PADI OWSI seeking work in Koh Tao ... or anywhere in south east asia

[padi_quay]

hello reader

i am a newly certified Padi owsi with specialty instructor ratings for deep, night, o2 provider, nitrox, S&R, and wreck, an Aqualung tech, efr instructor, and more with business experience and education. i'm a 25 year old gent from the west coast of canada with a good sense of humor, open minded and easy going, with a great work ethic. i'm planning on traveling to thailand in february and hope to stick around for a while. would like to get work immediately or after a month of seeing the sights if the opportunity arises. any recommendations or offers on work from anyone would be great, including recommendation on if i should maybe post this thread on a different forum haha.

thanks everyone.
cv in the works,

steven

 

[canuck_downunder05]

Hi Steven. Just saw your post on here! now sure where you are at now. My name is Carissa and I'm from Alberta. I worked in Phuket Thailand last season. Had a fantastic time. Really enjoyed the dc's I worked for, the boats I was on and the fellow instructors I worked with.

Have you thought more about where you would like to work? I am also looking around for somewhere to go. Well if you are looking for any tips on Phuket let me know. I can list off the dc's I worked for, and any other info you might need.

Good luck!

 

[henrik edel]

Hello!
If you would like to work on Koh Tao, the easiest way is just to go there and meet the manager face to face. February might not be the best month to find a job, as it is in the middle of the season.
But I'm sure you ll find something. Koh Tao consists of 40 diveschools on 3x6 km. So, lots of opportunitites. The positions gets filled very quickly, almost none of them enters a forum like this - so you just need to go there.
I lived there for 14 months. If you got any questions about Koh Tao feel free to contact me.
Cheers

 

[padi_quay]

thanks everyone for your input. it has been very interesting and informative. i do believe i am still going to set up in koh tao. for those who have worked in thailand as an owsi, what step should i take to work down there. tourist visa first, find work, then apply for a work permit? or email out, get accepted and then apply for a work permit. thank you all for your feed back. steven

 

[padi_quay]

thanks for taking the time to read and reply to my thread. i'm just curious to know how easy it is to obtain a work visa once a dive shop is willing to hire you. im planning on heading down with a 60 day tourist visa and i'm hoping with in those 60 day i would be so lucky to have the opportunity to work for any of the dive centers out there. do you have any that you would recommended and to stay away from?

thanks again for your advice, steven

 

[canuck_downunder05]

Hi. I never made it over to Koh tao, but my understanding with work permits and what not are that you won't need one there. Unfortunatly where I was in Phuket they were enforcing a work permit for there, but it was just for phuket. It would not allow me to work anywhere else...apparently. But Koh tao you should be fine to rock up with a tourist visa which is good for 3 months I think... don't quote me... or you're candadian right so when I first arrived a year and a bit ago I went and I had a month free visit, but there after I had to leave the country and apply for another visa. (non b immigrant visa) but that is if you are applying for a work permit. You will speak to most instructors over there and they will just say you have to leave every 3 months to get stamped.

I don't know the numbers, I just saw a posting on DC's in koh tao. But for an island as small as it is, there are several shops there. You shouldn't have a problem finding work at all. Best thing is to rock up, suss out shop owners, get a feel for what they are selling and how they are operating. It's a factory over there and a very popular destination for tourists to get their tickets. Just be somewhere safe. I emailed ahead of time with my resume, but I didn't get very many replies. Also emailed the day ahead of time to let them know I was coming. Buisness cards are excellent to have. They books full of inst cards so any time they need someone they just open up the book. So it's good to have on it your name, inst number and level, specialities, phone number, email and languages. Make it catchy. There are alot cards to choose from.

Hope this helps! Good luck!