I have only little experience, but my experience is good.
I did a SSI DM course at Koh Tao this summer (2018) and worked at the same divecenter for about a month.
In the places I visited in Thailand and the Phillipines you cannot rent tanks and go diving by your own, all diving is with included DM/guide, usualy from a boat.
As a active SSI DM one have to have own insurence, and in my cource it was included for this year.
During my cource I assisted instructors and followed as a extra guide in fundives.
When I was finished with the diveguide part of the cource I guided customers on my own.
When I completed the cource I did both guiding own customers and assisting on cources and trydives.
The deal in the shop was that the DM got paid per customer tank for guiding, and a fixed sum per group for assisting.
When I finished my cource the owner deducted from the price of the cource full pay for the dives I did during my cource.
I did not get fat on the payment, but i feel that it is decent and the fact that I got payed for the dives I did during my cource I feel is more than equitable, and was not anything I expected. When we had few customers somedays we went a group from the staff and did fundives on our own.
I speaked to other DM's working at other divecenters on the island, some got no pay, others got same amount per customer tank as I did. Usualy the ones working for one of the big centers did not get any pay.
My experience was a great one, and I hope to go back and work for the same divecenter on my next trip and also try some new places, but time is limited to about 2-3 months every year for now.
I did a SSI DM course at Koh Tao this summer (2018) and worked at the same divecenter for about a month.
In the places I visited in Thailand and the Phillipines you cannot rent tanks and go diving by your own, all diving is with included DM/guide, usualy from a boat.
As a active SSI DM one have to have own insurence, and in my cource it was included for this year.
During my cource I assisted instructors and followed as a extra guide in fundives.
When I was finished with the diveguide part of the cource I guided customers on my own.
When I completed the cource I did both guiding own customers and assisting on cources and trydives.
The deal in the shop was that the DM got paid per customer tank for guiding, and a fixed sum per group for assisting.
When I finished my cource the owner deducted from the price of the cource full pay for the dives I did during my cource.
I did not get fat on the payment, but i feel that it is decent and the fact that I got payed for the dives I did during my cource I feel is more than equitable, and was not anything I expected. When we had few customers somedays we went a group from the staff and did fundives on our own.
I speaked to other DM's working at other divecenters on the island, some got no pay, others got same amount per customer tank as I did. Usualy the ones working for one of the big centers did not get any pay.
My experience was a great one, and I hope to go back and work for the same divecenter on my next trip and also try some new places, but time is limited to about 2-3 months every year for now.