Dive Master or Instructor

[jridg]

As far as languages go - the Chinese/Japanese are great suggestions - I would also throw out Russian as a possibility as we are seeing more and more these days. It really depends on where the desire is to work.

 

[jridg]

I'd like to also chime in on the $$ aspect of being a DM. Over the past 16 years I have made literally tens of dollars at doing this. Of course, I have not been a shop employee or a regular boat DM. The best place I had for being a DM and getting $$ was south Florida on a small six-pack charter. Over three months I probably made $400. Again, I have a 'real' job and that cuts into my diving time. I know that regular DMs out here in SoCal do OK on boats, but they don't dive much and breaking into the operation can be difficult unless your timing is just right......

 

[orm]

Over the past 16 years I have made literally tens of dollars at doing this.

Haha, not wrong.

I used to earn $10 a day instructing!

 

[--tom--]

So an instructor will be getting the most work in the scuba industry, but there may be some other opportunities available.

There may be summer opportunities in "camp-type" settings. An example would be Sea Camp, but there are others. Some are mobile and are done aboard boats, etc. Some of the extra skill may be sailing, lifeguard, and a smattering of social skills in addition to the other fine suggestions that have been given. The more they have to offer, the better the odds.

One other way is if you have a place in mind, talk to the owner now & see if you can deliver a custom employee, mold the skills the place needs.

Finally, if I owned a destination dive shop, I would hire an instructor that could be a web site designer/marketer. At a destination shop, that is all I have to go on to pick diving with them. I have seen a lot of dive shop websites & they really need some help! So computer literacy may be the ticket.

 

[Aquatic Eagle]

I would go with instructor level. As a dive instructor, a person can get a job with Norwegian Cruise Lines in the Shore Excursion department. He would sell tours and be one of those who organizes them and makes sure they go as scheduled but also would lead snorkeling tours, escort dive tours and could teach during the month they have off every 4-5 months of working. The starting pay is around $2,000 USD per month and that is after the room and board is covered, full medical coverage and TONS of great travel experience. That's what I would recommend for someone new to the industry that wants to get some travel experience and bank some money.

 

[vladimir]

Japanese and Mandarin/Cantonese would also be helpful both in the near future (teaching Japanese tourists) and further forward looking future with the boom of the Chinese economy. We will always see demand for multi-lingual instructors in a foreign travel based industry.

Where are you seeing Mandarin/Cantonese-speaking divers who aren't also fluent in English? I'm not seeing any here in Hong Kong, never met one in my eight years in Singapore, and I haven't met one in the Southeast Asian region, despite having traveled it pretty extensively. The Taiwanese divers I have encountered all spoke English well, but it is admittedly a small sample size. Japanese, on the other hand, is a good suggestion. There are a lot of Japanese divers and they often either don't speak English or prefer not to.

 

[vladimir]

I haven't seen this when I've searched for it and am "locked out" of the going pro section so here goes. My 3 kids (15, 14, 12) are all OW and will be getting AOW and then Rescue this year. I would love for them to have a year (or 2) off between high school and college to go off and explore the world before all of the dreaded adult responsibilities start. We have all agreed that a diving career would be a perfect way to do something fun, see the world, and earn a bit of money along the way. So here's my question....will they have more employment opportunities as Dive Masters or as Instructors? Thanks for any input

This thread might interest you:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/he...bbean-internship-opportunity.html#post5210573

 

[Dr Neil]

Marketability is the key. Being bi-lingual is a great asset not only for diving but any occupation.

What other dive related activities can they have to add to their marketability? Equipment repair, teaching water safety, are just a couple of great add-ons.

Besides traditional dive activities, the military, and commercial diving there are other opportunities to get paid for diving.

Have your kids do some research. They may find some unique callings for divers.

 

[scubamum3]

I guess a lot of this is going to boil down to getting some of the "extras"...I had not thought about the computer/marketing aspect. So the language part would be different say if they wanted to do the Maldives vs Bonaire? The cruise ship was one I had not thought of either. We had looked at NASA for the spacewalk training but with the Space Shuttle program ending this year who knows if that would be an option:depressed: I'm so glad there are people out there willing to share their experiences/advice to help us in this process!!!!!!! Thank you to everybody and please keep sending any suggestions my way!