Becoming a Divemaster/ Getting foot in the door in professional diving

[Scuba_Peter]

Hello community! First, I apologize if this post is misplaced or answered elsewhere, but I'm such a goof when it comes to forums... Also, I would assume this post would be better placed under "going pro" but the rules say that you have to be a certified DM or beyond to post, which isn't quite the case (yet) for me.

So, here's my question in a nutshell. I started diving a couple years ago, and love it! And when I mean love it, I mean I'd LOVE for it to be a part of my career. So, I'm trying to follow the steps to become a Divemaster, so I can start working in the field, and then in the future I'll hopefully go further.

At the moment, I'm beginning my Rescue Diver training, and would love to train as a DM asap. Basically, my question is how to best go about DM training. Here's what I've gathered so far, and what I'd like to consult the dive community about:

I've learned that many places offer "internships", (or other similar type deals) but to me they don't sound like a fair trade. Also, my main dive instructor here in Madrid told me that they're generally not worth it... His logic seems reasonable: he says that you're basically paying them to work for them, and along the way become a Divemaster, which isn't a fair trade. To be honest, I wouldn't even mind doing it if it weren't for the fact that I'm young and don't have 2,000 dollars laying around for something like that. Now he told me that adversely, a "nice" dive shop would exchange work for the Divemaster training, and he even mentioned himself as being one who does that.

So, that's the skinny on what I've come to understand about becoming a DM. My situation is this: my work contract expires at the end of the school year, and thus I need to work this summer. My goal is to kill several birds with one stone, which is why I'm looking into exchanging work for Divemaster training deal. Since I'll be free this summer, I would love to fulfill two areas I've been yearning to fulfill, which are traveling and advancing my dive training. Now the catch is I'd have to somehow do that while working, just so I can eat and have a place to sleep until the fall.

To sum it up, my question is this, would it be possible to find some sort of summer job in a dive center that would allow me to exchange work for divemaster training? And not to be greedy, but would it even be reasonable to hope for that, plus either living accommodations or a small wage to make sure I'm fed and have a place to sleep? (I must add that I'd be willing to work my back off if that could ever be arranged). If that is too much to look for, what suggestions do you the community have based on what I've said? Could an alternative be working in exchange for dives and/or a small wage? I'm basically a typical youth-- I've got tons of time and energy to bust my back for a good dive center, but I don't have lots of money to dump into one of those nicely outlined DM internship summer programs. So even if I can't be a Divemaster, even just working for a dive shop could be a great opportunity to get my foot in the door, as well as continue diving... wouldn't it?

And as a small side note, I get the impression that this sort of deal is possible, based on some threads I've read here, particularly some of the things people are saying in this one, under the "Go Pro" section: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=2 .

So thank you dive community for your time and willingness to give me insight!! Happy diving to all!!!
-Peter

 

[SDiverJim]

1) you can post in Going Pro. You will need to request a change to Dive master Candidate. If you follow the guidelines in that site it will explain the process. 2) I am certainly not worldly in the ways of becoming a DMC but I think your going to be pretty hard pressed to find a shop that will pay you to become a Dive Master. You might be able to find a job in a shop (maybe) but you are going to have to do some level of internship which will cost you money and time to get that certification. I am currently a DMC intern and I expect it to take me a year or longer. There are programs I have seen in Thailand which may take a few months but there still is a cost to you (even more living abroad) I wish you the best of luck!

 

[fjpatrum]

I'm no expert but I get the impression you are not from Madrid but actually a college student there from somewhere else? If that's the case, make sure any job you get will fulfill any work requirements for getting work authorization.

Now, that said, whether that's applicable or not, I would think you'll have a hard time finding all those things in one position. It's rare to find such things because there are quite simply too many candidates willing to do the internships. I would say if you get a job in a dive shop, though, you'll likely get the opportunity to do some diving cheaply and do some travel that way and maybe get your foot in the door for an internship/DM program down the line when you can better afford the costs or can save up so you don't have to worry about income at least...

 

[Scuba_Peter]

I'm no expert but I get the impression you are not from Madrid but actually a college student there from somewhere else? If that's the case, make sure any job you get will fulfill any work requirements for getting work authorization.

Now, that said, whether that's applicable or not, I would think you'll have a hard time finding all those things in one position. It's rare to find such things because there are quite simply too many candidates willing to do the internships. I would say if you get a job in a dive shop, though, you'll likely get the opportunity to do some diving cheaply and do some travel that way and maybe get your foot in the door for an internship/DM program down the line when you can better afford the costs or can save up so you don't have to worry about income at least...

Yeah, I really think you're right. Just from other posts I've read, as well as some stories I've heard from others while diving, I got the hint that these sort of deals are possible. And to answer your notion, yes, I'm originally from the US, but after college moved to Madrid.

The only reason I'm chasing this idea is because my dive instructor here got me pumped about it... he went on and on about all sorts of crazy deals divers strike up with clubs, and told me a while back to just keep looking around. That being said, I don't mind scratching the Divemaster training... and in fact would prefer to just do it with him over the course of next school year. But I'll still need to find something work-wise this summer, and would really *love* for it to be diving related.

Thanks again for the input!!

 

[weitodive]

If you do it for the love of the sport, then you are better off spending the money on dives instead of certs. The experience you will get will help you with Divemaster.

 

[Druid]

What do you want to do after your DM cert? Where do you want to work/dive?

I did my DM training I did it through my LDS in the UK. I helped out one evening a week at the pool session, couple of hours on a Saturday in the shop and open water training dives on Sunday. It took 9 months but only cost ~£200 (including course materials and certification) and allowed me to train around my day job. I got to see a lot of OW/AOW students, and worked with several different instructors so it provided a good solid grounding as an instructor's assistant and later as an instructor myself.

Internships are mostly offered by warm water dive centres. Cost is much greater and you get maybe 3 months intensive exposure to the operation of a holiday dive centre. Lots of diving, organising groups of divers, filling cylinders and guiding dives. These places rarely use assistants on courses so you don't get to work with students nearly as much, which denies you useful experience if you become an instructor.

The trouble with working in diving is that so many people are willing to do it for nothing, so finding a job that will pay enough to live is very difficult, unless you live somewhere that's cheap to live in. Your local shop will train you in exchange for work, if you can find another job to pay the bills then that sounds like a good option to me. Spain is being badly hit by the recession though, and I understand that unemployment among the under 25s is at etraordinarily high levels so finding another job may be a problem.

Good luck, I think you'll need it

 

[supergaijin]

A true DM internship is almost unheard of these days unless it's with a small Mom n Pop divecenter who are willing to take you on. Commercial centers may offer something but it'll probably turn out to be unpaid work with little time in the water.

I second the idea that if you love diving, just dive. If you're in one area for good, get friendly with a DC that you feel has a good rep and quality instructors and dive as much as you can with them. You should be able to get a pretty good discount after a while in return for helping around and cleaning up/helping with some admin etc.

 

[Crowley]

Again - from my own personal experience of the business - you are highly unlikely to find a DM internship anywhere in the world that will let you work-for-training and also include some form of financial remuneration, whether that be in wages or accommodation. The best you can hope for is selling commission or possibly tips from customers. Most DM - Instructor internships follow the same sort of principle: you work to pay off your training, and they will help you along with your training, but it's still highly likely you will have to pay for materials, exams and certification fees.

A trainee divemaster adds overheads to the operation of the dive centre - maybe it's three extra tank fills per day, another sent of rental equipment to hire out, extra boat or pool fees. There are insurance requirements for trainee training assistants; possible medical fees plus at some point, somebody is going to have to allocate a significant part of their time to teaching the trainee, bearing in mind that they may well have a regular "day job" and a family to go home to, so giving up the weekends to teach diving isn't something they want to do for free. An un-paid trainee of any kind doesn't bring in much money for the company, whilst adding to the bill for the dive centre.

When it comes to the kind of dive internships you find in Thailand and the surrounding area where you pay money to do an intensive few months of training for a fixed price, I disagree that they are not value for money. I am both a product of that environment and I worked in it for two years after my training, at a busy CDC in Thailand. Looking back on my 7 year career, I can tell you that just living and working in that environment gives a person more job preparation than they are ever likely to find with personal 1 - to - 1 tuition at a small inland dive centre.

Which begs the question - what do you want to do with the diving in your career? Would that be the tropical recreational dive instructor like me, or more hardcore tech and cave stuff? Or possibly commercial diving?

If you want a career purely in diving then I offer the following advice: given that you don't have much money to spend right now, I would look at the possibility of assisting at a dive shop closer to home where you might get training for free but have to pay for some books and things. The next thing I have to say sounds really parental (which I'm not) but seriously, if you are thinking of entering the recreational dive world, it's nice to have a little bit of cash and some work experience to fall back on. Trust me, I know this. This way you get to work on your diving, train in diving and hopefully actually get to go diving from time to time, which is often free if you're helping out and heavily discounted if you're not.

Once you have your DM cert (and maybe saved a few bucks) then consider more full on "internship" training. Any way you look at it, it's going to cost money, but it's one of the quickest routes into the dive world - and that does not necessarily equal poor quality. Other places to look at might be volunteer projects, but experience again tells me that more often than not, you have to volunteer a lot of money in advance to be a volunteer dolphin counter!

But seriously - good luck - It's an awesome life but ask lots of questions before you start in earnest!

Hope that helps,

C.

 

[Scuba_Peter]

Thank you all for your insightful responses! This has helped me gain a LOT of perspective as I try to poise myself to take the next step in my dive career. I hope my primary question of finding an internship that paid something plus trained me didn't make me seem greedy; I really figured that type of thing didn't exist. As a response to those who say to just dive, I like that, but the problem is the money! I live inland, so a weekend dive trip costs me 300 dollars, roughly, which is a lot out of a recent graduate's budget. It's doable, and has basically equated to 2 weekend trips per year to the coast here in Spain, (if I'm lucky, this year I've only been once!). So if I were a super casual diver, then that'd be okay, but since I really want to dive more, and I like the idea of having a professional relationship with the sport (ie, future instructor, divemaster...), it only seems natural to try and get to that point where I can work in a dive environment, or work in exchange for some dives.

As for Crowley's post, thank you first for your insight. And to be honest, I'm not sure what sort of "specialty" I'd be interested in on a professional level... I guess I'd aspire to something like what you do, but in the long run of course.

Anyway, for now I guess I will look more into trying to work for a dive shop in exchange for a peanut wage or dives for now, and see if I can save up for a good Divemaster program

And as always, any insight from the experienced people will always be greatly appreciated!!

-Peter

 

[TMHeimer]

The trouble with working in diving is that so many people are willing to do it for nothing, so finding a job that will pay enough to live is very difficult, unless you live somewhere that's cheap to live in.


Professional people working for nothing really irks me. That's another can of worms. If no DMs worked for nothing SOME would get paid a decent wage. What part of your total income do you want to be from dive instruction? Do you aspire to become an Instructor? --where? I'm about to get on staff at our LDS (basically the ONLY one in Atlantic Canada). DMs get $300 per class. Instructors maybe double/triple that, depending on number of students per class. Things are different in resort places I know, so I'm no expert there. As a retired teacher, I enjoy working with students--in a way, it brings back so many memories, and it's great to see new students so thrilled to be in 20 feet of ice cold water in wet suites looking at sand, rocks and seaweed and having their minds blown. That's my own attraction to it, other than the fact that you can't depend on TV shows to keep any semblence of a schedule anymore. You really have to enjoy the personal teaching (assisting) satisfaction aspect of DMing, then consider the money.