Guide With Us | Career Opportunities
Who is A Walk in the Woods?
Our mission is to raise environmental awareness through direct, positive experiences in nature. Here at A Walk in the Woods, we help people fall in love with the wild spaces of the South East. During this courtship, our guests develop a sense of stewardship for our natural world. When you guide with us, our mission leads us through every chapter of this adventure.
Our belief is that if we can make just one person at a time fall in love with the Smokies and surrounding areas, it will set off a chain reaction. They will take that love and carry it to many of the people in their lives, keeping the cycle ever growing and evolving. These critical relationships foster a desire and passion to protect our wild spaces.
Why Guide with Us?
You get the amazing opportunity to share your passion with people from across the globe! If our mission speaks to you, A Walk in the Woods might be the perfect fit.
Guiding can be really difficult at times. We understand that and are proud that we have fostered an environment where our staff can grow with the support of management and leadership. Therefore, as we continue to grow as a company, we are constantly seeking out ways we can improve individually and as a team.
We are a wide range guide service, doing everything from short day hikes and driving tours to full day and multi night adventures. Some of our overnight adventures have you in the backcountry of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Pisgah National Forest or Big South Fork Recreation Area and others have you at our local, 90 acre camp property.
Some of our program line up changes seasonally to keep things fresh for you and the customer. We have expanded into new areas including Big South Fork, Pisgah National Forest and even the Everglades! Consequently, there are many dreams and projects in the pipeline and we need your help to make it happen. As we continue to grow, there will be more leadership and management positions opening, turning this once strictly seasonal position into a year round career.
At A Walk in the Woods, we believe in the vital role of human diversity in our mission to protect biodiversity. We value diverse perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds within our team and community to understand and conserve Earth’s intricate web of life. We are committed to learning and growing as an organization, striving toward inclusivity, embracing uniqueness, and uniting diverse minds and cultures for stronger conservation and a thriving planet.
Recently, we expanded into a couple overnight rentals on our 160 acre farm. Income from these rentals helps us protect the 160 acres they sit on from development. More than 100 of those 160 acres are in a conservation easement and land trust, holding us close and accountable to our mission.
Responsibilities of a Guide
Ultimately, our guides are here to facilitate once in a lifetime adventures that are safe, positive, inclusive and fun! All guides follow Leave No Trace practices and carry a deep respect for the natural places we are fortunate enough to travel in. Additionally, multi night trips range from 2-4 nights with mileages between 3-12 miles per day. Your pack, as a guide can weigh 40-50 pounds and there are times you may need to carry client gear. Many of our trips do occur over holidays and weekends (with the exception of Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day). Consequently, you will be expected to work all applicable holidays.
Responsibilities Include:
- Pre trip study of client paperwork
- Pre trip meeting with your co guide
- Assisting clients with packing properly, setting up/ using gear, hanging packs, etc
- End of trip debrief with co guide
- Any post trip paperwork
- Gear clean up and return
- Vehicle cleaning and simple maintenance (checking fluids and tire pressure)
- Reporting issues or concerns about guides, vehicles, facilities, trails, etc.
- Natural and human history interp
- Risk management and first aid
- Driving company vehicles and maintaining a good driving record
- Occasional tasks on our camp or farm properties
Guide Qualifications and Skills
Despite our long list of must haves, we do not require that you come to us ready to go. We are happy to train you and give you the tools to succeed. However, it is up to you to use those tools to become the best guide you can be. Those with geology, ecology, native or modern history, environmental studies or naturalist backgrounds are encouraged to apply. For multi-night positions, preference is given to those with backpacking and backcountry experience, but we encourage anyone with the right amount of passion to apply. Occasionally, we have spots for folks that need to start small and work their way up.
Qualifications Include:
- Excellent customer service skills
- Enthusiastic Team Player
- Willingness to learn, ability to be taught
- Must have a valid drivers license
- Able to pass a background check and motor vehicle record check
- Have or are able to obtain Wilderness First Responder Certification
- Have or are able to obtain Backcountry Food Handlers Certification
- Have or are able to obtain Leave No Trace Certification
- Able to hike up to 15 miles per day with a 50 pound pack (for multi night guides)
- Able to hike 6-12 miles with a 20 pound pack (for day hike guides)
- Able to attend training at the beginning of the season (March)
- Willingness and ability to be able to pivot when needed, team player attitude
- Ability to use good judgment and work independently
- A thorough, intensive training at the start of the season
- Training along the way to get you up and running as soon as possible
- Wilderness First Responder and CPR Training*
- Use of gear as needed for trip (backpack, tent, trekking poles, etc)
- Guide Swag (can include shirts, jackets, hats, vests, etc)
- Your guide kit*- Water filter, stove, first aid kit, etc
- Industry perks (discounts on gear from our partners)
- Opportunities for advancement with in our company
- A fun, supportive crew. We work hard, learn hard and play hard.
We have limited housing adjacent to our office that is first come first serve. Additionally, we are always working towards better housing opportunities and have our eyes open. If you are not local enough to check out a place you have found before moving, we are happy to check out a place or two (within reasonable distance from our office), let you know how the commute is and send you pictures or additional information about it before you commit. Occasionally, we have a couple contacts who often have apartments available. Housing can be tough, however, we will help where we can.
One of our main goals in growing A Walk in the Woods was to provide a living wage so that our staff could make a life doing what they love.
Our guides are paid hourly as employees vs independent contractors. Multi-night guides quickly accrue overtime pay. Additionally, this industry also typically sees very generous gratuities.
Interested applicants, please send resume and cover letter to info@awalkinthewoods.com.
FAQ's
Our main season begins in mid to late March and goes through mid November. However, we do operate a limited number of trips at a different location in the winter months (December, January and February)
We like to tell folks up front that this is a hard job to get used to if you are the type that likes routine. However, you can do it! You just have to find your own routines to keep you grounded (trip prep, trip debrief, etc). Most guides can expect 2-3 3 night trips per month. Additionally, if you are living local enough, the remainder of your month is filled in with day tours such as hikes, driving tours and community outreach. Keep in mind that you will not get more multi night trips because you chose to live further away. We try to be fair across the board.
While Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge are extremely popular with tourists, the overall feel from the folks living here is pretty ‘small town’. As a result, if you are coming from the city, it may be a shock to your system. We know it can be hard moving somewhere new, however, we are here to guide you through it. Management, as well as many of your co guides that have been with us a season or two, know the best places to hang out and meet new people. We are happy to show you around.
We have a multistep interview process.
- interview #1: questions about you and your experience
- interview #2: prepare a 5 minute presentation on anything of your choosing and answer follow up questions after your presentation
- references will be contacted by our team
- background check and driving record check
- complete training starting in March. Dates vary from season to season
In our four to five day training you can expect to get your hands dirty. Here is an example schedule.
- Day one will be our paperwork and procedures day, getting all of the necessary information out. Followed up by a fun activity, pizza and drinks to welcome the team together and kick off an awesome season.
- Day two and three all new guides will head out on an overnight backpacking trip to see how they are run and go over expectations of clients while bonding with your new co-guides.
- Day four you will be sent out on a day hike with some of our senior staff to kickstart your knowledge of the Smokies.
After this, guides will either have some time to settle in to the area or may be off to their Wilderness First Responder Course.
Working with A Walk In the Woods, you will get your basic backpacking set up. We do have some gear (backpacks, tents, etc.. for those who need them) but most guides find they prefer their own sleep setups to the gear AWITW loans out.
We train our guides to be fully engaged in learning how to meaningfully connect people to the natural world. Our goal is to invite you in to go deeper as an educator, a naturalist and a mentor to our guests instead of being just an interchangeable cog in a wheel. We would like you to be a part of our team for many, many years and invest that time into you. This does not prohibit you from guiding anywhere else, it simply limits you for a period of time from guiding with direct competition in the areas surrounding the places we work in.