Career regrets and advice for the newbies

[FlyingSquid]

As a professional scuba diver, what do you regret?

What would you have done different in view of your current experience?
What traps would you have avoided?
What shortcuts would you have taken or not taken?

Which sacrifices were worth it, which weren't?

Which skills outside scuba most helped you with scuba?

And what advice would you give for someone who is starting their career?

 

[Wookie]

As a professional scuba diver, what do you regret?

What would you have done different in view of your current experience?
What traps would you have avoided?
What shortcuts would you have taken or not taken?

Which sacrifices were worth it, which weren't?

Which skills outside scuba most helped you with scuba?

And what advice would you give for someone who is starting their career?

I regret nothing. I think I did exactly as the program outlines, did my IDC/IE, went straight to work as a resort instructor and got hundreds of certs in a year. After that I went to work on a liveaboard, not as an instructor, but using skills learned in a previous life. Then I bought a liveaboard, not with diving proceeds, but money made in a previous life.

I would not have become invested in a high dollar trap like a liveaboard or a dive shop. I could have worked for someone else for a lot less money.

My advice would be to train as many students as you can. Mentor with an instructor. Do not work for the LDS, find a shop in the tropics somewhere where you can get a pile of students. Come home when you are tired of island life.


You've posted this in the new divers forum. Are you a new diver or a new instructor? Your profile is not well filled out, and it's hard to know what advice to give. If you are a new instructor, you might join the Instructor to Instructor forum, which is where this needs to be moved anyway. This question has been asked and thoroughly answered there. I'm not dissing on you, but you'll get far better answers there than out where every new diver will comment.

 

[Rich Keller]

I would suggest that you go into commercial diving and do the sport diving work in your spare time.

 

[tstormdiver]

As a professional scuba diver, what do you regret?

Not much. Less free time, but that is about it.

What would you have done different in view of your current experience?

Maybe waited a little longer before starting.

What traps would you have avoided?

Forgetting that sometimes you have to dive for yourself, at your highest level, keeping your skills honed.

What shortcuts would you have taken or not taken?

None. Shortcuts have no value other than to get you someplace faster. The experience of getting there makes for a more proficeint diver & instructor.

Which sacrifices were worth it, which weren't?

It can be tons of physical labor to prep for a class, but watching you students grow,... priceless. Being in the "people business" you can meet some interesting & also some unpleasant people, you must learn to deal with them all,... think outside of the box at times.

Which skills outside scuba most helped you with scuba?

I was a martial arts instructor for 7 yrs before I started diving. I already pretty much knew how to relate things into simpler terms to make learning easier.

And what advice would you give for someone who is starting their career?

Take your time, get as much experience as you can in all environments- Deep water, shallow water, still water, currents, warm water, cold water, clear water, murky water, daytime, night time, good buddies, poor buddies. Then find the best instructor you can who teaches & expects you to teach beyond the bare minimums. Once you start teaching, take some time off here there to dive for yourself, or else you will likely very quickly burn out. Also keep learning yourself. Keep your skills sharpened. Never forget that you were once a beginner yourself. Relate to your students' issues.

 

[FlyingSquid]

Are you a new diver or a new instructor?

Not instructor, but seriously considering to go pro somewhat fast. To me, it makes perfect sense to ask those questions very early on, in order to have a good idea of how professionals feel in the real world, instead of nurturing some naive idealization of it. That way, my decisions will be better informed. But that is me, other people function better by understanding and deciding only the very next step.

 

[FlyingSquid]

Thanks, richkeller.

Curious about what your personal reasons for suggesting commercial diving are, and what top one or two resources (sites, posts, people) would you recommend if I wanted to check out and have a good grasp / overview of this industry (locations, types of jobs, skills in demand, what to avoid, salaries etc)?

 

[TSandM]

Personally, I have no regrets. I managed to sidestep the biggest mistake, which in my opinion is proceeding to professional status before one is much of a diver oneself.

I made a decision years ago that trying to make a living doing something I loved to do for fun was a great way to take the fun out of doing it -- and in addition, things that are fun are pretty popular, so it's not easy to make any kind of good living doing them, because there's somebody standing next to you who will do it for less than you will. I chose to develop a professional career that allows me the money to do the things I love to do for fun . . . and do them for FUN.

 

[davetowz]

I would have started earlier in life!

 

[g1138]

Can't regret much. Aside from my Basic Class, I went the entire way through my University. Probably the cheapest way to get your scuba certs and ratings without having to fulfill a long service commitment later.

It's not all gum drops and ice cream though. It's very closed minded like any other program. The one big difference is it's much easier to stick with the program and have the same instructors, the same TAs, basically the same old mind sets and concepts that are passed down. It prevents new ideas from easily entering the program. Most of our students are below the age of 23 and very early in their diving career. So they will gladly throw out their previous training methods to learn ours. There's not a whole lot of opportunity for us to step back and learn how something we do, is done differently.

The one thing that has helped me most has been helping out with the outside LDS's and becoming a regular on scubaboard. You get a whole new sense of information on training styles, methods, techniques, gear configs etc.

A skill that has helped me most with scuba was probably my Lifeguard training. It already gave me a sense of forethought to look for potential problems before they arise. That made the Rescue and DM class that much more natural in that regard.

The only thing I would have done differently, would have been to not buy my hard gear as soon as I did. Some advice for the new divers out there would be to mix your instructors up. Have a different instructor in Rescue than you did in Basic, swap between the several instructors at your shop when you're doing your DM, and learn to give constructive criticism and have friendly debates both on the giving and receiving end; keep an open mind, think about it from the other perspective, and you'll learn a lot.
Also, befriend a diver who has a lot of gear. That way you can try it before you buy it.

 

[TMHeimer]

I would've started way earlier in life diving, not sure about DMing. Moot point anyway as my locale back then was not worth diving (to me). Can't think of any traps to avoid, other than making sure you are happy with all of your own equipment. Sacrifices? -- Lots of time studying manual, skill demonstrations...Yes it has been worth it so far. Can't think of skills outside of scuba that would help in any way--I guess one could get philosophical about that and say "life skills", attitude, stick-to-itiveness, etc. if you want. Then again, I was a teacher for 19 years so that helped immeasurably with relating to students (I guess I had done that for so long I didn't even think of that as an "outside of scuba" skill). Advice-- Be totally familiar with the options open to professional divers (I refer to those who DIVE for a living--commercial, etc.) or "dive professionals" (what we call instructors, etc.)-- monetarily, lifestyle, locations, etc. And heed the advice of the really experienced pros on SB.