EliotJackson

100% understand it, but man, so sad. Pleny off piste is my favorite place to ride in the world, and I have had by far my best days ever on a bike there. So many in-between World Cup weeks where everyone is there laughing, getting loose, and you just can't get enough; riding the same line over and over, faster and faster until everyone is blowing up and tumbling down the hill. You grab some lunch, someone else joins the crew and shows you a new line that just got built, and you end up repeating that same cycle over again. You end the day with a drink while you laugh and reminisce about how wild some moment was. Then it's off to bed so you can wake up and do it all again the next day. I'm sure people will risk it, but it feels like the end of an era.

I have definitely heard of this. I'm not sure how prevalent it is in the bike industry, but in the tech world, when companies are trying to get another funding round, it is a proxy for "growth" for potential investors, so they do it. In the bike world, not many companies are sophisticated enough to save resumes for future positions. It's one of the things I have been pushing companies to do because it would be great if that #2 candidate got a call in 3 months when the #1 hire didn't work out. Of course, it should be opt-in, disclosed, and done in a non-malicious way. To answer your question. We don't have visibility into the entire cycle of the company's hiring pipeline because we don't integrate into their Applicant Tracking Systems (one day, when we have more resources, I would love to). But anecdotally, we try to ensure companies actively cull their filled positions. I also know a good number of people have gotten jobs through Grow Cycling Jobs at places like Pinkbike, Outside, Santa Cruz, and others, so we try to keep track of that when we hear about it.

@jordon182: That makes sense. I agree with that 100%. I just want to engage with you here because I DO agree with you, not because I don't. I feel like this gets lost somehow with what we are doing. Personally, it wouldn't be fulfilling to do engineering work for a bread company or broadcast work for a local news station. I am qualified for both, but the intersection of bikes makes my jobs fun for me. I LOVE my work. I have been fortunate enough (or put in 1000s of hours to have the skills) to be able to pick things that fit that bill. For others, it is the activity that is fulfilling (e.g., your friend who has worked across industries and loves being in tech). Both are 100% valid. The other problem is that most jobs are not posted online or are posted for an extremely limited amount of time just for legal purposes. The sports data job I mentioned was never posted publicly, so your strategy of just searching online wouldn't work, and because I don't have ten years of "traditional" experience, I wouldn't show up in a LinkedIn search even though I DO have ten years of engineering experience I can show. One of our goals here is to actively reach out to companies to be transparent and post exciting jobs before just filling them with a known contact.

@jordon182: Most people don't have the knowledge of every single career path and job opening in the world. I had no idea I could be a Software Engineer for a sports data company working on MTB data until they reached out and hired me for the job. I also didn't know I would be a good Red Bull Bike host until they showed me the job description. If you know EXACTLY what you want to do and would be good at and in what industry. That's amazing! Most people do not.

Thanks for highlighting this. That's exactly what we want people to do, Jordon! The more meritocratic and open things are, the better, so instead of hearing about these jobs from an industry friend, people can now hear about them on a public forum. This post aims to highlight and expose people to career paths and jobs they didn't know about so they can apply and/or have something to be excited about. You are more than welcome to apply to any and all jobs, no matter who you are. For example, if you are a great Mechanical Design Engineer, I know the people at Crankbrothers would love to have you and it's a very very cool place to work.

Hi! I'm really sorry you didn't get your prize! I DMd you so we can get that cleared up. Also threw my email in there again so you can let me know what connections/resources you might need to achieve your goals!

Thank you Emma! It was so cool to see you interviewing panelists/attendees and exploring what it means to be a journalist. Everytime I looked around you were engaged with someone or something new! We made a great choice! :)

Thanks for all of the comments! We would love to open it up to more people by covering costs, hopefully in future years! In our dream world, we would be able to bring people in from around the world, but as always, we can't let perfect be the enemy of starting, and I am super proud that PB has provided a paid opportunity and mentorship for someone who may not know how to get into journalism or be able to make the contacts otherwise. This is also a test to see how short-term temporary "mentorships" with tangible output work. Doing things in a small, controlled way is a perfect way to see if things like this can scale to non-in-person events, different career paths, etc. Without direct observation, we would miss out on a lot of learning, which is why we bundled this with Aspire this year. In terms of who is in the area. Whistler/Squamish/Vancouver is home to more than just people in the bike industry. Many people travel to Whistler Village for tourism and ignore the Indigenous culture that is in the area. There is a huge ridership of people who aren't regulars in the bike park and young athletes who do not have many means and would love the opportunity to do more. That is one of the main reasons for Aspire! We've partnered with local community groups and the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Center to ensure that most of the people who come are local to the area, and we also are sending this opportunity out to more places than just on Pinkbike. Applications are open to everyone :) Feel free to DM me on IG if you have feedback!

I am going to enter on my road bike and prove you wrong.

It was crazy putting together this article taking a trip down memory lane. Really truly thanks to so many people in this comments section. You've been supporters of this project since day 1! Hope to see some of you guys at the Pumptrack for the opening or in the future!