Best Places in World for Instructors to Work?

[americanoregon]

For those of you who have worked as instructors (or DMs) outside the USA, where are the best places, financially? Of course this is not strictly highest earnings, but earnings relative to cost of living. If you earn $1500 per month in Mexico, but living expenses are $1500 per month it is not as good as earning $1200 per month in Egypt with monthly expenses of $600. So, where is the most financially advantageous place to look for a job? Also, What is high-season in these places? I wonder, if one works in, say, Thailand during summer, is there a corresponding place to go during winter rather than being idle during off-peak? Did you get salary, commission or combination? What was it? What do you suggest? When one works for commission only, what is the usual arrangement? 40% of course tuition/20% of subsequent dives booked by students? Something like that? This would help people know if they are getting a reasonable offer from employer.

(Hoping this will be posted in public, instead of double-secret instructor's only forum.)

P.S. I'll bet that those of you who are inclined to respond with wisecracks about how there are no advantageous places could offer some useful information. I'd like to hear it.

 

[El Orans]

A colleague went to Malta for a couple of months.

 

[Scuba Brad]

I'd suggest Microsoft, IBM, Starbucks, Marriott, or McDonalds............that way they can afford to be teachers and not the pressure of making a living.

Happy Diving

 

[whatdecostop?]

Not so much a case of where is the best or best paid but rather where do YOU want to work. In my experience, having worked in Europe,USA and Africa, if you want to work somewhere (no matter what the pay) you will make a plan to live/work there as cheaply as possible e.g. hostels,YMCA's, communes etc etc so that you at least have beer money.
As posted on many threads here before....none of us became Ins./DM's for the money ...because there aint any !!!!! You must now this comment by now...How do you make a million in the scuba business? Start with 3 million.

 

[jepuskar]

I'm thinking midwater and not kneeling.

 

[**ping**]

Bathtub

 

[RockPile]

An instructor I'm buddies with is in the black for the first in his life working in Utila.

JB

 

[AndyNZ]

I'd guess that most places outside the tropics have a season - peak season for us here is December to April. After April, the water starts to cool off and our classes typically drop from around 8 to around 4, with much less frequent classes as well.

Saying that, we dive all year around and if you get the OW students you teach early in the season out diving a couple of times, they normally buy a decent wetsuit in time to dive through winter... so there's always a few AOW courses and trips going on out of peak season.

A full time instructor generally earns around NZ$35k, which is the national average salary. I guess that works out around NZ$2500 per month after tax, living costs would be around $3000 per month for a playboy lifestyle, around $1500 if you've got not extravagencies.

 

[Utila Simon]

Hi,
Utila, typically an Instructor here earns $600 to $1200 per month, depending on the shop and season.
You will find employment here easier if you have languages, especially German, Spanish or French.
Cost of living is obviously dependant on your tastes but an apartment here will cost around $250 to $300 per month per person, usually two sharing. Food is around $10 per day and a beer is about $1. Most use bicycles to get around, you can get a disposable one (it will probably be stolen twice a year!) for around $25.
I personally have saved more here in 1 year than in 5 years of working in the City of London but flights etc are relatively expensive to get home for me.
I hope this helps and hope to see you here, be warned though, there are around 25 new instructors produced each month here and work can be hard to come by unless you have alot to offer (languages, skills etc).
Cheers
Simon
PS Season here is March through to September but I work year round.

 

[daniel f aleman]

Working as an instructor for an established shop, say, in Columbus, Ohio is completely different than being a Divemaster on a dive boat in Cancun. The former allows you a more normal life, but the latter allows you to dive almost daily. And that's the real difference, do you want a normal life, or do you want to dive?

The world is full of tennis, ski, and scuba bums, and it can be a fun lifestyle - for a while.

Point is, no one place is better than another...