After a day of details on Thursday, we were back on the coach Friday morning and heading to LAX in the rain. The freeways in LA are crowded, and the rain slows them down even more, so our teachers used the hour and a half to get to the airport to instruct us about airport procedures. When we finally arrived, I was a little disappointed: I thought that we were going to go "behind the scenes," but they really just used the airport as a setting. Most of us in the course are well traveled and had a good understanding of what airline travel today requires.
Our next stop was the Queen Mary; of course, the famous ship has been dry-docked as a hotel for many years, so there isn't much cruising going on. We had a tour of the ship, which was absolutely magnificent, especially the wood and the art deco decor. I regretted not taking my camera and would have loved to have had a drink in the most magnificent bar, home to many film settings. We were tourists. I questioned how much we would learn about cruising on a ship turned hotel, and we didn't. We did get the details of the responsibility of a tour director on a cruise, but, like the airport, the trip was interesting, but not essential for our purpose.
I never considered cruising. When I cruised the Greek islands I couldn't wait to get off at each stop, and I always wanted more time on the islands themselves. On our family cruise to Canada, every time I was on land, I felt like I was on the boat. But after our discussion and understanding that a lot of tours are now intermodal: people want to travel by bus, train, and ship, I think that perhaps some cruising along with other means might be fun. The job of a tour director on the cruise portion seems a little more relaxing than on the bus.
Finally, when we returned to our classroom at the hotel, we were tested on our knowledge of LA; we had all of the questions ahead of time and quizzed each other on the bus, so that was easy. The point was really not to "TEST" us, no SOL (not shit of out luck, but standards of learning), but to demonstrate how much we can learn in developing city tours that may not be our city. Now if I can just learn how to route for tomorrow's city bus test (Yes, we have to give directions to the bus driver -- me, with no sense of direction), I will be fine.
The other surprise for me was the amount of work available in events and incentives. Like cruising, I wasn't even considering applying for positions in these areas. The more that Randy talked about the type of work available, the more I realized I am already well experienced in event planning. After all the retreats at Capital Camps and the AP Summer Institute, I could certainly help with conferences and conventions in the DC area. The pay is not great, but if I could pick up $150 for picking up people at the airport (meet and greet), taking them on dine-arounds, giving out welcome packages, why not? I quickly added both of these experiences to my resume.
Another advantage of the course is the individual help in getting a job, both with resume writing and job counseling. Today is our one-on-one help with our resumes. All ITMI graduates' resumes look the same, and this is a good thing. As soon as the tour company gets the resume, they know that we are an ITMI graduate. Over 80% of Globus tour directors are ITMI grads, so even though most of the professional tour directors who have joined us over the week are not working steadily, I am hopeful. I assume the majority of the directors who are working steadily, don't have the time or need for joining us. I am remaining positive that work will come, especially by opening up all of the options available to us.
No comments:
Post a Comment