Why can't you make a living as an Instructor?

[harmony]

I really have to reply to this. I own and manage a dive centre and believe me it is not easy. When we opened, I worked for nothing for almost 6 months. (Lived off my savings) After more than 5 years we are now working reasonably well. Although, we do remain fragile as we are always at risk of bad weather and unfair competition. I think that the first problem with this industry is the number of instructors who are happy to work free of charge. Does anyone know of another industry where people pay so much to earn an instructor rating and then go off and work for the fun? Personally, we do not take on young inexperienced instructors, even free of charge, as our diving tends to be a bit difficult and if we were to have an accident, under the local law, I will be held responsable. Also, I consider that I have a moral obligation to keep my divers safe regardless of the cost. However, not all of the companies think like me. We have an ongoing problem with retired military who move from France into the tropics. These guys are relatively young with a good retirement and their idea of creating a business is just to cut the prices until the competition gives up! When you already have an income, it is a lot easier.

On the positive side, I never get bored with diving. Someone said that the pros get bored with diving the same sites every day. Personally, I do not have this problem as there is always something new or an unknown behaviour of a well known creature. I am always fascinated how the same sites change according to the seasons, time of day and tides. And then I course every now and then we see what I call a "gift" from the sea. Recently, I dived with a whale shark and then mantas rays on the same day. Also, many of my customers have become good friends. This is certainly a very tough business. To survivie you must really love the sea and its creatures.

 

[TropicRat]

Beach J:

Thanks for your service and devotion.

Read and heed the previous comments- all are valid observations.

As an instructor since 1976, the best explination I can offer is that when you separate the $$$ spent on dive travel, there is simply is not very much money going into the dive industry, especially when you compare it to other rec activities and sports. Translation : not much filters down to the instructor. Extract the travel and the the industry is just too small in terms of the dollars spent on it.

Those that have some assets, a portfolio or some sort or a retirement will do fine- to the rest, instructing is a hobby that pays for itself and a few extras. It is no way to pay for the bennies you are now receiving ( Think health insurance and eventual retirement benefits, housing) or that are available in a civi-Job.

Stay safe!!

 

[don Francisco]

Dive instructor in many cases is a career where folks accept lower earnings in exchange for other benefits, such as lifestyle, fun career, etc. It's a common situation in desirable occupations, such as in the travel industry.

But you're absolutely right that many are happy in their choice of a dive career, enjoying very nice lifestyles, though they may not match the "American dream". I think that for certain people, at the right time of their lives this could be a very rewarding career choice, and shouldn't be discouraged.

Unfortunately, so many of those that ask about becoming dive professionals do so too early in the process, often not having even completed OW. Before considering a career in diving one should first decide how much he really likes diving, then honestly assess his people skills, and lastly consider the lifestyle impact of his decision.

At the very worst, even if not a lifetime career, a job as dive instructor could be a wonderful opportunity for the right person. Odds are later on he'll look back on on those years as some of the best of his life, salary notwithstanding.

 

[Charlie59]

I like the idea of marrying someone who will support you while you work as a dive instructor, just doubt that good thing could last too long.

Living off retirement and being a dive instructor might work too (right up there with winning the lottery).

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Then again, I'm in the Army and spend years at a time living in a tent or on the side of a mountain or crowded into a room with 12 other people. All for the fabulous lifestyle that 34k a year affords me. So my idea of "a living" may be a bit scewed from others.

Well my first thought when I read this was "I'd kill to earn $34K a year!" My best paying "dive" job was $30K a year, but that was cliff diving. I worked the other 2 days a week as a scuba instructor/guide so I could afford car insurance and happy hour.

After the cliff job ended I have worked full time in scuba for the past 5 years. I have no body fat, no car insurance and no girl friend.

 

[Puffer Fish]

It is possible, it is just unlikely. The average life of a new instructor in the field is a bit over two years. That flow through assures that wages stay low and that benefits are nonexistent. There are a few that find a way to carve out a niche for themselves and to do better, very few. Can you think of a single person here on ScubaBoard who has gone off and become an instructor and done nothing other than teach diving while they married, had kids, paid for the orthodontist and the kid's college and retired in any sort of comfort at all?

How many can you name who lasted more than 5 years as full time dive instructors? Not very many.

Boy, do you have that right...

 

[BeachJunkie]

Thanks everyone for their input. I figured this would be the general trend and do agree with all of the posts. I was just wondering if it was really as insanely horrible as people are making it out to be. Is it as bad for instructors outside the US? I'm guessing that the pay averages the locale so probably yes.

 

[bfw]

So I ask myself, how can this be?

Economics is the study of scarcity - scarcity begets value.
Ask yourself, why is prostitution a career dominated by women?
Because the productive activity in that industry is something in which men, if they had the opportunity, would engage almost to the exclusion of eating and sleeping.
No one is willing to pay someone to do something they would do unpaid.
Thus, pay for dive professionals is very low - just enough to avoid forcing them to get a real job.

But if you live in a great dive destination and get to do something you love, that, to me, is better than having the big house in suburbia with the BMW and a fat paycheck.

And this is the naive assumption of one who has never understood the story of Tom Sawyer getting his friends to whitewash his aunt's fence. I quote:

"Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it -- namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. And this would help him to understand why constructing artificial flowers or performing on a tread-mill is work, while rolling ten-pins or climbing Mont Blanc is only amusement. There are wealthy gentlemen in England who drive four-horse passenger-coaches twenty or thirty miles on a daily line, in the summer, because the privilege costs them considerable money; but if they were offered wages for the service, that would turn it into work and then they would resign."

I have several friends who have gone the route about which you ask. They've done a better job of it than most (owning a successful and growing dive shop, captaining for several companies including the Aggressors and PHD, full time photo pro in Cayman.) Not only have all of them since sought other career paths, all but one have also abandoned leisure diving altogether for other recreational pastimes. The one who captained liveaboards refers to that part of his life as "the time I ran away to join the circus." A few years ago, he gave up diving, replacing it with western equestrian sports, and bought a horse. A year ago, he sent me into his basement to take all the dive gear I wanted, and I daresay, that day I took home more gear than most of the people posting here own. The dive shop owner took up rock climbing.

A job/career is what you have to do so you can do what you want to do. The optimal approach is to find something useful that you are more uniquely able or willing to do than most other people, and play to that strength. Make lots of money doing what people are willing to pay you the most to do, and then spend that money diving on YOUR terms. You'll enjoy diving more, and enjoy it longer, and the rest of us won't need to subsidize your healthcare.

 

[bfw]

I like the idea of marrying someone who will support you while you work as a dive instructor, just doubt that good thing could last too long.

Golddigging is one of the world's oldest career paths. As with any other plan, economics prevails - it's workable only if you can provide a uniquely high quantity or quality of that for which people choose and keep a spouse.

 

[jorgie]

Hmm, interesting discussion. First off let me say as the owner of a smallish to medium size business with a good group of employees and somehow managing to still grow in these economic times, don't walk away from a regular check right now. I have many career friends in the military and none complain.

They guy I did all my advanced courses with up to Master Diver was ex special forces. He now has a nice little dive business that supliments his military pension, not the other way around. To be honest the reason I took my first course with him (Nitrox) and stayed with him for all the others was that he sold himself to me, and treated his business as just that a business. He invested in all the right tools, you know CPR dummies for teaching CPR, Oxygen bottles for rescue classes, cameras and other rental type equipment for those looking to advance but not ready to buy the equipment.

But he just never stopped. People need to remeber that being self employed as anything takes way more effort that a 9 to 5 as a bank tellor or factory worker or a public servant. On the other hand looking for a full time job as an instructor my prove to be an eye opener.

On the other hand why not look into commercial diving? I was ready to give every thing up and go back to school, until I found out that no one would hire me at 40 yrs of age. It's frusturating I know, but maybe for the best.