ColeraineCutie

I know this might sseem like a troll post (especially since I'm posting it on multiple boards), but it's really not.

I graduate from college in about 5 months (December). I've been sort of going through college thinking that I'd evntually figure out what I want to do with my life, or at least with my life-after-graduation, but so far I hadn't really found anything that I got excited about. I'm an English major with a minor in Psychology and "clusters," which are mini-minors, in Mass Comm and Art, mainly photography. I spent a semester abroad in Coleraine, Northern Ireland (thus my Fodors' sn), and I absolutely fell in love with it. I desperately want to return to it (I miss shopping for groceries at Tesco and driving on the "wrong" side of the road and all that... d'oh!)Anyway, I didn't really think any of this lead to any sort of career path- not enough experience in some fields, not enough interest in most.

The one thing that has not changed in my life since I was about 5 is my love to travel. I love all of it, even when things go awry like lost luggage or getting mugged on the last few days of studying abroad and thus not having money to get down to Belfast Airport (yeah, that was not so great, but at least it's an interesting memory).

So, I realize this post is getting long, so I'll get to my point: my mom suggested I look into being a tour guide, especially to Ireland/UK since I am most familiar with those areas, and something inside of me clicked. I'd never thought about it before, and now I can't stop thinking about it.

So, if anyone out there is a tour guide and can give me advice, or is close to a tour guide and can give me advice, please, please, post here, or e-mail me at [email protected] (I created it specifically to communicate on this issue so that it won't matter it spam starts to get sent to it!)

Thank you for reading this! This scared college kid really appreciates any advice at all!

Thanks!

Merseyheart

ColeraineCutie, I can tell you something about tour guiding, but I'd prefer to send it to your yahoo address. I just want to be sure I have the correct one...


[email protected]

Dukey

I personally think that being a tour guide could be a lot of fun.

However, if you'd like to see one of what I consider to be the "dark" side of being one, simply ask HERE "How much should I tip my tour guide?" and I'm afraid some of the answers will scare you to death.

Good luck with your quest, however.

Sue_xx_yy

You don't mention what kind of tour guide that you would like to be. Do you want to give historical walking tours, or were you thinking of becoming a tour bus guide?

Right off the top, you need to look into whether you would need to apply for the right to work in Ireland. This might not be so easy as it sounds, given that most countries are not eager to import labour for jobs they think they can fill from the local population (which, in the case of Ireland, could include the entire EU.) Being a tour guide doesn't generally pay well, but it's a lot more popular than, say, poorly paid jobs like hamburger-flipping, so you are facing stiff competition.

If you were in a position to start a business that employed others as well as yourself, you might be more favourably received.

On the tour bus guide front, you need to check the websites of major companies to find out about seeking employment with them. Bear in mind that your job will likely be more about handing out hotel keys, resolving disputes (sometimes petty) amongst the clientele, and selling - not giving - local tours - in other words, being a secretary/accountant/school principal/salesman, than giving lectures on history and geography to a fascinated audience.

I don't say give up the dream, but I do say mix in a healthy dose of reality.

suze

I think first finding out about what it takes to get legal working papers for UK/Ireland would be a good place to start.

Second I would simply start to contact all different kinds of tour companies and ask for their guidelines for employment.

rex

Do you want to get paid to do this? Or would you be content to do it for free (paying all your own expenses)?

You can offer your services here, for free.

I have offered to serve as trip planner/tour guide (sporadically) here over the past (almost) seven years. I don't make the offer very doggedly, nor to just any destination, nor at just any old time of the year. I've had one group of "takers" (in 2001); I haven't tried so hard in the last few years, though my offer remains open (for some places, for some times of the year).

If you're more persistent, and indicate a greater willingness (what countries are you willing? what languages do you speak? - - you didn't mention any - - and what months do you seek to do this?) - - you might get something going for spring 2007. I might even join in, as one of your first (group of) "customer(s)" (who do not pay you anything, nor any of your travel expenses).

Keep in mind that far fewer travelers seek to go to Europe from December to April, than in the months from April to October, so your graduation date may work against you.

This is not a flippant, nor sarcastic reply.

If you want to sell a personal service, it can be worthwhile to find out first... does anyone want your services, if you offer to give them away for free?

Best wishes,

Rex Bickers
Floyds Knobs, Indiana

crefloors

I was on a Globus tour my first trip to Europe. London was our firt stop and they used local tour guides the two days we were there. We met our tour guide the day we were heading for Paris and she was with us the entire time til we ended in Rome.

She was Dutch, lived in Switzerland, and spoke five languages: Dutch, English, German, French and Italian. For the city tours, they used local guides.

I will tell you, this woman WORKED!!! We would see her many nights, in the hotel lobby, with her lap top, doing paper work etc. There were several glitches that she had to deal with, the big ones coming in Italy. The wouldn't let the buses close to the Vatican one day for some unknown reason, and when we went to Hadrians Villa, there was a place we were supposed to have dinner and it was up a VERY long road and they didn't want to let the bus up there. Well, they had alwasy let the buses up there before....so she was on her cell phone (she spend a TON of time on the cell phone) and got it worked out. Things like that. She was always calling ahead to our hotels to make sure all arrangements were in order etc. She had to count heads all the time..in Venice one of our people didn't show up for the bus...he was a young singe guy and pretty independent. She waited about five minute and we had to leave..schedules and all that and she was having an ablolute FIT. So worried. I mean she was responsible for us. Anyway, it all worked out, he got the train back to Mestre and actually beat US back to the hotel. She was SO relieved!!!!

She also would tell us about some of the customs is the particular country..like the tiers of service in Italy, when to order coffee ...small things, but helped us not to offend when off on our own. I appreciated that.

She, of course, would be selling extra tours etc...it was very plain the the brochure that they would be offerd, but it was NOT a hard sell...she was good, she sold a lot. And of course they took us shopping at store where the company or she would get a commission, but I never resented it, after all, she is entitled to make a living and I mean that woman WORKED!!!! We had to leave the hotel in Rome at 4:00 a.m. to get to the airport for our return flights and there she was, up and ready to give everyone a hug and a personal goodbye.

She also had to know a tremendous amount of history because even though they used local guides for specific tours like Versailles, she was always giving us information about the areas and the countries as we were driving through. The was also another Globus guide on our tour. She was a tour director that lived in Australia and she would be taking tour groups for Globus, from Australia to Europe, so was on the tour to see how things went.

So, just don't think that this is an "easy way" to get to travel. This woman made a lot of money on this trip because she worked her butt off, people loved her and felt she was worth it. I know that most of the people tipped her a lot more than the suggested daily rate. I also know of at least two couples that probably tipped the very minimum if at all, but I think every group will have some of "those".

She had already been on the road with us for two weeks, and that morning, after bidding us farewell, she was meeting another group in Rome, and they were doing just the reverse of us...would go back to London on the rout we had just taken. So, no breaks for her. I figured she would have worked for at leat 26 days straight with no break because while we were off frolicking on our free days, she was doing paper work and checking on arrangement for our next stop.

So, if that's your chosen "profession", best of luck, but make sure your eyes are open.

Merseyheart

Coleraine, I will write you an e-mail later in the week, but this can get you started...


http://www.itmitraining.com

historytraveler

Jus to reiterate what some others have said.

1) It is a highly competitive field and most tour guides have tremendous travel experience and speak several languages ( yes, even if you work in Great Britain or Ireland)
2) A love of travel is not enough, you need to have the patience, wisdom and ability to handle all sorts of people problems.On any tour there'll be those who will come to you complaining about the smallest problem as well as the big ones. I've found that even the nicest person can become difficult while on tour. A number of people expect the 'prfect' trip and it's up to you to make it happen.
3) And, you'll probably have little time to do much sightseeing as you will be taking care of all those details that most people never realize exist.

Eloise

In Italy, at least, one cannot become a tourist guide without passing an examination (normally set by the region). Prospective tourist guides are examined on their command of languages as well as of cultural and historical knowledge.

Carrybean

Just as an alternative if you're really more interested in living abroad, consider starting work with major hotel chains, especially those having properties in the countries you're interested in.

When Marriott took over a hotel here where I used to work I know someone who worked for them & wound up in London. Just another option. . .

Nina66

Our fabulous guide on a Central American tour a few years ago, was from a wealthy family. I know this to be true, because we discovered that we had mutual friends. He studied at the Sorbonne and several other universities, and had an MBA.

He was 40 years old at the time I met him, and he had been a tour guide for about 12 years, after traveling extensively on his own for years. He speaks seven languages fluently.

He said that whenever he returned home, which apparently wasn't too often, his father always asked the same snide question - "So, are you still carrying other people's suitcases?"

The highlight of our tour, were the many nights that our guide, DH and another friend, sat in various hotel bars, laughing hysterically at his tour guide exeriences - long after the others were sound asleep.

Evidentally he makes pretty good tips, I don't know about his salary, and he has invested in property in Canada, the States and Brazil.

You're so lucky that you mom is on your side. I hope you find a way to fulfill your dream of traveling for a living and leading others. Go for it - nothing ventured, nothing gained.


Nina

ColeraineCutie

Thanks for all the advice and warnings!

I know that this job isn't all sightseeing and hanging out, but even all the "pitfalls" of it sound fun to me- like Sue_xx_yy said, it's "being a secretary/accountant/school principal/salesman" and my past jobs (that I've actually enjoyed) are secretary aide, babysitter/nanny/sorority officer (believe me, it's about the same as babysitting), and a few sales jobs, plus I do have some experience in hotel reservations (that's actually my current fall back job, hotel/cruise reservations).

Anyway, thanks!

Hagan

Well, actually, Coleraine, you might be able to help ME with a career change. I'm an OLD physical therapist, completely burned out with health care, and would LOVE to be a hotel/cruise reservationist. How does one get into that field?

Cicerone

Just a thought, but if you are an English major who loves to travel, why don't you think about becoming a TRAVEL WRITER? Now, there are probably as many people out there who want to become travel writers as there are who want to be travel agents and tour guides, but you do have the BA in English and have done some travel, so there is no reason to think that you could not beat the odds. With your major, you could try to get a job with any of the myriad travel magazines or guidebooks published today (try Lonely Planet for a start). At your age and with no experience, this would be entry level and may not be a writing job at this point, but it could lead to one. The ultimate of course would be that you could then travel TO Ireland and be paid to write about it.

There are books and courses offered on travel writing and getting published you could start with. I agree with the above recco that history courses on your subject are always good, and you can do lots of outside reading as well.

For a start, you might want to try writing down some thoughts on your experiences on living and travelling in Ireland and see if you can have any success in getting those published.

I did a Google search on "job as travel writer" and took the first few that came up:

http://jobprofiles.monster.com/Conte...?jobprofiles=1

http://www.dreamjobstogo.com/titles/djtg0009.html

http://www.studentnow.com/career/gre...velwriter.html

http://www.salary.com/careers/layout...60_Par131.html

http://www.fabjob.com/TravelWriter.asp

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/07/0.../09TRAVEL.html

I agree with the above posters that it would be unusual to have a tour guide who was not a native of the country, and it would be difficult in Europe IMO to find a tour agency company that would be willing to sponsor you for a work permit. If you are of Irish or Italian descent, you may qualify for an Irish or Italian passport, which would give you the right to live and work anywhere in the EU, a very valuable thing. For info on whether you qualify for an Irish passport, go to http://www.irelandemb.org/fbr.html. For info on whether you qualify for Italian citizenship, take a look at the website for the Italian Embassy in the US at http://www.italyemb.org/. I find this site hard to use, but you may have more luck.

flanneruk

Most previous posters are seriously understating the difficukty of doing what you're planning.

The law in the EU is quite simple. An employer MAY NOT hire a non-EU citizen unless he can demonstrate that person has skills that can't be found in the EU - and that he's actively tried to find citizen of an EU country with them. "Actively trying" means showing copies of the ad in the Thessalonica Quantity Surveyors' Weekly.

There are some exceptions to this - but they really don't apply to tour guides - or at any rate to tour guides who speak only English (a tour company might, just, get permission to hire a Thai to guide a party of Thais. But the Thai would have to be fired as soon as the party went home). The only practical way round this is to get citizenship of an EU country.

There are, though, other ways of getting to work in Britain. You can work illegally, but that's a sensible option only for people who'd otherwise be living smewhere they'd be starving or persecuted.

The two most sensible routes require you to do the same thing.

Route A is to use the fact that corporations can internally transfer. In practice, most serious international corporations (like BP or Citibank) assign people abroad after two or three years of promising performance. Beware, though, that many companies that might look international to Americans (Wal-Mart, for example) have a lousy non-US division, and rarely assign Americans abroad.

Route B is Britain's Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP). Research this at the UK Visas website and you'll see that anyone, from anywhere, with a reasonable first degreee and three to four years of good post-graduation career and salary development qualifies for an HSMP visa. With an HSMP visa you can do any job you like: the visa's not linked to anything. And, after staying here for a few years, you can get UK citizenship, which qualifies you to work anywhere from Bialystock to Belfast.

Both Route A and Route B need good progress in a more or less conventional job. Look at most people who really get to travel in their jobs, and that's what they've got too.

t's almost impossible for you to be a tour guide in the British Isles right now: but with a bit of effort you'll be able to earn a great deal more, see far, far of the world, and get yourself the documentation to live and work in even more.

Strikes me as close to a no-brainer.

Cicerone

Some professional organizations for travel writers you might want to join:

http://www.satw.org/satw/index.asp (this one has a job bank but you have to be a member)

http://www.ifwtwa.org

http://www.batw.org/

BTilke

"Route B is Britain's Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP). Research this at the UK Visas website and you'll see that anyone, from anywhere, with a reasonable first degreee and three to four years of good post-graduation career and salary development qualifies for an HSMP visa. With an HSMP visa you can do any job you like: the visa's not linked to anything. And, after staying here for a few years, you can get UK citizenship, which qualifies you to work anywhere from Bialystock to Belfast."

As always, FlannerUK greatly exaggerates the ease of getting that visa. You may qualify for HSMP in theory. Getting it in reality is a VERY different thing. We know many people who met ALL the requirements needed for the visa but were still unable to get one. It's far from being the cakewalk that FlUK suggests.

walkinaround

it is not unusual for tourguides to be non-natives of the country or area in which they are giving tours. this is a non-issue. if you can speak the language (or languages...depending on the target market) and can learn the material, that's all that usually matters. for example, i have an italian friend who is a tourguide in germany...this was not even an issue with the employer, nor do the customers care.

N.B. i am NOT referring to the legality to work...this is a completely separate issue. i am only responding to the idea that a tourguide must be from the country or area in which he or she is giving tours.

lolfn

another job that provides a route to a lot of travel--and a lot of work but similar type work to the tour guide thing--is meeting and incentive trip planning. you basically work for a large corporation (typically ones with large sales forces) or for an independent contractor and plan and execute the incentive trips for top sales people, annual boondoggles for top executives, etc. you wouldn't be planning for trips just to the UK but worldwide.

you could look into getting an entry level job to get experience and your feet wet. i have one friend who has been doing this job for 20 years and has traveled the world (while working her butt off).