Employment
Work With Us

Employment at Coastal Bliss Adventures
and Cowichan Bay Kayaking

• Who We Hire

  How are we different than many other wilderness tourism companies?

  We employ guides for the season.
  We provide essential training.
  We provide advancement opportunities.
  Coastal Bliss guides may also work for our sister company, too. Our multiday guides will likely work for Sea to Sky Expeditions as well as Coastal Bliss Adventures. That means you have a bigger guide community and more opportunities. We have a structured employment approach, so you know where you stand, and how you can advance. What can you expect?

  We hire people that really want to work outdoors and have a sense of purpose. We really look for the following qualities:
  ✔ Confident with people, easy with a conversation.
  ✔ Interested in people and want to help them experience the outdoors.
  ✔ Proactive to take care of problems and to find solutions with few resources.
  ✔ Loves to learn and pick up new skills.
  ✔ Has a real and driving reason to be a guide.
  ✔ Is looking for mutual commitment for the future.
  We have hired guides with little or no qualification, just experience outdoors and a real reason to guide. Of course, that is a rare find, but not being a fully qualified guide does not prevent you from working for us.
  We also look for local youth in the Cowichan Valley that want to be outdoors and are willing to build their skill levels. These junior leaders might take on smaller responsibilities within the things we do.
  We usually hire several full-time and several part-time people for our season that runs from mid-May into September.

• Qualifications

  We do multiple activities, so guides that have broader experience and qualifications are better suited to what we do, particularly for full-time work.
  Qualifications We Look For:
  ❤ SKGABC Level 1 Guide Certification
  ❤ Wilderness First Aid(40-50 Hour) Certification with CPR-C
  ❤ Paddle Canada Basic or Level 1 Instructor Certification
  ❤❤ SKGABC AOG, Level 2 or Level 3 Guide Certification
  ❤❤ Advanced Wilderness First Aid (80-90 Hour) Certification
  ❤❤ Class 4 Unrestricted Commercial Driving License
  ❤❤✚ Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG) Assistant Hiking Guide Certification
  ❤❤✚ Canadian Outdoor Leadership Training (COLT)
  ❤❤✚ Canoeing Instructor Certification
  There are some obvious overlaps in the listed certifications that we love to see. Certifications do not guarantee anyone a lead guide position. That comes with experience and trust. What we really look for on top of certifications is:
  ❤❤❤ Lots of experience outdoors and demonstrable experience leading and taking responsibility for others.

• What Working With Us Looks Like

  We have multiple tasks that must get done to serve our clients every day. Rarely do we have an employee that focuses on one activity only. The people we hire full-time will likely be doing an assortment of the following over the course of the season, depending on qualifications:
  ➫ Renting gear and assisting clients for tours at our dock in Cowichan Bay
  ➫ Guiding short kayak tours in Cowichan Bay
  ➫ Leading or assisting on kids' camps in Cowichan Bay or Maple Bay
  ➫ Prepping food and gear for multiday hiking and kayaking tours
  ➫ Assisting on multiday hiking or kayaking tours
  ➫ Driving clients and kids to activities
  ➫ Creating posts and marketing materials
  ➫ Cleaning and maintaining gear and premises
  ➫ If fully trained and qualified, lead multiday hiking, canoeing or kayaking tours
  We have qualification levels that we call Guide & Outfitter I, II, III, IV, V, VI, or VII. Responsibilities and advancement are based on these levels. Most people start at GOI or GOII; however, experienced multiday guides usually start at GOIII, GOIV or GOV. A GOI would be working mostly at the dock and doing prep work. A GOII is qualified to lead short kayaking tours, assist on multi-day hiking tours, lead day tours for birding (with interpretive knowledge), lead and assist on kids' day camps, and to drive clients (with proper driving license). GOIII is the starting level for multiday assistant guides, and lead guides start at GOIV. A link under "Job " will take you to the job descriptions and pay rates. Qualified lead guides will mostly be on multiday tours, but may be called in to other areas in the shoulder seasons.
  
  We will also need guides for our sister company, Sea to Sky Expeditions, which exclusively does multiday tours in BC and the Yukon. Together, our guides have unsurpassed opportunities for variety in guiding.

• Jobs At Coastal Bliss Adventures

  For the 2023 season, we are looking to fill the following positions:
  FOR OUR DOCK IN COWICHAN BAY:
  ☑ Recreation Attendant, Guide Outfitter I
  ☑ Recreation Attendant, Guide Outfitter II
  ☑ Outdoor Guides: Guide Outfitter II, III (SKGABC AOG and Level 1)
  
  FOR COASTAL BLISS AND SEA TO SKY MULTIDAY TOURS:
  ☑ Hiking Lead Guides, Guide Outfitter IV, V, VI
  ☑ Canoeing Lead Guides, Guide Outfitter IV, V, VI
  ☑ Sea Kayak Guides, Guide Outfitter VI, VII (SKGABC Level 2 and Level 3)
  ☑ Assistant Guides, Guide Outfitter II, III

  For detailed job descriptions, go to Positions.