Job Description

Job Description - (Former) Tour Guide 

“Hi everyone, my name is Tammy! I am currently a first-year student studying quantitative sciences on 

the pre-business track and a minor in Chinese.” Note that I said, “first year” and not freshman because 

the latter is not gender neutral. If my supervisor was there, he would have deducted points for forgetting 

to state my pronouns. My first ever job was being an unpaid tour guide at my previous university. 

Despite working for the admissions office, ironically, I have since transferred colleges. 

I often use this as a fun fact, people are usually surprised to learn that I used to be a tour guide. I don’t 

have the typical cheerful and bubbly tour guide traits, nor do I have strong school spirit. These people 

weren’t wrong. I only wore the tour guide polo because that was the only University merchandise I 

owned.

So, what is a tour guide? Any college student has dealt with tour guides at some point in their lives. 

Perhaps, on a college tour as an eager high school student with big dreams or as a college student 

walking around campus. As someone who struggles with punctuality, tour guides act as a roadblock. 

There are countless times where I took a detour due to the swarm of parents and their kids.  

Despite causing traffic, tour guides serve a few purposes:

1. to represent the university

2. to act as the liaison between prospective students and the admission office

3. to answer any questions

The first and most important one is being the university’s biggest advocates. Tour guides go through 

extensive training - memorising (a lot of) information, tour routes, and how to best represent the 

university. Our job is to show the beautiful sides of campus - pretty, new, glass buildings and world 

class facilities. At the same time, divert attention from the old and under-funded buildings. We 

highlight everything the university is proud of. As a tour guide, I had to recite the University's history, 

key dates, statistics, and names of random historical men who made an impact. I remember the 

statistic the university most boasted was the 11-billion-dollar endowment. “This endowment can be 

seen through the maintenance of our beautiful campus, hiring brilliant faculty, and funding 

scholarships for outstanding students.” In other words, we’re rich but please attend this university 

and give us more money.

Jokes aside, tour guides are the liaison between prospective students and the admission office. 

Tour guides are closer in age to students and are still living their college lives. We went through the 

admission process not long ago and can provide insight. What better way to get to know a school 

than from their most valuable assets - their students?  

Finally, tour guides are there to answer your questions! We are honest with our answers since we are 

trying to give you an accurate view of the university. But some answers can be more performative than 

others. We also always have a few stories ready when certain topics come up such as campus 

involvement and diversity in the student body. These stories are from our own or our friends’ personal 

experiences. As for more difficult topics, fear not, we underwent training for those too.

We received training on: 

· Parents pressing on the topic of drugs and alcohol

· Difficult conversations of the university’s past controversies 

· People who want to extract personal information like GPA to compare you with their child 

Sometimes, it may come off as scripted but this is to uphold a good image for the University. Making a 

good impression is important especially if it determines the next four years of someone’s life. I still 

remember the USC tour I took when my brother was applying for colleges. A single tour can help 

shape one’s view and ultimately guide their decision to attend a school. We want students to determine 

if the school is a good fit for them - if they can imagine themselves here for the next chapter of their 

lives.  

Because of this, admission offices are thorough with the training of tour guides. A lot of people don’t 

realise how much training tour guides go through. First, I went through many rounds of screening and 

interviews which was daunting as a first year student. After I got in, I trained for five hours a week, 

over three months. Tour guide training was like taking an extra class but not getting credit for it. I 

couldn't even skip training even when my parents flew a couple thousand miles to visit me. I had 

weekly quizzes and study guides to do every week. I was cramming in fear of failing the quizzes 

and getting “striked out” of the program. 

There was so much information we had to remember. Whether it's the inspiration for the architecture, 

different types of dorms, or the mascot's history. My script for a 90 minute tour totaled to roughly 14 

single spaced pages. Tour guides are always prepared to answer a wide range of questions before, 

during, or after the tour. Thinking back, I am amazed at how I could cram all that information in such 

a short time. In return, all we got was free admissions office merch and pizza in our monthly meetings. 

All this training did not go to waste. Here are some other fun skills that I gained from this experience:

 

Development of a customer service persona. At the end of the day, we are selling the school and 

want to put our best foot forward. Sometimes we deal with awkward or tense situations but all we can 

do is simply smile. I became quicker and better at handling these difficult decisions over time.

Walking backwards! Maintaining eye contact is a basic communication skill but that means walking 

backwards. The campus was hilly and had many curves and turns. I gained some bruises from bumping 

into things but by the end of training, walking backwards came naturally to me. 

Short term studying skills. The weekly quizzes and fear of getting dropped from the program has 

made me better at cramming. I am now good at remembering random dates and names!

Although my tour guide career only lasted a year, I gained new skills that I can use in other areas of 

life. Tour guides also deserve more recognition so be sure to give them a "fight on!" the next time 

you walk past a tour group.

Flesch Reading Ease: 67.5

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 7.4

Passive Sentences: 1.4%