Tell us about your career path since completing the Adventure Guide Program?
I currently work as an outdoor instructor in the industry. I have worked for Pure Exploration and for three other travel companies since doing the program. So, my outdoor career really did start when I booked on my New Zealand Adventure Guide Program.
I decided to take part in it after university. I sort of knew about the program in my final years of uni and then when Covid happened in 2020, all of my job prospects were gone instantly. I had to take a step back and think about what i really wanted to do with my life and think about what actually made me happy. I decided that the Adventure Guide Program wasn’t just going to be a college break or a holiday for me, it was going to be an investment in my future. I saw it as a pathway to get into a career that I would really enjoy long term.
I came back to the US after my program and worked in a climbing gym for 4 months which was a really great way to consolidate all my learning and to practise what I had learned in a different environment, in a different country and build upon all of the skills I had learned. That was my first job after the program and right after that I worked with kids in British Columbia as a guide doing rock climbing, rafting, and hiking. I was taking little steps into the industry after my program to see which one I really wanted to do. I felt with the qualifications I had from New Zealand, they were accepted in job applications across the world which was really heartening. In Europe, the US, Asia, all of my qualifications that I got in New Zealand for the most part were accepted and looked upon fondly so i never really struggled to find an opportunity after a program.
In the spring of 2022, I came back to New Zealand and worked with Pure Exploration as an Assistant Program Instructor. Again that was a really good stepping stone for me. It was definitely one of the most challenging things I’ve ever had to do. I was suddenly no longer a learner, no longer experimenting or just seeing what works. I was in charge of people who were doing what i wanted to do, so it was a great way to learn and to grow and to expand my repertoire as an instructor and I had a great time doing it. What I had learned on the Adventure Guide Program, I doubled if not tripled that learning in the next three months as an instructor and it was a really great way for me to finally land upon what exactly in the outdoor industry I wanted to do and that is what i’m currently doing, tour guiding. I now work in Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, Thailand and other parts of the world as a tour guide. I do 9 day to 3 week long trips with clients age ranging anywhere from 15-16 year olds to 40 year olds. It’s less outdoor instruction and more taking people around cities, taking them on guided hikes, to restaurants and museums and I’m really enjoying what I’m doing now, I think I’ve landed my dream career which is really exciting. I can really trace that success back to that short investment I made with Pure Exploration."
