Visitor Guide

Duties

Overview:
The operational needs of the Capitol Visitor Center require that as a Visitor Guide, you will need to work on Saturdays and holidays, and may be expected to work Sundays and/or evenings in support of special events. As a Visitor Guide you will be required to walk, talk and stand for hours, up to an entire shift, as well as walk up and down steps. In addition, you will be required to lift items which may weigh up to 20 pounds, such as stanchions and boxes. While your work would be primarily indoors, you will need to work outdoors, in a variety of weather conditions, to facilitate visitors entering the buildings or to provide support for special events.

Guide Duties:

• As a Visitor Guide, you will provide educational and informative tours of the United States Capitol to groups of various sizes, interests, and needs. Tour groups usually include the general public and may include Congressional Members and their staff, and/or prominent visitors. You will need to have a thorough knowledge of the history of the United States Capitol and the United States Congress to share on your tours as well as when delivering presentations on the history and artifacts in the US Capitol Building and the US Capitol Visitor Center. You will also be expected to provide tours of the United States Capitol Dome.
• You will also serve as one of the primary points of contact for the visitors that arrive at the Capitol Visitor Center on a daily basis—as many as 12,000-15,000 visitors per day during the peak visitation period. As a Visitor Guide, you are expected to provide exemplary customer service by welcoming and proactively engaging with visitors, responding to requests from visitors, and providing information about a variety of topics, including but not limited to, security guidelines, the amenities available in the Visitor Center, and the process for going on a tour of the Capitol.
• You will provide assistance to visitors with a variety of functions, including but not limited to, general directions and way-finding, reservation check-in and tour pass distribution, coat check services, large group coordination, distribution of listening devices, and theater loading and operations.
• As a Visitor Guide, you may also provide assistance to visitors who require special attention, advising them appropriately, according to their needs.
• You will need to walk, talk and stand for hours, up to an entire shift. You will also need to walk up and down many flights of stairs throughout the shift, including the steep and narrow stairways utilized for tours of the U.S. Capitol Dome. As a Visitor Guide, you may be assigned duties outdoors, in a variety of weather conditions, to facilitate visitors entering the buildings or to provide support for special events.
• You will also need to operate various types of equipment, such as computers, coat check carousels, two-way radios, assisted listening devices, and audio-visual touch screens. In addition, you will need to lift items which may weigh up to 20 pounds, such as stanchions and boxes.
• Due to operational requirements, you will be expected to work Saturdays and holidays, and may be expected to work Sundays and/or evenings in support of special events.

Qualifications

You must meet the United States Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) qualification requirements (including specialized experience and/or educational requirements) for the advertised position. You must meet all eligibility and qualifications requirements by the closing date of the job announcement. Additional information on the qualification requirements is outlined in the OPM Qualifications Standards Handbook of General Schedule Positions. It is available for your review on the OPM web site.

Specialized experience is experience that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the position to be filled. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level.

Candidates for the GS-07 grade level must have at least 52 weeks of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-06 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as having experience: (1) Providing specific interpretations and explanations of the significance, development, and/or importance of historical features; (2) Answering visitors’ questions by providing an explanation and description of the background of events leading up to the historical construction and development, origin, growth or development of the site; and (3) Ushering groups in an orderly fashion and keeping them on a specific schedule.

Education

SUBSTITUTION OF EDUCATION FOR EXPERIENCE: The experience requirements for the GS-7 level may be met by completion of one (1) year of graduate level education (18 semester/27 quarter hours) in courses such as history, natural sciences, earth sciences, archeology, anthropology, recreation management, natural resource management, social sciences, museum sciences, business administration, public administration, behavioral sciences, and sociology.

COMBINATION OF EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE: Equivalent combinations of successfully completed education and experience may be used to meet the experience requirements.