How to choose a Dive Center for a Divemaster Internship?

[Mikkni]

I would like to start my Divemaster Internship in the Winter 2017 or Spring 2018 and I'm having a hard time finding and choosing a Dive Center.

I have ~85 dives registered, with ~50 of them in Komodo, Indonesia. I like both "big stuff" and macro, no preference I love them both. I don't have Rescue Diver, only Advanced Open Water.

I've been keen on going to Timor Leste (East Timor) and do my Divemaster there because I've heard good things about the island itself but I don't have any information on the Dive Centers other than what's on their homepages.
I'm not hell-bent on going there though, so I'd love to hear other peoples experiences and how they got to choose their Dive Center.

The best way would be to travel a bit first and get a "feel" for the diving and Dive Centers at different locations, but usually you have to book a Dive Master Internship quite a while in advance.

People who did their Divemaster Internships, how did you go about choosing a Dive Center?

 

[stuartv]

In my opinion, the first step in choosing your training center is to clearly articulate to yourself (and maybe to others) exactly why you want to undertake Divemaster training. What exactly to do you expect to get out of it?

Until you can clearly explain why you want to do it and/or what you want to get out of it, it would be really difficult to choose a DC, much less for anyone else to give you worthwhile advice on where to go.

 

[Blasto]

The main question is whether you plan to pursue a non-career in diving, or are looking for the DM course to give you the self-sufficient diving skills sorely missing from today's recreational courses.

Also, are you looking for a real internship (cheap, agency fees only, long, lots of monkey work, real boring job experience, few vacancies) or an internship-style course (expensive, sometimes insanely, 1-2 months, diving/gear mnt work only, open to all, much better than the minimal 2-week DM course)?

 

[Subway Watersports]

We have a great Divemaster internship program here on the beautiful Caribbean island of Roatan, the Bay Islands of Honduras. We would be happy to answer all of your questions and put you in touch with former interns so you can get a first hand overview from them. Feel free to contact us at internship@subwaywatersports.com for complete details! Good luck in your search!