USS SLATER is hiring tour guides
for the 2024 season!
If you are interested in becoming a tour guide we’d love to have you aboard!
If you’d like to volunteer - start by submitting this application to Shanna.
If you would like to apply for one of our paid, part-time, seasonal positions - start with submitting this application and a current resume to Shanna.
USS SLATER Tour Guide Job Description
Over a period of sixty minutes, a tour guide brings between one and twenty visitors around USS SLATER. The tour process consists of the basic greeting, showing the orientation film, a safety briefing, followed by a series of two-minute lectures at fifteen stations around the ship, ending with a question/answer period, membership pitch, and a thank you.
Tour guides or interpreters must be able to communicate clearly, succinctly, and effectively with the public and have a cheerful personality. They must be dependable, flexible, and have an aptitude for learning history. We do not provide scripted tours. Guides are given the flexibility of developing their own program based on the age and interest level of their group, based on the information we provide. But don’t worry, we’ll help you!
When not on tour, guides are expected to assist in opening and closing the ship, operating the ship’s store, attending to customers, answering questions, assisting in the preservation of artifacts, as well as the educational programs hosted by the museum. As we have a large facility to maintain, guides are expected to assist with custodial duties aboard ship, in the visitor center, and maintenance of the grounds when not doing interpretative duties.
Normally, tour guides working the day shift must plan to be aboard by 0930 with the ship opening at 1000, unless earlier events are scheduled. Afternoon tour guides must plan to stay until 1700, or 5 pm. We sell our last ticket at 4pm, so an hour must be allowed for the last tour.
Please keep in mind that USS SLATER is a World War II destroyer escort, which predates both the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. As such, it is essential that you are able to climb steep ladders and navigate through small compartments with overhead obstacles. It is also imperative that you can lead groups of all ages safely through the ship in the allotted time. Finally, in our effort to create an authentic shipboard atmosphere, tour guides must wear period Navy style clothing (blue chambray shirts, jeans, khaki slacks or shorts, and appropriate shoes and hat). Guides are expected to provide their own dungarees or dark blue jeans, khaki slacks or shorts, and shoes. The remaining items will be made available to you on loan from the ship’s stores. The dress code is strictly enforced.
Previous knowledge of US naval history and destroyer escorts is not required. Some of our most effective guides have come to us with no previous naval background. These people sometimes can relate to the lack of knowledge of the average visitor and tell the story of the ship in an easily understandable manner.
We provide training materials to give the novice tour guide a basic understanding of World War II and the Cold War eras, and SLATER’S place in that history. We will teach you how the ship’s crew functioned as a unit and how they lived day to day. It is then your job to share that knowledge with the general public. Interns hired in 2024 will be paid New York State’s minimum wage of $15.00 per hour upon hiring. There will be a raise of .25 per hour as soon as the tour guide has completed training and is able to conduct solo tours.