The entire interview process consists of, in this order, a rather detailed application, a phone interview and finally an in-house/on-site (Berkeley, CA for US applicants) all day group interaction/assessment. You only move on to the next step if you pass the current step. Application- Detailed background, a few essay questions, driving records, letters of recommendation (all can be seen by down loading the application from their website.) Phone Interview- Fairly straight forward, 15 minutes or so. They want to hear your voice, get a sense of your personality, discuss you background, and assess you for the on-site group assessment. The call ends with an invitation or "we'll get back to you", in which case, you didn't pass. On-site- 1)You are on your own to get there and for lodging! 2) This is all group evaluation! 3)They are looking for LEADERS. Despite Backroads saying they are a flat, very open organization, they still operate like a big company and to wit is the way they conduct their interview process. Most obvious of this process is the on-site group evaluation. It wreaks of corporate consultants and human resource experts. This isn't a bad thing, but if you have been through a major corporations hiring process, especially consulting firms, airlines, cruise ship, Disneyland, etc., it's clear you aren't really in a new-world touchy-feely organization. This is as corporate a hiring process as there exists. It's highly planned, highly evaluated and scrutinized. Even the evaluators have to be trained to hire personnel, this is signature corporation. Once you get there, coffee and bagels, then a short introduction and an exercise called the "Helium Stick" (or other names.) You can look this personality test up on the Internet. This is followed by group introductions where you present yourself to the group and answer a question, something of the sort, "Tell us why you are interested in this job" or "Something unique about yourself." Try to avoid sounding like Buffy by saying you just love travel or it's your destination. DUH! That's why everyone is there. Get more in depth. This is followed by smaller group Q&A or more appropriately, role playing. They will give you a scenario and you play the tour guide. If you can think about customer service and find a way to get to "yes", then stay home. A sample: A guest buys too many bottles of wine to carry on their bike and asks you to go back to the winery to pick it up and bring it to dinner. What do you do? Of course you can go pick it up! They are paying you for a trip of a lifetime. You damn well better figure out how to make it happen. Sample #2: Your co-leader is tired and asks you to take over some of their duties, you are already swamped with your responsibilities. What do you do? First - KEEP IT PRIVATE! Don't ruin anyone's vacation with your problems. You explain to your co-leader they have duties to do and should keep to them. If they are insistent, then perhaps you may have to do them to keep the trip flowing smoothly, and have the discussion afterward, perhaps bringing in a manager. Bottom line, you have guests to care for. Later you move on to other human resource exercises - changing an inner tube blind folded and getting directions from 3 or 4 others, one sentence at a time. If you are the blind folded person, this means they already like you or you are out of the running. If you are the others giving instructions, one short command at a time, then you are definitely being assessed on how well you can organize your group, how accurately you can condense information among or leader qualities. At some point you break for lunch and someone may come around to test you on either you foreign languages or some other situational role. You might even have to go prove your bike mechanic skills, so brush up. Remember they are looking for people with personality, who can manage a group of guests for a week on a bike tour and almost always be able to anser "yes." (One of the few "no" answers is that they may not ride without a helmet. Period.) This requires you demonstrate your LEADERSHIP skills. If you don't have them or can't stand in front of a group and talk, then don't waste you time applying even if you are "destined to travel." Maybe so, just not with a tour company.