How to Get Started in a Tour Guide Career

Video Transcript

"Cherie, I really want to do this, where do I start? You know, if you really want to do it and again it’s not for everyone, but if you really want to do it and your heart’s in it, it’s a little bit of work to get started and it’s worth the persistence. It took me a lot of persistence to get it, my students it doesn’t take as much because I can lead hem though, but you do, I highly recommend taking tour director and tour management training to get started so you know when you go to the employer you have something to sell. Other classes that I highly recommend would be history, geography, geology, horticulture, they are going to want to know about every plant, they are going to forget about two seconds from now but they want to know about every plant, art, architecture, in Europe and other countries the guides already and the tour directors are required to have that information. It’s a two year program, we don’t have that in the United States, that’s why I wrote my textbook, I’m trying to get it into the colleges but in the meantime you are going to have to educate yourself on those topics. That looks real good on your resume too, I often have people in my classes that have taught history and geography, elementary teachers that have taught California history of missions, it looks great on their resume. You need to get your letter out, your cover letter, you need to follow up, a lot of people get in with emergency hiring, they say “we’re not hiring now” and then when they need someone in a hurry they hire. Most companies don’t train but some will hire, and this is becoming more common now, they will hire trained tour directors and then they will put them on a tour with an experienced tour director with a group. Now that experienced tour director doesn’t have time to train you as a tour director, they have a group to take care of, that’s not their job but they’ll send you along so that you can learn; their properties, their documentation, their paperwork, their optional tours, how they, their particular procedures for their company, which is great, so if you have the training you go in and you say I know how to do tours. A lot of them don’t have to lie and say I’ve done tours but I’m a trained tour director, then it’s a good step into the business and a good professional resume cover letter, approach it as you would any job because it is competitive, but they always need professionally trained tour directors and guides. So thank you today for watching the videos, my name is Cherie Anderson and this has been brought to you by Expert Village and I want to thank you and I hope that you’ve been able to learn a little bit about what I love, I love this industry, travel and tourism, it’s the largest and fastest growing industry in the world and in the United States and most people don’t know that. There is so many opportunities that I have touched on today and additional opportunities that I haven’t had time to touch on today. If it’s for you I want to invite you to my website which is Tourtraining.com, from there you can go to my class, get paid to travel, offered at over fifteen hundred colleges throughout the world, also my textbook The Tour Director Training Guide. Again, it’s not for everyone but if you love travel and you love people and you think you have the background and the skills for this let me help you get into the business and enjoy traveling so happy trails. "