I went Pro and broke

[dennisp28315]

I owned 3 companies till last year when my partner dicide to under bid all of the contracts behind my back. ive been doing dod contracts for the army kbr lsi and a few other companies for about 5yrs. when this happen to me i dicide to go pro and set a new course for my life. so i took my savings and invested to going pro at school in FL called Pro Dive, 2 days before divemaster class end they said they are closing the door at the end of divemaster and said we would have to go finish instructor cert somewhere else. There was no way i could change lacation because i had rented a place and no refunds. next i went police diving school and no luck there. My thing is i just want to dive for a living. Im tired of schools saying they will help you find a job but you have to do this next course and it never pans out. I do not care what the job is i just love being in the water. So if you know of place looking could you give me reply back.

PADI
Open Water 16 Sep 2007
CPR/AED/First Aid - Adult/Child/Infant 27 Jan 2008
Advanced Open Water 27 Jan 2008
Rescue 1 Feb 2008
Enriched Air Diver 14 Feb 2008
Dive master 237785 15 Feb 2008
DAN O2

AHA
Instructor CPR/AED/First Aid 9 July 2007

NAPD
Search/Rescue Policediver Feb 2008

Thanks Dennis
powerstraining@gmail.com

 

[jimdiverman]

Dennis,

You seem like a sincere guy. Here is what I think about this. I started out with PADI, by the way, and my last several courses have been either IANTD, PSAI or TDI.

PADI is a marketing organization that also trains divers. Other organizations like NSS-CDS, NACD, PSAI, IANTD etc. train divers and also do some marketing.

This is not unlike in many other industries. For instance I do a lot of scheduling. We consider Primavera a project management company that writes software and Microsoft a software company that creates project management tools. It's all about their angle and their perspective.

Think about that in terms of what is the driving forces (goals) in these organizations, and it will partially help in explaining your circumstances.

I hope this makes some sense.

 

[divemedic1316]

Hey went pro and went broke. I think you just had a bit of misfortune with prodivers. Let me say a few things. When they re-open under new management plead your case. Bad press is not what a start up business needs, and guess what you just sold me away from them. I am a divemaster (padi) going to IDC in the nesxt 60 days, after hearing that probably wont go to prodivers. You say you are a AHA instructor, you can take short course on EFR web site and become an EFR Instructor. Now padi trians alot of divers and they pur alot of effort into novice diver trianing so dont knock em to hard. Keep going slow but steady wins the race. Dont waste money on Public safety diving, you wont get in. You need many other certs before you would ever be considered, I know I am one. It is not much fun anyway. If you can get your AI from padi get it. The US is broke so dont feel bad, hustle yourself into a assitant instructor gig, then into insrtuctor. Be willing to go anywhere, the europeons (sic) have money, open up call around to the resorts who are targeting the euro market. Sorry about the school. Keep in mind that most divers dont get certified beyond advanced diver, so all this technical public safety stuff will not make you any money unless you are under 30 willing to spend 10,000 for medic school, study your ass off, compete with 18 years olds for a position in a fire academy, etc, etc, no one pays some diver of the street to be a public safety diver, but a german tourist will pay you to take them on a tour off key largo. Good luck and go get it.

 

[Hoyden]

I don't know how much money you would like to earn per year, but if you are planning to to earn very much, I'd recommend something besides recreational diving. There just isn't that much money to be made in the industry. If you really just want to dive and get some money out of it, get your instructor card, learn an add-on skill like equipment repair or diesel mechanic - any additional languages that you speak are also helpful - and you can find low paying jobs all over the world (anywhere there are dive resorts) working as an instructor/dive guide. The other options (non-resort area dive shop employee, dive equipment sales rep, etc) generally either don't pay enough for someone used to a real income or don't really lead to all that much diving.

You might also consider getting more experience - you have been diving for almost exactly one year. I'd think it is a little early to want to earn a living diving.

Also, I am a little confused by your seemingly anti-PADI poll. PADI clearly had nothing to do with Pro-Dive's closure or any of your other complaints. While there is a vocal anti-padi minority on this board, you will find that a PADI instructor card opens more doors to employment world-wide than all the other instructor cards combined. It is also easier to crossover to other agencies once you are a PADI instructor than to go in the opposite direction.

It is important to keep in mind that most recreational dive instructors do it part-time for supplemental income - not as a full time career or primary source of income. In resort areas, most full-time dive instructors are either young enough not to care that they are not making all that much money and working really hard or are doing something else in addition to their teaching income.

JMO,

Jackie Cooper

 

[Randy43068]

PADI brings an awful lot of people into the realm of SCUBA. They do that by having very, very low expectations of the student and offer training at a reasonable cost.

I believe PADI fears if the bar is moved up, that will exclude more people from the sport even if those people really should be excluded for lack of commitment.

I don't think PADI is a joke, but I do wish they would impress upon the student how minimally they have been trained with basic OW cert.

I think PADI would do well to offer a course that has real standards with meaningful dive education. They should offer that right after open water training. Lets face it, all ( most ) of PADIs specialities are a joke and usually are a fleecing of the student.

I could not use your voting buttons because both are misleading and represent a false dilemma too often associated with incomplete reasoning.

 

[jac11819]

Good luck...

 

[ONESPEED]

Maybe if you'd learn to spell, I'm just saying....

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I had alot of trouble just reading it. If you wish to do anything professionally you must present yourself as such. That is in any situation with any employer. Successful professionals come across as well read, polished, and able to adapt to changing situations. You must work on the way you present yourself.

To start a poll like this based on your experiences is very misleading. While I have no love for PADI, and in fact will not be renewing my DM status due to some of their recent actions, they had nothing to do with ProDive closing their doors. When a business goes under it is not the fault of the supplier of material or goods in most cases. Fault lays with the way it was being run and managed or not managed.

You now need to take action to improve your situation. That means getting the knowledge and experience to persue a diving career if that is what you want to do. My advice- get a regular job that will pay the bills. Then start contacting dive shops and ops for a position as a DM. Be prepared though as most working Dm's in many places are actually instructors. Getting a DM gig will be tough.

You also need to approach it as any job. That means a well written, easily read, and complete resume. Then you need to pound the pavement. It may even mean volunteering a weekend or two to allow a place to assess your skills. If I were going to hire you as a DM I'd require a skills assessment in the pool and in open water before I'd let you near any actual students. I'd also test your knowledge of theory and evaluate your people skills. I expect anyone I'd take on as a DM to be well read, up on all the latest trends, be very well spoken, well written, and have a good personality as well. Any shortcoming in any of these areas would be cause for hesitation and again need to be dealt with before I'd turn you loose with students or customers.

If this sounds harsh or excessive I'm sorry. But if I'm running a business I expect out of my employees what I expect out of myself. Any less is not acceptable to a successful operation.

 

[dennisp28315]

Sorry about the spelling I had just got off work and heading to my other job like today. I work 7 days a week. And yes you are right about taking the time to be professionally and you must present yourself as such. Again I’m sorry and I’m new to this site and still trying to learn how to nav the site. But again that’s what this site was set up to do. To help divers better themselves. Thanks

 

[jester1226]

When doing a Poll and asking a question, allowing a response is generally the accepted method. You ask "Is PADI a Rip Off?" I do not see where you get a choice of YES or NO. Exactly how do you plan to interpret the data? You have a box to mark that really does not tell you what anyone's anwer is.