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

[Nudi-K]

I know this is an old thread but i thought i would just put an update on what i'm up to.

I leave the UK on 8th March and going to Koh Lipe to do the DMC, then to the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia for the IDC.

If i can not make a living as a Dive Instructor, then i will work on a beach bar instead lol!

I cant wait

 

[DBailey]

I know this is an old thread but i thought i would just put an update on what i'm up to.

I leave the UK on 8th March and going to Koh Lipe to do the DMC, then to the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia for the IDC.

If i can not make a living as a Dive Instructor, then i will work on a beach bar instead lol!

I cant wait

Good luck. Thought I'd toss my two cents in here...

First, I am addressing this as someone working just as an instructor working abroad for someone else. Nothing more, nothing less.

You should make enough money to live "as a local". Heck, the locals might even have some benefits (like state run healthcare) that you may not. Injury or illness usually mean lost wages for a local. Locals tend not to save much, if any, money for retirement. I am not trying to dissuade you from trying this, but just trying to give you an accurate picture.

Now, with that said, some of the local guides/instructors live quite well (for the standards) because of the generous tips from the resort guests. A slow week at the resort can really cut into their earnings though.

If you do get a job somewhere, expect to get all of the crappy jobs since you are the new hire. Examples of these:

--rinsing all of the rental gear that the guests may or may not have urintated in.
--getting to actually go out on the boat, but staying dry doing bubble watch.
--running the snorkling trip.
--teaching discover scuba off the dock in 10 feet of water.
--hauling the 40 tanks needed for the cattle...errr...boat trip while the other instructors are checking with the students.
--working the sales desk while other go out on the boat.

On a liveaboard you can add a twist to some of this:
--depending on the liveaboard, you may also be the housekeeping staff. Scrubing the head and changing beds are not out of the question.
--you might have to help with dinner, lunch, and/or breakfast every day.

I have noticed that with senority comes time in the water.

To wrap it up, if you can handle paying some dues and living like a local, then yes you can "make a living" at this.

 

[String]

If i can not make a living as a Dive Instructor, then i will work on a beach bar instead lol!

I cant wait

You may find out you end up having to do both to break even.

 

[jokeborn]

As a fellow Soldier, I agree with your definition of making a living. We do a job that doesn't always match our civilian counterparts, but love what we do, the people we protect and the nation we preserve. That being said, it does seem easier to consider it when you can supplement it with another source (my retirement check in a few years). Most people would love the mansion or the porsche, but if I can find the right island resort, give me a tiki hut, a poncho liner and a case of MRE's and I'm good whatever they pay (just don't tell the wife).

 

[apertyx]

Wow .... quite the thread from the original thoughts expressed .... man, the opportunities for instructors have just risen 10 fold for anyone who HASN'T read this rambling rant of realism. Good for me: there will be less competition when I turn instructor in a month or so!

As for the two posters that most (but not all) seem to replying to:

25/28 years old? GO FOR IT! The soldier knows, the office worker may consider, that tomorrow may not come for EITHER of you and you simply have no choice in the matter. TODAY you have a choice - live your dream, or watch it go by.

No retirement package? Just enough to cover the bills and a beer or two? Working a 12 hour day on a tropical island? Having to scrub a latrine/head and lug a tank or twenty? Big deal. It's all part of life, and part of the job when you start at the bottom. LIVE YOUR DREAM. Try it - see if you like it.

My father used to say that if you don't like what you do today, do something else tomorrow. I worked for 25 years in my career to make crap money with little or no benefits, with younger people clamoring to do my job for free, or for pennies. It's no different anywhere else. When I buried my father I remembered what he said, and packed my bags. Now, I'm about to sink most of the remaining few dollars I have left in my world to get to instructor - to hump the tanks, scrub the head, sell the gear, and hopefully teach people as eager as I was to do what I do. LIVE YOUR DREAM. I don't mind: I had a house, I've cleaned a toilet. I moved all over from job to job, so carrying a few things doesn't bother me. And if having to spend a day watching bubbles on a boat in 85 degree sunshine is what some consider a "bad" day ..... well, it beats the hell out of sidestepping an IED, doesn't it? And in a year, or a few years, if you don't like what you're doing - you're not 80 years old! Do something else. LIVE THE DREAM.

I'm 42 - and I'm going to Utila next week. And I'm going to have a ball, living my dream! I may even blog the experience to share with y'all!

To the OP - Bless you for standing in front of me. The beer's on me, should we ever meet - and I hope we meet teaching SCUBA somewhere. To the second that chimed in - ditto beer for "giving it a go". And I hope we meet the same way.

I have no regrets for the time I spent in my first career. I had fun, I lived my life my way. I may not have a retirement package, and I don't own a house, but then again - I can get on that plane next Wednesday. Or whatever day I choose. My two brothers have great jobs that they hate, but have families that they love, and envy me for my "life of leisure". I envy them for the beautiful wife and children they come home to everyday. We all make choices, right or wrong, at different stages in our lives. LIVE YOUR DREAM.

To those who have nothing but negativity and "realism" to pass on - who crushed YOUR dream when you decided to do this??? Wow...

LIVE YOUR DREAM. Today. Tomorrow may not come.

And THAT'S the advice I'm going to give you on that subject.

 

[Nudi-K]

"And if having to spend a day watching bubbles on a boat in 85 degree sunshine is what some consider a "bad" day ..... well, it beats the hell out of sidestepping an IED, doesn't it? And in a year, or a few years, if you don't like what you're doing - you're not 80 years old! Do something else. LIVE THE DREAM."

Exactly, that's what i am thinking. I am quite happy to scrub decks, watch bubbles from the boat, sell courses etc. it's not just about getting out to dive, it's the whole life style, bad bits an all. i'm sure it is not easy, but it's gotta beat a desk job, looking out the window at the grey, cold UK weather?

Good luck with your Instructor course Apertyx

 

[DBailey]

"And if having to spend a day watching bubbles on a boat in 85 degree sunshine is what some consider a "bad" day ..... well, it beats the hell out of sidestepping an IED, doesn't it? And in a year, or a few years, if you don't like what you're doing - you're not 80 years old! Do something else. LIVE THE DREAM."

Exactly, that's what i am thinking. I am quite happy to scrub decks, watch bubbles from the boat, sell courses etc. it's not just about getting out to dive, it's the whole life style, bad bits an all. i'm sure it is not easy, but it's gotta beat a desk job, looking out the window at the grey, cold UK weather?

Good luck with your Instructor course Apertyx

As long as you are realistic about what you are getting into, then more power to you. I have been standing on shore helping OW students with their gear in 50F weather in a nice cold rain. Not every day is postcard perfect. Now do the 85F and sunny days outweigh the 50F and rainy? That is your call.

Good luck.

 

[nitrous_bob]

Anyway, at least then you would have a retirement check and might be able to do pretty well if you land a solid instructor job.

I know that money isn't everything but honestly, a lack of funds can be very frustrating at times. Especially as priorities in life change (i.e. marriage, kids, etc)

my plans exactly... i work for a city and fully plan to bounce the day i turn 55... then i can go captain or teach or whatever. all the while my pension pays for me to leave decent, and the dive job gets me a resort to stay in for free

 

[canuck_downunder05]

I've been an instructor on and off for 3 years, travelling, living and working abroad, occasionally coming home to work as Industrial EMT on the oil rigs, basically to pay my next flights and first few months of costs to get set up in a new country with accomadation, work permits and the other necessitites. Something I found very difficult with moving abroad were the costs to be there with work permits, whether it be monthly, annually, being taxed out the rear end... and you can't escape the "western prices" by the locals... And I guess sometimes I just think it is harder to get by despite living along with the local cost of living, recieving poor wages and still getting by. Most of us are a $1000.00 flight from home... so that ties in to affording to be able to see family and what not. I feel that I have always been very money smart and work extremely hard back home to make sure I will get by whereever I go and regardless of how little I will be paid, but I do see many instructors living check to check and struggling.

I just find it interesting that as an instructor I am considered a "profesional" and yet I can take care of 4 divers from anywhere between 2-5 dives a day and make between $15-30. A massage therapist makes that in half an hour, an EMT on a ambulane in an hour. I guess I just feel with the cost to live and work in another country, along with our Organizational fees and Personal and Liability Insurance... I see many instructors struggling and if I did it full time I think I would as well.

But I do love the job, and I'm still very new so I'm not tired of seeing the same old fish, some dive sites get tireing. but I do like the job... And personally I have always made enough to get by, travel and I will get back into it again... Just gotta play with your money a little bit more conscoiusly.

 

[leapfrog]

I worked for 25 years in my career to make crap money with little or no benefits, with younger people clamoring to do my job for free, or for pennies. It's no different anywhere else. ... When I buried my father I remembered what he said, and packed my bags. Now, I'm about to sink most of the remaining few dollars I have left in my world to get to instructor - I'm 42 - and I'm going to Utila next week. And I'm going to have a ball, living my dream! I may even blog the experience to share with y'all! LIVE YOUR DREAM....To those who have nothing but negativity and "realism" to pass on - who crushed YOUR dream when you decided to do this??? Wow...LIVE YOUR DREAM. Today. Tomorrow may not come....And THAT'S the advice I'm going to give you on that subject.

OK, so as someone who identifies with everything you say and is also heading off for the Bay Islands soon... How did it go?