Introducing You To My Job

A couple of years ago now, I wrote a blog post for my previous website about my experience training to become a river tour guide with Scudamore’s Punting Company in Cambridge. If you would like to read this very entertaining blog post (because genuinely, it is), then you can find that linked at the end of this current blog post which you are reading. In the blog post, I talked about my struggles getting to grips with learning how to punt, remembering all the history for my tour, taking the River Tour Guide test and gaining confidence in sales, all of which come under the job role of a tour guide on the river Cam. If you’re new to the punting scene in Cambridge, there are several companies in the city who offer 45 minute guided tours of the university colleges by the river in what is known as the Backs (as they are the backs of the most famous colleges). Cambridge is an 800 year old university and the second oldest university in the UK after Oxford. As a river-centred city, the medieval colleges on the river offer a spectacular tourist attraction with some impressive views of stunning architecture. Since the boat moves much slower than walking pace, punting is supposed to be a care-free and relaxed activity where the tourist can truly immerse themselves in their surroundings. However, whilst I now I find the whole idea of tour guiding to be incredibly relaxed and care-free when I first started the job, I found everything that went under the job title to be very challenging. I couldn’t punt properly, even though it seemed very easy to do from the outside perspective. I couldn’t remember all the information for the 45 minute tour. I was scared to take to tour guide test because I couldn’t remember everything and my punting wasn’t very strong. I was also really not confident when it came to sales because I was too nervous to approach people. Yet, if I observe myself now, I realise that whilst I didn’t have confidence in my abilities to begin with, I have come a long way and I have gained so many skills in the process of giving it a go.

I decided to work for Scudamore’s because I wanted to look for something to do on my gap year and working for the company seemed like the perfect thing to do. I had studied history at both GCSE when I was at secondary school and IB when I was at sixth form so I had a passion for it. The job advert also said that the position was great for gap year or university students because it was very flexible. I had just been through a challenging two years studying the International Baccalaureate at sixth form and was looking for something different to do with my free time so in the end, I went for it and gave it my best go. I filled in the application form and shortly afterwards, I was invited to an online job interview. I was a little bit nervous to do the interview at first because I had never done one properly before. To be honest, it wasn’t too bad but at the end of the interview, just as we were about to close everything off, the interviewer said to me, “I know you said that you don’t know much about the history of Cambridge but are you still able to give me just one fact about the history of Cambridge University?” Only a couple of seconds passed between the question and my response but it felt like two years as I ransacked my brain in search of not only answers but responses that showed a level of depth and intrigue that I pretended to have but didn’t yet have at the time. In the end, I stammered, “I think the University of Cambridge was founded by Oxford students!?” a response that I got from my dad who, like many other dads, seemed to know everything about British history. There was a slight pause that was deafening to the ears before my interviewer finally said “Yes, in 1209 you’re quite right.” I left the interview feeling quite proud of myself for that epic save until all the other responses came to mind. I could have talked about famous alumni like Alan Turing, Professor Stephen Hawking and Sir Isaac Newton. I could have talked about the mathematician Ramanujan who went to fucking Trinity College! I watched The Man Who Knew Infinity as of two months ago and still arrived at the interview thinking I knew nothing. Suddenly I was not so proud but thankfully, my interview was successful and enough to get me through to training.

When it came to training, I don’t know what exactly it was that I was expecting. Now, it’s quite obvious what it is that a tour guide does on the river Cam. They give quite a lengthy tour whilst pushing some hefty boats up the river. Even if you knew nothing about Cambridge, you could probably figure that out for yourself. Yet, being the person that I am, I thought that presenting wouldn’t be that hard. However, on the week that I had training, I found that there was so much information to remember. On 4 out of the 5 days, we had to attend classroom sessions in the morning where we learnt about the history of the Wars of the Roses, the Black Death, and the English Civil War which gave us context for understanding the foundation of some of the colleges on the river. We also had a booklet with images of the different colleges and their buildings and bridges. We had to write down when the college was founded, when the buildings and bridges were built, who attended those colleges and other relevant information. Then we would have lunch and practice punting and giving the tour in the afternoon in small groups, supervised by one of the tour guide trainers on the river. On the fifth day, we were given sales training and we had to practice giving our pitch to customers and writing out tickets for different groups of people. Then by the end of the week, we had to book a tour guide test where we had to prove that we knew the information for the 45 minute tour. For this, one of the trainers would sat on your punt, listening and marking your tour as you took the boat up the river. With Scudamore’s, the mark you get on your test dictates how much commission you get from your sales. There are three types of grades that you can get on your tour: standard, good or excellent and depending on what mark you get for your tour out of 100 and which band you fall in, depends what you make in your sales. As such, the company incentivises those who want to do really well in sales, to also have a really high-quality tour.

I will tell you now that I am quite an introverted and agreeable person. I applied to become a tour guide out of genuine passion for history and the outdoors. However, this fairly intensive training made me scared to even apply for the test. I remember booking a date for the test once I had done the week of training then changing it at the last minute because I felt that I wasn’t ready for it. Yet, as I said previously, I don’t really know what I was thinking because it’s quite obvious that this is what the world of tour guiding is all about. You’re going to have to remember quite a bit of information and you’re going to have to speak to people one-on-one. However, in the end, I managed to pass my tour and I was awarded the standard grade for my first test. My punting company is the oldest in Cambridge, founded in 1910 by Jack Scudamore. In contrast to other companies, the tours are quality checked so it means that every tour guide has to get re-tested every few months to ensure that the tour quality hasn’t gone down. I actually went through every pay grade: standard, good and eventually excellent. I would say that I am still quite an agreeable and diplomatic person but I have now learnt how to be more audacious and confident when approaching people. I used to find selling tickets to the customers on the street to be particularly difficult because I wasn’t sure about the prices to begin with when it came to concessions and I was quite intimidated by the competition who would sell tickets alongside me. Whilst I still feel slightly intimidated when I am trying to persuade people to go on the tour with the competition next to me, I’ve learnt to be more disagreeable around the other companies and more assertive with the people I’m speaking to, which has allowed me to close sales more easily. I’ve also learnt how to use my diplomacy and agreeable nature to win people over as well. As my sales improved, I felt more motivated to give a good tour. I’ve now learnt that if you give a good tour where you add a good level of historical information, a good number of funny stories and you say at the end of your tour “If you want any tips or recommendations, feel free to ask,” people are more likely to tip you at the end of your tour as well. This makes it more worthwhile but don’t tell anyone that this is how I get my tips!

Overall, I really like working as a river tour guide in Cambridge. Whilst I found it difficult initially, now that I’ve got the job, I can see how much of an asset it is for me. Since I can choose which days I work, the job is very flexible. It has meant that I could go travelling for a month in Japan during my gap year and go to university for three months as of recently and still have a job at the end of it. I am also quite a firm believer that the biggest character development comes from stepping outside of your comfort zone and doing the things that are uncharacteristic to you. If I truly knew what went into becoming a river tour guide, I may have been put off by the idea of trying to become one. However, my ignorance probably spurred me on as it threw me into the deep and forced me to give it a go. In doing so, I have become more confident in taking on this public-facing role. It can be a hard job at times because when the weather is bad, it can be hard to punt on the river and it can be hard to make money. Yet, it’s strange because you do find ways of convincing people to go punting even when it’s pouring with rain and you do become physically stronger with all the boats that you have to push up the river. When the weather is spectacular, it’s so nice being able to work outside, being able to take-in all the stunning architecture and Gothic Revival buildings. On those days, it definitely beats any office job by far.

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s blog post. Have you been punting before? Let me know in the comments below and I’ll be sure to reply to them. I love hearing what you have to say!

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See you next week,

Bye,

XOX, Juliette

Read my blog post to learn more about my tour guiding role:

https://jujupage1sblog.blogspot.com/2022/06/entering-real-world-lifestyle-monday.html