Sitka Sound Ocean Adventures Employment

Sitka Sound Ocean Adventures

2010 Employment Information

Introduction: Hello there job-seeker and fellow explorer. Thank you for your interest in working with Sitka Sound Ocean Adventures. We are presently recruiting sea kayak guides and support staff to join us for the coming summer, and we approach this process with the understanding that our company, and our kayak tours & expeditions, can only be as good as the people who work with us.

About Us: We are John & Alison Dunlap, long-time residents of Sitka. We have worked in adventure tourism in Southeast Alaska our entire adult lives, and we are the brand-new (and very excited) owners of this fantastic little sea kayaking company, founded by our friends, John & Barbara DeLong, in 1994. Sitka Sound Ocean Adventures’ business includes guided half- and full-day sea kayak tours, guided multi-day expeditions, kayak skills instruction, and kayak rentals & sales. We are in this business because of our love for exploring wild Alaska, and the fun we have sharing it with others. It is our intention to earn a reputation for conducting the finest-quality kayak tours available anywhere, and then re-earn that reputation every time we head out on the water with a new group of paddlers.

Length of Season: Our 2010 season will begin with an all crew orientation on May 1st, followed by a week-long, comprehensive training program for new guides. We will start getting busy with tours in the second week of May. As the majority of our tours are conducted for people arriving in Sitka by cruise ship, we expect to be quite busy from late-May through mid-September. Our last big tour day will be September 23rd, and we expect to run our final tours for the season on September 28th.

Work Schedule: The length of our workday is variable, mostly depending on the number of cruise ships in port and how long they’re scheduled to stay. We usually start at about 8:00 in the morning, but it is almost impossible to know in advance when the workday will end. A guide might lead one or two short tours, working 4-6 hours, or he/she might guide two or more longer tours and put in a 12+ hour day. Our full-time guides and staff will be scheduled to have at least one entire day off per week.

Guide Training: Previous guiding experience is helpful but not essential. Our comprehensive, in-house training program includes: First Aid & CPR certification, kayak & gear orientation, kayak safety & rescue techniques, guide leadership skills, navigation rules-of-the-road, tide/current/wind/seas awareness, tour orientation & goals, the natural & human history of the area, and leave-no-trace camping ethics.

Who We’re Looking For: Do you have a water-oriented background & skills? Are you Tooltip trigger goes here.enthusiastic, flexible, self-motivated and reliable? Do you love being outdoors, telling stories and meeting new people? Are you interested in biology, geology, ecology and human history? Do you have natural leadership and inter-personal skills? Are you physically fit, able to lift & carry up to 50 pounds, and drug-free? Do you have infinite patience and a playful sense of humor? Can you work hard, all day in the rain, while smiling? Really? If this sounds like you, please read the attached job profile and submit a completed application and resume (optional).

The Key to Success: This “guiding” principal is so important to the success of our business, we’re going to give it to you right now, here, for free: It is not just possible to mix work and pleasure while guiding – it is absolutely essential! Our guests entrust us to provide a wilderness experience that is safe, educational and FUN. But, if we’re not having fun, they’re not having fun. We can teach our guides the skills they’ll need to conduct a safe and informative tour, but fun … that’s just something we all have to bring to the job. We will do everything we can to foster a professional, respectful – and FUN – work environment.

Please direct all employment inquiries and correspondence to:

Sitka Sound Ocean Adventures
112 Toivo Circle / Sitka AK / 99835
Phone: (907) 752-0660
Email: info@kayaksitka.com