Wanted: Guides to give visitors tours of Hearst Castle

Looking for a part-time job that pays well and has a touch of glamour and prestige?

On Friday and Saturday, Dec. 8 and 9, Hearst Castle management will sponsor its third 2017 recruitment workshop at the Visitor Center. The workshop will explain the exam-and-application process toward becoming a guide trainee or Guide 1 at the historical monument.

As Castle Museum Director Mary Levkoff described the job recently, guides experience “how wonderful it is to be part of the Castle and to present the Castle to the public. It’s a great way to contribute.”

Applicants for the Guide 1 position must be available weekends, holidays and summertime. Guide 1 pay starts at $19.29 per hour.

The trainee position is entry level and does not require a civil-service exam.

Applicants must be at least 18 years old, but there’s no top cap on the other end of the age range. In fact, the Castle has had longtime guides who were still working there in their 90s.

Guide Supervisor Aja Milne wrote in an email interview that “our guides are wonderful at their jobs, and when you take a tour, they often make it look effortless. But an incredible amount of research and training goes into creating a good guide.”

The job also has some fairly strenuous physical demands. It’s great exercise, and your Fitbit will be happy. Guides are on their feet, standing and walking for much of their work day, which can include upstairs tours with more than 300 steps and outdoor areas with lots more stairs and steps.

As Levkoff said, “Most guides are expected to be able to conduct all the tours.”

The supervisors hope to bring on a class of about 20 new guides, Milne said, but “we won’t know for several months exactly how many people end up applying for the jobs.”

Formal training — which involves an intense six weeks of classroom-style learning, research and practice of each of the tours — is to begin in late April, with a pause for spring break.

For details, email Aja.Milne@parks.ca.gov or check online at www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=26405. But here’s a bit of advice: Don’t send a resume via Facebook. The process of getting hired by the state of California is lengthy and involved, and they’re not accepting resumes yet.

This story was originally published November 14, 2017 at 11:57 AM with the headline "Wanted: Guides to give visitors tours of Hearst Castle."