What’s your dream job?
Roughly six and a half years ago, I returned from Prague full of ideas of what I was to do next. Maybe it could be sales, or perhaps marketing, maybe I could find a job as some sort of analyst, or I could do what I had been doing in Prague and seek work as someone who teaches English as a second language. Any of these roles I believe I could have been good at, but instead I found insufficient experience and an unrelated degree path was going to scuttle any chance at securing a decent role. That very silly modern problem of entry level jobs somehow requiring years of experience. In despair, I turned to my wife who said I should look into tour guiding. It has turned out out to be a dream job.
A walking tour guide! It seemed unreal to me. A job where I could be outside, I could talk about history, literature, and buildings, there was no dress code and I could be as independent as any job lets you be? That sounds, impossible! I bet the pay is rubbish.
The discovery of a dream job in my native city
Amazingly what I’ve found in the last 6 years of guiding is an incredibly enriching process, both monetarily and spiritually. In many previous jobs, I struggled with many people constantly telling me what to do, or objecting to the way I did it even if it got the same result. If the process is so important while the result is the same, why can’t you explain it? I’m a very easy person in many ways, I just want to know everything. I want to use what I know to connect with people.
The experience of guiding has become very special to me. It’s like when the tour begins a different part of me takes control. I become capable of accessing facts and stories, information in granular detail but then filtering it to the most relevant parts. I am loud. My voice becomes so much clearer than my regular Scottish accent. I know when to pause and how long exactly is needed before I return. The entire show is not improvised, as such, but it is all from memory. I do not need notes or any physical reminders, the visuals provided are of the street or performances of the body.
To get better, I sometimes watch others perform. They can anything, actors, dancers, street magicians, TED talkers, I have come to understand performance as something with great application between different mediums, they are all united by the desire to connect with each other. The desire to show off abilities honed from hours or sometimes years of effort. It’s all about making the right impact at the right places. It is capable of changing the viewers as much as it changes the performers.
So yeah, my dream job, to return to the topic, is the one where I can make the most impact on people, in a way where I can use my skills at finding out information and deciding what is the juiciest way to express it. My dream job is also the one that gives the most autonomy as only through freedom can you get the most inspired performances. From this exercise I came to understand that I am right where I want to be.
Maybe in another world I could have excelled at analysis, marketing and sales, but in this world, I’m putting all that together with my spectacular performing abilities to bring some special glory to my home city, Edinburgh.
If you or anyone you know are visiting Edinburgh, feel free to book a tour! For more on the city, you can read my articles. You can also find me on instagram @ streethistorians. Follows, likes, shares welcome. Also, what was the best walking tour you ever went on?
The writer of this piece is a better tour guide than a salesman, a better salesman than a marketer.
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