Doing DM in Canada or in Paradise....

[SubMariner]

Great answers guys (and girls).

I will most likely be dive mastering out of the DR. I did my OW and Advanced with that shop and they offered a job. I will NOT be doing it for the money, I don't need a living wage due to good financial planning and sheer luck. No one gets paid well there anyways, I'd be doing it just to dive because I love diving. They need me because I am a woman (almost all DM's there are locals and a little known fact is Dominican women don't ever get there hair wet unless the hairdresser is doing the wetting ) and because I am not a local. I can speak Spanish as a second language and I could re-learn French if necessary. I wouldn't need to worry about residency ect. People go the DR all the time and just don't leave. Unless you are Haitian the Dominican government does not care when you leave (another little known fact). And as long as the shop employs more Dominicans than foreigners the law says I can work for them legally.

I do eventually want to do my instructors course, but probably next year. For that I will definitely want to go to Utila. If they crank out students like they do, I think that is the ideal place to do that portion of the learning.

Beyond pro-dive stuff I have built a successful real estate career (small business) Including social media and marketing. I have experience with hospitality although not recently. I am working on my underwater video capabilities, and it is coming along nicely. I will not be touching any boat motors with a ten foot pole. Nor will I want to drive any boat. I am lucky the Canadian government lets me drive a car, because I can't park that...so I doubt I could park the boat. But you can't have all the skills.

They won't care where I did my training. But I won't stay there forever. Maybe two years to get experience while my kids finish turning into adults and then I plan on taking the show on the road to wherever. I can't train btw where I have been offered work, they are high volume tourists looking at pretty fishies kind of place, no time to do a DM course.

The portions I highlighted in red are the parts of your posts that I really set off my alarm bells.

1) I don't want to sound condescending, but if you think working illegally in a foreign country is your ticket to becoming a dive pro, you are very much mistaken. You will have no rights and no recourse if things do not materialize as promised. Especially a place like the DR that is adjacent to the poorest & most messed up nation in the Caribbean (Haiti). You have only seen the DR from a tourist's POV. When you actually live in another country it is very different. There should be some iron-clad paperwork done, including working permits, before you should even consider this "too good to be true offer".

2) If you are going to become an Instructor, please do due diligence. Going to a place that "cranks out students like they do" is NOT an indicator of the quality of their ITs or of the Instructors they produce.

As has already been said, most dive operations will hire local DMs. To really be marketable you have to be an Instructor with several specialties, including (but not limited to) selling courses/equipment, fixing equipment, or handling a boat.

Meanwhile, I agree with the part about continuing your dive education in Canada. There are very few people who train in conditions like we do in The Great White North. Those that progress up the ladder make for very good Instructors who can handle just about anything.