“If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for life,”

We believe our obligation is to teach you how to build a career, not merely get a job. You’ll find our curriculum stresses your professional development. We want to give you the tools to build a sustainable future for yourself in this industry.

That being said, it seems the number one question we receive from guide school candidates is indeed related to our policy on job placement.  This comes about primarily as a comparative factor, as there are a couple of schools out there that that make large claims, even guarantees, regarding their guide job placement track record or promises. Some schools claim 100% placement of students, but then when you read the fine print, it discloses  “ of qualified” students that performed in their program.  Well we are here to tell you that any school can make that claim. So what about ours? We believe in being honest with prospective employers about the performance of our students.  It is not worth us to place a marginal employee, only to ruin the reputation of the school just to keep our statistics high.  We can’t make you any guarantees- that depends on YOU. Will you excel or struggle in the program? It goes without saying that if you work hard and stay committed to the process, you’ll greatly increase your chances of success.  At Swan Mountain Wilderness Guide School, we’ll support you through your journey with our curriculum’s emphasis on career development and a team of experts on our staff.

Prospective students also want to know whether there will be sufficient wilderness guide jobs available for them to apply for and choose from upon completion of the program. The fact is that each season we get more leads for open positions in this industry (guide jobs, wrangler jobs, packer jobs, camp cooks, camp Jack/Jill, etc)  than we have students!  We keep our job board updated throughout the season. We require outfitters with job openings to complete a questionnaire so we can give our students thorough details about the possibility of working for that outfitter. We encourage our students to feel enabled to assess outfitters and determine for and determine themselves if they are the type of business and employer that they want to be affiliated.

We believe we should teach you how to investigate openings for wilderness guide jobs and the reputation of outfitters. We believe our obligation is to show you how to showcase yourself with writing your best resume and cover letters and nail your interviews. We believe we should train you on setting and achieving your personal and professional goals. We think we do that better than anyone else. But from there, you must take responsibility for yourself and take your future into your own hands!

Oh, and by the way, since our inception, 100% of our graduates who were qualified found wilderness guide jobs after their time with us.