YOUR CAREER starts here

If you’ve ever vacationed or visited popular local resorts like Grand View Lodge on Gull Lake or Breezy Point Resort on Pelican Lake, you likely recognize the impressive size and infrastructure of these properties.

What you may not realize, by design, is all the jobs and services that happen behind the scenes to make vacations effortless and full of memories. Housekeeping cleaning cabins. Staff setting up and serving weddings and groups. Culinary teams preparing unique dishes. Management teams overseeing day-to-day operations. It takes hundreds of workers to give you—the guest—a seamless and relaxing experience.

A Welcoming Industry

Grand View Lodge and Breezy Point Resort employ over 500 full-and-part-time workers combined. In the summer months, job openings swell to meet demand of the high tourism season. Other resorts also are always looking to add to their teams, too. As spring, fall, and even winter continue to become more popular travel times yearround opportunities are always available.

“Each year, there are hundreds of hospitality jobs that go unfilled in our area. All businesses want to make a good impression for our local customers and visiting guests, but it can be a significant challenge without staff. The hospitality business is fun and dynamic. Locally, we are working with the schools to get people interested in this industry,” said David Spizzo, Breezy Point Resort.

International Work Programs

While you’re on property interacting with staff, you may notice some staff’s name tags have different countries listed. Grand View Lodge and Breezy Point Resort each bring about 65 international seasonal workers to their resorts through temporary government visa programs. While it accounts for a small percentage of their workforce, it helps bridge the gap during worker shortages.

Grand View Lodge

Bianka, a student from Budapest, Hungary and Ana, a student from Puebla, Mexico, both fell in love with Grand View Lodge on their first visits and returned for the last few seasons. Coming from big and boisterous cities, they love the small town feel, peacefulness, and the easy access to nature.

Bianka and Ana worked in food and beverage helping out at restaurants and events. To them, Grand View Lodge feels like home. Now they know a lot of the other employees—both international and local—making lifelong friendships. They both thank Grand View Lodge for being welcoming and providing all employees with a good work environment.

Breezy Point Resort

The number one goal of Merton and Felicia and Arlan and Princess—who are married couples from Jamacia—is to give you a positive experience while vacationing here. As part of a temporary visa program, they are all skilled hospitality professionals who worked with an agency in a highly competitive program to come here. Each of them have worked at Breezy Point Resort during several summer seasons when there aren’t enough local workers. They feel privileged and honored to bring their strong work ethic here and help the resort run smoothly. From culinary, landscaping to housekeeping, Merton and Felicia and Arlan and Princess make a difference in the guest experience. They all agreed that the awesome leadership team from the owners to managers create a positive and fun environment not only for international and local workers, but also guests too. “The management team gets an A+ from me. From the owners [the Spizzo family] to managers, they lead by example and are so down-to-earth in how they treat their workers,” said Princess.

A Place to Call Home

Much like the international workers who love the Brainerd Lakes for the woods, slower pace, and the people, you can find that here, too. Brainerd Lakes can be your home. And a job in hospitality is perfect way to have a rewarding career that’s fastpaced and offers a lot of opportunities with advancement.

“The Brainerd Lakes Area has more hotels, resorts, and restaurants than almost any other lake community in the state. And if you think just being a chef or behind the front desk is the only position in hospitality available—you are mistaken. From the golf course pros to superintendents, the housekeeping crews to grounds and maintenance, waterfront attendants to ice cream scoopers—we are all hospitality! Regardless of where you start at, there is always a pathway to advancement. And we love what we do. We get to play where we work,” Frank Soukup, Grand View Lodge. All resorts share the same goal: To keep business running with little disruption so guests can enjoy year after year.

IN CROW WING COUNTY, TOURISM’S ECONOMIC IMPACT IS OVER $213 MILLION IN GROSS SALES CONTRIBUTING OVER $13 MILLION IN STATE SALES TAX.

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Central Lakes College Customized Training

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Brainerd Lakes Area Community Foundation

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The Brainerd Lakes Area Community Foundation (BLACF) is your local community foundation helping generous people change lives & community through philanthropy. We help individuals & organizations establish charitable funds (like a giving checkbook), work with our community to provide leadership to identify priority needs & provide funding to assist charities.

Clow Stamping Company

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Confidence Learning Center

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Located in the heart of the Brainerd Lakes Area, Confidence Learning Center is a non-profit outdoor experience for people of all ages with cognitive and developmental disabilities. Open year round. Be sure to check out our website to book your adventure today!

First Western Bank & Trust

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We operate as a full-service financial center providing traditional banking products as well as trust services, all lines of insurance, leasing, and much more. We have four locations in the Brainerd Lakes Area. Visit us in Baxter, Crosslake, or Nisswa!

National Bank of Commerce

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National Bank of Commerce might be new to the Brainerd area, but we sure aren’t new to banking. Put simply, our mission is to make more possible. NBC’s business credit and lending products put you in the ultimate control. We look forward to meeting you!

Rahn's Oil and Propane

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Wing Wellness Medical Spa

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Penmac Staffing is an employment agency that connects job seekers and businesses. Whether you're an HR Manager looking for great employees, or an employee looking for your next career, Penmac is here to help!

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Pequot Lakes School District

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Whitefish at the Lakes Senior Living

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