How to Get Started as a Cruise Ship Tour Guide

Video Transcript

"[If I want to work on a cruise ship, how do I get started?] Think of it like any job. You need a professional cover letter and resume. First I would say go to their website, some of them have applications on their website. You can complete that. But I would also include a professional resume if possible just so you stand out. Relate your skills to the jobs that I talked about already. Several years ago, I talked to a young woman that went through all of the resumes for a major cruise line. And I'm assuming she had thousands of resumes a day to go through. And I said "how do you decide which resumes you are going to keep and consider?" And the first thing she said was that typos, spelling mistakes, immediately she throws them out. So it has to be a well-proofed professional resume. Not that you have to have it done professionally, but it has to look as if you are a professional on your resume. Then she said, I'm not here to make people's dreams come true. And I know what she was saying because people send resumes to tour operators, to cruise lines saying "I love cruising, I love travel, I love people." And like she said directly, my job isn't to make people's dreams come true. They don't care what you love. They want to know what you can do for their guests. So her comment was (and this is exactly the example she gave)...she said, "I like to see: I want to work in the casino and I am good with numbers." [How do I get the experience?] I'll tell you, there's a couple of ways you can kind of work your way into the cruise lines, to kind of network in, depending on where you live. First of all, receptive services. If you live near where the ships embark and disembark (Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Diego, Vancouver), places where they embark, you might be able to get hired as pier staff to help the passengers on and off the ship. You'll have lunch on the ship. You'll see the management people so you can network. I'll tell you how I got on. I worked as a child counselor. During the holidays, they often hire extra people to go on the cruise line to help with the children's programs. And that's how I first started working on the cruise ships, so if you like working with kids, it's a great way to get into the business. "