A tour guide takes visitors on guided tours at historical or culturally relevant sites that are unfamiliar to them. Guides share interesting information and entertaining insight into the places to provide tourists with a more in-depth experience. Following the lead of a tour guide in a foreign place usually guarantees that you will not get lost, and you will find the best spot to see and have a great meal, or a fun night out.
Guides sometimes obtain vocational training in travel or tourism, but they are not required to have a degree to hold this position. Language skills are great to have, and experience in the service industry, such as hotels or travel trades, can also be useful.
You will be walking around a lot as a guide, so make sure you are at least more fit than the average tourist if you take on this job. You should not shy away from speaking in public. Unless you advertise yourself as a Zen guide, you will be expected to keep the info and fun titbits coming all day long.
How to Become a Guide
What is a Guide
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a Guide. For example, did you know that they make an average of $19.66 an hour? That's $40,887 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 16% and produce 51,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Guide Do
There are certain skills that many Guides have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed Customer-service skills, Detail oriented and Patience.
How To Become a Guide
If you're interested in becoming a Guide, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 61.0% of Guides have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 7.6% of Guides have master's degrees. Even though most Guides have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a Guide. When we researched the most common majors for a Guide, we found that they most commonly earn Bachelor's Degree degrees or Associate Degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Guide resumes include High School Diploma degrees or Master's Degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a Guide. In fact, many Guide jobs require experience in a role such as Internship. Meanwhile, many Guides also have previous career experience in roles such as Cashier or Sales Associate.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
And if you’re looking for a job, here are the five top employers hiring now:
Guide Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of Instructor you might progress to a role such as Consultant eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title Senior Project Manager.
Guide Jobs You Might Like
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Guide
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
12 Guide Resume Examples
Build a professional guide resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 12+ resume templates to create your guide resume.
Kimberly Hamilton Guide |
Danielle Henderson Guide Experience Guide2011 - Present Walgreen Co•Saint Louis, MO
Guide2009 - 2011 Wyndham Vacation Resorts•Orlando, FL
Courtesy Clerk (Part-Time)2008 - 2009 Publix•Orlando, FL
Skills Front EndCommunicationNew MembersSafety RulesFood PlotsStorage AreasTwitterOnlineFacebookFirst-Aid Education Bachelor's Degree Psychology2006 - 2009 University of Central Florida•Orlando, FL |
Learn How To Write a Guide Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Guide resumes and compiled some information about how to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Guide Resume Examples And TemplatesAnd if you’re looking for a job, here are the five top employers hiring now:
Choose From 10+ Customizable Guide Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Guide templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Guide resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Find the best Guide job for you
Guide Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Guide Jobs - $88K and Up
- Work From Home Guide Jobs
- Entry Level Guide Jobs
- Part Time Guide Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Guide Jobs
Top Colleges for Guides
1. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
2. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
3. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
4. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
5. New York University
New York, NY • Private
6. George Washington University, The
Washington, DC • Private
7. Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA • Private
8. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
9. Yale University
New Haven, CT • Private
10. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY • Private
Find the best Guide job for you
Guide Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Guide Jobs - $88K and Up
- Work From Home Guide Jobs
- Entry Level Guide Jobs
- Part Time Guide Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Guide Jobs
Online Courses For Guide That You May Like
Become an expert in Fire Safety, Fire Hazards Control, Fire Evacuation Plans, and Fire Risk Assessment...
Become an expert in understanding "Fire Safety" and "Prevention Planning" for your workplaces and organizations...
A Brief Safety Management Course for Current and Aspiring Safety Professionals...
Top Skills For a Guide
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 15.6% of Guides listed New Members on their resume, but soft skills such as Customer-service skills and Detail oriented are important as well.
Best States For a Guide
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a Guide. The best states for people in this position are Oregon, Washington, Maryland, and Connecticut. Guides make the most in Oregon with an average salary of $60,330. Whereas in Washington and Maryland, they would average $55,844 and $53,501, respectively. While Guides would only make an average of $52,314 in Connecticut, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Oregon
$60,330
Avg. Salary
2. Delaware
$51,655
Avg. Salary
3. Washington
$55,844
Avg. Salary
How Do Guide Rate Their Jobs?
Top Guide Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ Guides and discovered their number of Guide opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Eastern Mountain Sports was the best, especially with an average salary of $28,585. Salesforce follows up with an average salary of $59,445, and then comes Eddie Bauer with an average of $40,235. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a Guide. The employers include Salesforce, Twilio, and Weight Watchers International
Guide Videos
