Outdoors guiding jobs are hard work. They are also a way to combine business with pleasure and see the world while hiking, climbing, biking, paddling, or diving.
Location is one of the first practical considerations: Some places lend themselves to outdoors careers better than others. There aren't too many professional hiking guides in Chicago, Illinois, but outdoorspeople living in states like Colorado or Washington can find plenty of work.
Skills and Certification for Adventure Travel Jobs
Skills and certification requirements vary by activity, location, and employer. Some employers are willing to train candidates who are promising, but don't yet have expert skills. Others expect their guides to hit the trail running.
In some fields, such as SCUBA diving, internationally accepted standards govern certification and accreditation. But in hiking and mountaineering, requirements are very different from country to country.
To gain outdoor experience as a potential guide:
- Go hiking! Independent travel offers opportunities to pick up new experiences and skills. Long-distance backpacking, bicycling, or water travel trips are good ways to learn what it's like to be in the oudoors day after day.
- Take classes. The National Outdoors Leadership School runs programs covering a variety of outdoor skills. Outward Bound also offers outdoors immersion courses. There are also private mountaineering schools, such as Rainier Mountaineering, many of them located on or near major peaks. In countries with national certification programs, prospective guides follow a set curriculum.
- Volunteer outdoors: Even urban areas offer plenty of opportunities to put outdoor skills to work. Volunteer as a leader for a local schools program (Sierra Club's Inner City Outings Program runs trips for urban kids; local YMCAs and outdoors clubs run trips, too.)
- Get First Aid, CPR, and Wilderness First Aid training. When leading trips, the guide is the first responder in cases of emergency. The more medical training, the better. Wilderness courses tackle dealing with emergencies in remote places where help may be many hours away.
- Get experience. Non-profit organizations such as the Sierra Club, the Appalachian Mountain Club, or organizations affiliated with the American Hiking Society offer leadership opportunities. Usually, these are on a volunteer basis, but they provide valuable training and experience. Summer camps also offer skills training.
- Make contacts. Lots of jobs in this field are offered based on who has worked with whom.
Potential Employers and Income for Guiding Jobs
Potential employers include a wide range of businesses and sometimes, non-profit organizations Note, however, that many jobs are seasonal, or part-time, or are offered on a freelance/independent contractor basis (meaning no benefits.).
- International outfitters hire guides, but usually the guides live in the region where they are guiding or have extensive experience and some sort of a connection there.
- Closer to home, guides work at mountaineering schools, at outfitting shops that offer treks and trips, or for specialty outdoor travel companies.
- Some resorts (especially those involved with health and fitness) have outdoor hiking programs, and hire guides to take clients on trips.
- Income Expectations. Guiding in the outdoors is a "dream jobs" meaning that lots of people are willing to work for very little money. A highly trained guide at Canadian Mountain Holiday's Heli-hiking program once quipped, "What's the difference between a mountain guide and a pizza? A pizza can feed a family of four." But he said it with a smile.
Guides aren't in this for the money; they're in it for the experience. Living in the outdoors and sharing it with others is indeed a dream job, for those with outdoor skills, a passion for adventure, and the ability to work with a wide variety of people..
Karen Berger - Karen Berger is the author of 15 books. Please click on her name to read her full bio.
