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Thank you,
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- Thread starter mamerrin
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Thank you,
I am concerned I will not be able to find work.
I am a 27 year old female from Chicago, IL.
My father was born and raised in Honduras and I wanted to apply for residency in Honduras.
Does anyone have any words of wisdom? or am I just a dreamer????
While still in Chicago, go with your father to the Consulate of Honduras, and see if you have previously been registered as a child of a citizen of Honduras born abroad. If so you should at least be able to get registered with the Registro Nacional de Personas (RNP) which assigns national IDs and keeps track of folks. You will need this information prior to attempting to acquire citizenship in Honduras, and if it has already been done, you can skip the residency work authorization bit. If not, check on what you may be able to do, I recall that most things need to be put in place by your 18th or 21st birthday. However, even if nothing has been done to date, residency may still be possible based upon your family connections. Good luck.
Hi, if you're willing, please keep updating the thread and let us know how it goes. Your experience could benefit others in the future.
I recently just spent 3 months paying to work as a DMT with UDC, they are a great outfit and really do have the best training on the island. While I was there I saw 3 waves of IDC people come through and most stayed for the MSDT, and all looking for work. I can tell you two things, first of all you have to work really hard and be willing to start from the bottom (working as a DM) and second that as the summer comes to an end a few of the full time instructors working there will be leaving.
leadweight
Contributor
Not so fast. If the public schools are out of business then there must be private and church operated schools. Anyone who can afford it is going to educate their children outside of the Honduran system. For this reason, I would not write off the possibility of a teaching job out of hand.
Jimmy Roatan
Registered
The Canadian that is opening up the new dive shop in Camp Bay will be on the island next month. the construction should be ready by late this year. when he arrives i will get more info on his plans. as for the comment on Camp Bay being remote and the road. yes the road is bumpy like most roads on the island, but i make trips to the store a couple of times a week, about half an hour to Oakridge and 45min to French Harbour. the longest drive would be from West Bay to Old Port Royal, about 2 hours. a dive shop in this area is much needed and with several places to stay now and the reef in such good shape, it should do well.
malcforrest
Registered
Back on the subject of employment, finding a busy enough dive center to support you full time throughout the year can be a difficult task, for the dive center, finding decent instructors available full time to maintain their high standards and reputations can be equally tricky.
From my experience on Roatan instructor turnover in the more successful centers is minimal, however for those 'decent instructors' that arrive and start by free-lancing and showing their abilities good positions eventually appear as the word gets around. So don't be put off!
My advice is to work as a divemaster, if you haven't already, and take the IDC close to where to intend to look for work, this will make you a more employable instructor.
You don't have to look like a supermodel but personally I prefer to hire dive staff without beer bellies or their asses hangin' out of their bikini's, non smokers, ability to hold a conversation not just tell you how experienced and wonderful they are, down to earth, drug free, educated, kind etc etc.
Your personality with count for alot more than how many specialities you can teach.
Good luck
From my experience on Roatan instructor turnover in the more successful centers is minimal, however for those 'decent instructors' that arrive and start by free-lancing and showing their abilities good positions eventually appear as the word gets around. So don't be put off!
My advice is to work as a divemaster, if you haven't already, and take the IDC close to where to intend to look for work, this will make you a more employable instructor.
You don't have to look like a supermodel but personally I prefer to hire dive staff without beer bellies or their asses hangin' out of their bikini's, non smokers, ability to hold a conversation not just tell you how experienced and wonderful they are, down to earth, drug free, educated, kind etc etc.
Your personality with count for alot more than how many specialities you can teach.
Good luck
Finding work on Utila is difficult but not impossible, and you'll certainly have a huge leg up if you get residency (same goes for being able to teach diving in more than one language).
UDC is a fantastic place to get trained -- particularly if you stay through the MSDT internship. You'll receive top-quality instruction, get experience teaching with experienced instructors in the water to back you up, and (most importantly) have an awesome time. Of course, I'm biased: I did my IDC at UDC in July, followed by my MSDT internship. That said, I never finished that internship . . . because I got a job. So did my roommate. I guess we're the proof that it's not impossible.
The turnover rate here is high -- no mistake about it. That said, the competition for those open jobs is also pretty steep. To get a job here, you don't just have to be good: you have to want it, and you have to work your butt off. At the moment we're in low season, but I know of several instructors throughout the island who plan on leaving before the holiday high season kicks off.
At the end of the day, UDC will help you work on your CV and look for employment. They can't hire everyone they send through, but they don't just cast you out on your own, either. Additionally, you can stick around on the island making some cash flow by working as a DM, an AI, or a waitress/bartender. That kind of work often leads to full time positions at the shops where you freelance -- but as malcforrest mentioned before me, whether or not you get hired will also likely depend on how well your personality jives with the shop's other employees. Considering how much time I spend with my coworkers (and my students), I can't fault any shop manager for taking that position.
If you'd like to know more about life on Utila, feel free to PM me.
-T
UDC is a fantastic place to get trained -- particularly if you stay through the MSDT internship. You'll receive top-quality instruction, get experience teaching with experienced instructors in the water to back you up, and (most importantly) have an awesome time. Of course, I'm biased: I did my IDC at UDC in July, followed by my MSDT internship. That said, I never finished that internship . . . because I got a job. So did my roommate. I guess we're the proof that it's not impossible.
The turnover rate here is high -- no mistake about it. That said, the competition for those open jobs is also pretty steep. To get a job here, you don't just have to be good: you have to want it, and you have to work your butt off. At the moment we're in low season, but I know of several instructors throughout the island who plan on leaving before the holiday high season kicks off.
At the end of the day, UDC will help you work on your CV and look for employment. They can't hire everyone they send through, but they don't just cast you out on your own, either. Additionally, you can stick around on the island making some cash flow by working as a DM, an AI, or a waitress/bartender. That kind of work often leads to full time positions at the shops where you freelance -- but as malcforrest mentioned before me, whether or not you get hired will also likely depend on how well your personality jives with the shop's other employees. Considering how much time I spend with my coworkers (and my students), I can't fault any shop manager for taking that position.
If you'd like to know more about life on Utila, feel free to PM me.
-T
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