I Let My Job Take Over My Life

(What They Don’t Tell You About the Tourism Industry)

If you’re a traveler, you may have some experience taking tours while exploring a new city. How often do you think about the perspective of the local who’s showing you around?

Chapter 1: *The Interview*

November 2021:

I moved to Texas with the dream of establishing a creative career in Austin. I was inspired by the street art throughout the city, the entertainment and food, and the energy of this rapidly growing place.

After a few months of getting to know my new home, I responded to a Facebook post about a local company that was hiring entertainers and creatives as tour guides. I had never worked in this industry but I was looking for a new opportunity after years in the service industry as a bartender.

I honestly thought the post was a scam — they advertised a flexible schedule and a starting wage of $20/hour plus tips; it seemed too good to be true.

It wasn’t until I interviewed with the CEO that I was convinced I’d found a real company. She gave me some time to look over the first two pages of one of the tour scripts so I could demonstrate my narration skills.

I truly did not know any of the information or fun facts in the script, but I memorized what I could and did my best to sound like I knew what I was talking about.

The interview mostly consisted of personal questions; I found out that my new boss was from my dad’s hometown (Sheboygan, WI, population 49,903) and she said we were “kindred spirits” by the end of the conversation.

At the time, I was just focused on getting a job that would allow me to have a decent income. I had no idea what I was getting into.

Chapter 2: *A Chauffeur*

I spent weeks training for this job, which included endless hours of studying tour scripts, an online course, and the best part: going on tours as a guest.

I was getting paid to visit historical landmarks, food trucks and BBQ restaurants (where I ate for free), breweries and wineries (where I drank for free), live music venues, art installations, and more. I got to learn from the experts who’d been leading these tours for years.

It seemed like a dream job, but at the same time I was overwhelmed with the amount of information I would have to know about all these places I had never been to.

I was determined to prove to myself that I could learn a new skill and be successful in an industry that was a complete novelty to me at the time.

Before my first shift on my own, I had to acquire a chauffeur’s permit and pass the ultimate test: performing a two hour tour for my boss.

Remember the 2 page script from the interview? Turns out that was the beginning of 30 pages (front & back) of information about Austin’s history and culture, stories about local legends, an entire section on the Capitol building including a tour of the rotunda, and all kinds of other fun facts.

Imagine trying to remember all of that (including a tour route consisting of over 100 turns) while driving a Mercedes sprinter that seats 11 people with only the CEO in the back, who wrote the script by the way. No pressure.

I passed the test, “with flying colors” I might add, and I was ready to lead my first tour.

Chapter 3: *Imposter*

It’s worth mentioning that for the first 6 months of my career as a tour guide I actually lived in San Marcos, a college town 30 miles south of Austin (usually a 45 minute commute.)

I was totally unfamiliar with the city besides what I had memorized.

I felt like I was lying every time I introduced myself to someone as their tour guide.

Fortunately for me, most of the guests on my tours knew even less about Austin than I did! They consistently expressed that they couldn’t believe how much I knew despite living there for less than a year. They didn’t need to know that I wasn’t even a real local.

I explored a lot on my own. The more I learned about this place, the more I loved it. Before I knew it, I was leading tours about everything from street art to breakfast tacos. We even brought tourists to Lockhart and San Antonio for barbecue.

I was promoted twice in my first year with this company (I’m not including the name because that seems like a bad idea.) The whole time I felt like I was getting away with some kind of fraud.

I moved to Austin in November 2022, but I was still by no means an expert.

Chapter 4: *Is This A Cult?*

After surviving my first summer of record-breaking heat in Texas, I went on my first ever work retreat. My boss invited the whole team to stay in cabins on a lake for a few nights and provided all the food and drinks we could want.

I had made some friends in the company, but we all got to know each other a lot better that weekend…

I’m not sure how cult recruiting typically goes, but bringing people to an isolated area away from civilization seems like a likely first step. We also drove together in the company sprinters, so there were limited options for escape.

On our way in, we passed a community called “Smoking Jesus” (???) that very much resembled something out of the Waco documentary.

Every time we sat down for a meal together I was fully expecting someone to reveal that this was actually a devoted religious group that made a deal with the devil (or whatever) to make the business successful.

Turns out it’s technically not a cult but it is a small woman-owned business, so do with that what you will.

Chapter 5: *Operations Coordinator*

(If I wasn’t an imposter before, this job title confirmed it.)

Working for a small business as opposed to a big corporation is absolutely preferable if you ask me. Knowing everyone you work with (and for!) is a completely different dynamic; I truly felt I was part of a team.

However, growing businesses often end up with an un-proportional amount of work for the amount of employees they have. I was asked to take on the responsibility of coordinating operations, which meant being at the office 9-5 every Wednesday and Saturday.

I won’t get into the details of my obligations; I essentially took care of all the errands, organizing, inventory, and event preparation that no one else in the company had time for. Two shifts per week was hardly enough to keep up with it, and I was still a tour guide the rest of the week as well.

At one point I was consistently working six days a week, and sometimes up to seventeen days in a row. There was one day that I was scheduled to be in the office from 9am–5pm, help with an event from 1pm–3pm, (did I mention we had team-building events too?) and then lead a live music tour from 6pm–Midnight. I barely survived.

I didn’t have a Saturday off for at least 6 months. Working 9–5 was something I never saw myself doing, yet there I was: doing it.

And on Saturdays?? Who does that?

I was usually the only person in the office aside from my coworkers coming and going for different tours and events. I learned a lot about my work ethic with no supervision and you know what? It is exceptional.

Chapter 6: *Burnt Out*

Something that seemed too good to be true turned out to be more than I bargained for.

What they don’t tell you about the tourism industry is that it’s unpredictable and inconsistent. There are seasons of everyone working overtime followed by an extremely scarce amounts of shifts for weeks at a time.

Tourists are not always great tippers. Regardless of how much they enjoy a tour, a lot of them either don’t think to tip tour guides or just don’t give a fuck about the amount of energy we put into showing them a good time.

It’s also insanely repetitive. Even though we did a variety of tours, I performed the same scripts hundreds of times. Every audience was different so I was always fully engaged, but pretending to be interested in talking about Texas’s Capitol building as many times as I had to was maddening. *No offense, don’t shoot me.

If you’ve worked in the industry of entertainment in any capacity, you know there are certain high maintenance customers that seem to have a mission to ruin your day. I encountered people like this often. In a bar or restaurant you at least have the option to walk away from them and/or make fun of them with your coworkers. I was stuck in a vehicle with them for hours and had no choice but to be nice to them.

My least favorite tours were the wine shuttles. If I had to listen to one more drunk mom karaoke on the hour drive back into Austin from 3 wineries in the hill country, I would’ve driven the van straight into Lady Bird Lake. (That’s a joke for legal reasons.)

Don’t get me wrong, I feel very lucky that I had this unique opportunity to meet people from all over the world. A lot of them were very sweet and kind to me, and I received a significant amount of gratuity on most of my tours.

Being as introverted as I am, this job required all of my social energy and more. My capacity for talking to people is usually very limited unless someone is paying me to do it.

I always saw it as playing a character. I wanted to represent the welcoming, friendly, genuine one-of-a-kind character of Austin. I’d like to think I got pretty good at it, but at some point I realized that this job was consuming all of my energy.

Even on the rare days that I wasn’t working, I was worrying about whatever events or tours were going on, paranoid about whether I had prepped everything correctly. I practiced scripts obsessively before tours to the point that I had dreams about it. I don’t know how memorizing that much information affects your brain, but I want to write an entire article on that.

I had more frustrations than I’d prefer to get into; my point is that I felt like a personified burnt end after working there for a year. I stayed with it for a few more months so they could train someone to “replace” me. Lol.

What I was responsible for in 16 hours a week is now a full time position, as it should be.

Chapter 7: *The End*

I’ll never forget the time I spent driving people around downtown Austin and telling them all about why I love this weird, beautiful place.

I met some of my closest friends at this job, and for that I am eternally grateful. I got to learn about and visit places all over Austin, San Antonio, and the surrounding area, and I ultimately have no regrets about the experience.

I have never stayed at any job more than a year.

In fact, I’ve never invested the amount of energy this job required in anything else. That was the real problem.

The feeling of requiring change in order to progress is something I’ve learned to embrace, it’s an instinct that has proven to encourage self evolution.

On my last day, I lead two city tours without telling anyone it was my last day. I’m still not the type to attract more attention than I have to.

It was a Sunday, so no one was at the office when I finished my shift. I put the van key away, set the alarm, locked the gate, and left without having to say goodbye to anyone.

The perfect way to say goodbye, in my opinion.

Thank you for reading, I hope you found my story entertaining!

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