-September, we have to turn the water off to the individual facilities so that there is not damage with frozen pipes. There is always access to water and bathroom and shower at the Black Diamond facility which is walking distance to your home. 

Alaska is a remote, rough place - be prepared to be challenged. Rent and Utilities can be deducted from your paycheck biweekly or you can pay them at the first of the month. You can also pay it with cash or a check. Because of the nature of living in a camp like setting, I do not recommend coming to work for us if you have or have had substance abuse issues. There is often an after work party. Although we do not allow late night noise or trouble in housing, there often are times where drinking is happening around the camp. It is not a healthy environment if you have trouble refraining from partaking. Please feel free to ask me more about what I mean by this. We have such a variety of people working for us, some that work two jobs and others that are at the campfire every night. Variety is the spice of life.

We also have a nice common area with some additional activities available and a place to simply hang out and relax after work. We have a volleyball court and fire pit and some other options.

It is not mandatory for you to stay in our housing, and we encourage people look for their own place if they have special requests or pets. We also offer places to camp or park campers or RV's, and that is $10 per day for utilities and rent of the space. 

In addition to our onsite housing, there are also apartment rentals. These are much more expensive ($1000 per month plus utilities) and are 3 miles from Black Diamond. We do not provide transportation to this facility, so you will need a car.  If you are interested in this option, please let me know and I can give you more information. We do not own these, so it is you that would have to arrange housing at another facility but I can help you with that. 

To get to Black Diamond, you can either drive into Healy, Alaska or fly to Anchorage or Fairbanks.  If you plan to drive, please e-mail so that I can help you make your trip the best it can be. We do not pay for flights to and from Alaska unless you are hired under the H2B Visa program or apply for one of our positions that we advertise this position. Some of the positions we try to fill that offer this option are Resort Desk Clerk, Housekeeping, Dishwashing, and you must work 50% of the season in order to get a free ticket for these listed positions.

The best airport for us to pick you up at is Fairbanks, Alaska. The airport code is FAI. This airport is only about a 1 and half hour drive for us, and we can usually plan to pick up other things that we need in town. You should be able to get a ticket to Fairbanks for about $25 to $75 more than the Anchorage airport. We charge $70 to pick you up in Fairbanks to help cover wages and gas, and this will be deducted from your first check. There is also a shuttle www.alaskashuttle.com that you can book on your own, and it is $74.

If you fly into Anchorage, that is a lot farther drive for us (500 miles round trip), and for you it is 5 hours from our place, a long drive after a long flight, and you usually have to wait at the airport for several hours for the last employee to arrive. If you choose to fly into Anchorage, we will not be able to pick you up, but there is a shuttle that can pick you up at the airport www.alaskashuttle.com and they will drive you right to Black Diamond. This is something you will need to arrange on your own, and the cost is around $75. 

Once here, having a vehicle to get around is nice. Some people buy cheap cars if they fly, some ride a bike to work (we do have a few bikes), while others simply walk. Of course, you can also drive here from the lower 48 states and that is an adventure in itself! 

• Employee dinners and get-togethers.
• Hike, Bike, Fish, Walk, Swim, Raft, ATV, Golf, Horse Rides, Music Theaters, Zip Line, Jeep Tours, Helicopter tours, flightseeing, overnight backcountry camp trips, Denali National Park, Canoe.
• Some company-sponsored events:  Golfing, Coal Mine Tour, 4th of July Parade, Costume Party, Employee Pot Luck Home Country Dinner, Treasure Hunt, Volleyball, Game Nights, Christmas Party, End of Season Bash at my house.
• Some Unique things: Music Festivals, Northern Lights, Alpine Glow, Midnight Sun, Berry Picking, employee bonfires, Chena Hot Springs, Road Trip to Seward and Homer, Alaska Railroad Trip.