Best Places in World for Instructors to Work?

[AndyNZ]

Food is around $10 per day and a beer is about $1.

Is that $1 per day, or $1 per beer???

If only it were $1 a day.... *sigh*

 

[Mike Veitch]

I would suggest a liveaboard like Peter Hughes or Aggressor, not the smaller ones.

They tend to pay best and you will receive better tips than being land based....

 

[Divingbliss]

Koh Tao. Instructors here make around $1000 US and the cost of living is very cheap...$75-$150 per month for rent, you can buy a dirt bike for transport ($250) and then sell it when you leave, and food/beer is dirt cheap.

Be ready for major competition though, and if you don't speak at least two languages, forget it.

 

[Phil TK]

if you don't speak at least two languages, forget it.

If you speak two languages it would be an advantage I think, but certainly wouldn't prohibit you getting work on Koh Tao if you only speak English. I've worked on the island many times and I can only speak english and count to ten in Indonesian and have never had any trouble getting work.
I'll be back on the island next month and will easily get work -I bet you a beer Divingbliss!

Phil TK

 

[vkalia]

Yeah, but you *need* to get paid extra to work as an instructor in Koh Tao - hardship wages. One month of diving Mango Beach, Twins and Japanese Gardens, and I'd never dive again.

The only bright spot diving-wise is Tim at Davy Jones Locker, and Jamie's new boat with onboard trimix station. May actually get some decent dives in this time!

Vandit

 

[Diver0001]

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.

There are several things to consider besides what you earn, not the least of which are working conditions.

Think about these kinds of questions:

- What will the employer expect of you in terms of dives and dive times per week?
- Are you rotated out on a regular basis to decompress or will you be pushed to dive until you're either burnt out or physically falling apart and then disposed of with the rest of the trash.....
- Will they supply you with Nitrox or will you be forced to dive on air?
- What will they do if you get a cold?
- What will they do if you get bent or injured?
- What will they do if you need to cancel a dive because conditions are not safe?
- Will the employer assist you in keeping your gear maintained or will you be forced to dive with it until it literally falls apart before they'll do anything?
- Will they push you to certify walking time-bombs just so they can squeeze a few boat dives out of them or will you be able to make the call?
- Does the operation run a clean ship or are they cutting all kinds of corners and breaking all kinds of standards to keep their heads above water?
- Will you get time off? (believe it or not, this is a realistic question).
- etc etc etc. Every nasty bit if B.S. you can imagine happens to pros in the real world....

The fact is, there are a lot of eager and naive young instructors out there who will do *anything* for a chance to chase their dreams. Unfortunately, the people who determine working conditions know that there is a large pool of "disposable" pros available..... And don't take this as wise cracks, take this as a heads-up. This can be a nasty industry to work in.

Personally I would seriously consider negotiating for "beach bumb" wages in exchange for good working conditions instead of "getting ahead" wages in exchange for being treated like a disposable dog. And don't kid yourself, getting good working conditions for *any* wages is difficult. Moreover, employers don't feel obligated to keep paying you the wage they promised you when you started. For example, last year Aquaworld in Mexico, which is a huge dive operation that presents itself as a very professional and "sorted" organization suddenly cut wages of some of it's instructors (maybe all of them, I'm not sure) by something like 50%....simply because they could get away with it....No discussion, no negotiation, nothing.

That's not to say that it's all bad news but you really need good connections with instructors who travel a lot to know who is good and who isn't.

This probably sounds pretty negative but I think someone should point out that it's not all free beer and sex.

R..

 

[cowboyneal]

These are all good answers. However, since you really cannot make any money being an OWSI, the most obvious answer, for me, would be (and always was) -- wherever I could meet the most women -- ha!!!

 

[americanoregon]

Isn't it interesting how in this thread, and the others like it, lots of people love to chime in that, "you CAN'T make any money"? How much is "some money"? If we take the numbers that DivingBliss gave us, $1000 income and, say $300 room/board/incidentals, she saves $700 per month. At the end of 2 years, she has over $17,000 in the bank (not to mention memories of a grand adventure in The Land of Smiles). Although I'm too lazy to look it up, I'll bet that is FAR more than the average American, Canadian, or Englishman has in the bank (net, after deducting consumer debt). Certainly it is more than most at the age of the average dive instructor. Also, she lives an interesting life, which eludes many people that work in cubicles because they "can't make any money" teaching SCUBA. I'll bet she gets lots of other things out of it, too, like another language, empathy for the 90% of the people on the planet who "can't make any money", sympathy for those who value making money above all else, and the satisfaction of doing what she pleases (hopefully not skin cancer or the clap). A broad like that, you should marry her, not degrade her living.