So who has actually made it as a PADI PRO and what is the specification?

[Not so Blue]

There are various posts here that are discussing the pros and cons and can you cant you earn a living as a PADI pro. I have also read a few posts about those who are doing it, but info seems to be sparse. I have read the majority of Sirenita's post on realistic or idealistic which is good info, but is follows her own experience. There are also many threads that have a lot of "don't do it", "get educated first" or "take a second job". Who else out there has made it as a diving pro without taking second jobs or other ways to fund their income (or are at least at a level now where it is not required)? I know that there are thousands of people who venture every year to Asia to do a DM course hoping that they will make without researching enough and don't succeed. Assuming the obvious - working your balls off and sweating blood the purpose of my post is to try to pinpoint a fast track way to become self sufficient without making the mistakes that others make. Some of the things I have learned so far are as follows:

1. Good networking and professionalism is a must: your reputation always precedes you.
2. Try to get a second language under your belt, be it fluent (to teach) or conversational fluent (to entertain and help organise). That way, you will always be a head against the next guy who has the same qualifications and experience.
3. The more versatile you are the better. Get the obvious specialities so you can cater for a bigger audience and try to make your self more versatile - ability to maintain equipment, compressors for example.
4. be a good sales person - you are selling yourself and also equipment in the dive shop that will supplement your monies from teaching.
5. Select your dive instructors well. Interview them and make sure you are cler about your goals.
6. There is nothing more valuable than good professional experience. Getting your DM License doesn't make your a seasoned pro. (Remember when you first passed your driving test???).
7. Try to learn from every dive. If something went wrong, someone is doing something better, or you can learn from a mistake, make sure it is consciously noted. This will better you as an instructor and increase your useful experience.
8. Remember, you are not a master after your OW (nor DM). There is always something to learn. Learning should never stop.

Some of these thoughts are rad and some my own ideas which probably came from reading SB over the last days.

It would be useful if we could keep the list format and just add to it. That way it will serve to be a good reference to newbies like myself.

Any thoughts and ideas are very welcome.

Paul

 

[boulderjohn]

I live in a different kind of area in that we are not a dive destination. People don't flock to Colorado to dive. Yet we have (according to what I hear) the most divers per capita of any state in the union. There are a lot of pros here, and a lot of competition for work. Most of the ones I know are like me--they teach more as a hobby than as a job, earning a little here and there to help defray the expenses of diving.

On the other hand, the shop with which I am associated has 5 people for whom scuba is their primary source of income, and I am not including the shop owner in that list.

The shop manager (a master instructor) and the course director followed roughly the same career path, although in different states. She was like me, a contract instructor working part time, but she showed her value, worked hard, took more classes, and gained higher and higher levels of certification. Along the way she was asked to work full time. The course director started as a very lowly DM in Florida, doing whatever grunt and gopher work needed to be done, plunging headlong into the ocean day after day to attach a chain from the boat to a wreck a hundred feet down. He did what was needed, gained experience, showed his worth, etc.

The others are on an earlier stage in that same path.

They all pitch in doing whatever needs to be done. Any one of the 5 may at any moment be waiting on a retail customer, teaching a class, filling a tank, cleaning out the pool--whatever needs to be done.

So I would say that you should expect to start at the bottom. Do whatever is asked willingly and well. Show that you are a valuable employee. Keep learning and growing.

A number of years ago I was talking to the DM of a boat on which I was diving about this. I was considering maybe doing something like that in my retirement. He said that it was important to be able to do anything. He pointed to the skipper of the boat and said, "Being able to pilot the boat is a really big plus. I need to be able to do that."

The next year I went on the boat, and he was skippering.

 

[DevonDiver]

Firstly, there is a big difference between getting a pro level qualification and becoming a professional diver.

My inputs...

1. Be prepared to make big sacrifices..financially, relationships, standard of living. Be honest in your self-appraisal of how little you can live with and/or what you are willing to give up. many dive 'careers' come to an abrupt halt when the chips are down and a sacrifice must be made.

2. Be prepared to survive during the occasional tough times. It's not all beaches, babes and parties. The lifestyle doesn't seem so attractive when you are laid in bed for a week with Dengue Fever or when you have to eat just rice for a week because you are short of money.

3. Be prepared for HARD work. When you're busy, it can really wear you down. There will be times when you are weary deep into your bones and the thought of carrying cylinders onto the boat the next day just makes you want to give up. Unless you are truly, 100% committed and 'in-love' with diving, you will burn out...and may even grow to hate it.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I know of dive instructor jobs that are cool, fun and financially rewarding enough to mostly pay the bills. There is no way in hell I am going to tell you guys!

 

[Brylske]

This is an admittedly biased view, because I just accepted a faculty position here as a professor of marine science and technology, but I suggest you take a look the web site for Florida Keys Community College (Home Page - Florida Keys Community College). Specially, check out our AS degree program in diving business and technology. In my considerable experience of more than 40 years in this business, people get frustrated and leave the industry because they don't realize the diversity of opportunity. They think that the only options for a diving pro are commercial diving or recreational diving. They forget that opportunites exist in all sort of niches including supporting scientific research, public safety diving, hyperbarics and others. That's why we have five separate and distinct tracks within the AS degree. And that doesn't even include opportunities that might arise from our AS degree in marine environmental technology. There's way more to do in diving than working in a dive shop or being a divemaster at a resort; but it requires the right training and that means more than attending an IDC and earning some specialty instructor credentials. That's what the James E. Lockwood School is all about. Check it out before you make any decision to enter the diving industry, or before you decided to quit.

Alex Brylske

 

[Crowley]

Devon's post is well put.

There are many instructors in well paid full time jobs, but there are a lot who aren't

I have sacrificed a LOT to do what I do - but it doens't feel like I have. I'm never going to be rich, but I am passionate about and love my job.

There are downsides. If you really want to do this, make sure you know what you are letting yourself in for.

Good luck to you, whatever you decide!

C.

 

[lord.harshil]

For me, I spent some time working fulltime in my LDS and it was exactly like what the more experienced divers have said so far. I had to do all sorts of crap and I grew to hate it. Washing gear out in the sun alone for hours at a time was backbreaking work. I never filled tanks but I didn't carry them to the boat (there were the resort boat boys for this thank god) but life as a professional isn't as rosy as it looks.

Sure you dive a lot but the logistics and management takes a lot of fun out of it. Even then, you'll probably end up as a recreational instructor not a tech instructor. Even underwater you'll be busy taking care of divers, not enjoying the dive all that much.

Try working full time in a resort or LDS for a few months if you can spare the time before plunging headlong into diving and putting all your money down.

I found out that I hated working while diving but I loved diving itself. =)

 

[divemedic1316]

I would say don't waste your time. I have lost more money as a pro than I ever did as a just a diver. I say it is a waste of time and money, unless your 18 years old and just want to waste a couple of years of life that could be used to aquire an edcuation that pays. It is mostly the fact that not everyone wants to scuba, and those that want to may not be able to afford to scuba. It is has been quite a let down for me.
Looking back I would just have dove for fun and left it at that. Most people don't hold scuba instrucotrs in a very high reguard anyway, so..............all the shops know that instructors are a dime a dozen. In the florida keys shops wont even hire instructors, they just call the list of instructors they have and whomever picks up the phone first gets to teach. As far as making a living it is impossible.


I am just know realizing I got into it for the wrong reasons. There is a alot of laibility and headaches. The industry is very cut throat right now due to the economy and there are alot of backstabbers. It is not a job by any means, and it is not a profession..........it is alot like skateboarding and bmx, hang and look cool with people who think you are cool, but in reality your just a less than jake type, a dork of sorts.

 

[Divedoggie]

If you can teach 40 hours a week, just as you would work any job 40 hours a week, you can earn a living. Its not going make you rich, but it can be a fun lifestyle and still pay the bills. You have to find the right situation in order to stay that busy though.

 

[mgmonk]

I think the OP has a pretty good handle on the situation. Those are all very well considered points and include most of what advice I would have given. Devon, as well, put in a few thoughts that I agree with entirely.

So, what do I have to add... only my personal story.

I have only one language. I'm not young (31 when I became a DM, Instructor 6 months later, and now 34 with almost two years teaching full time.). I've been diving for almost 10 years, but the first 7 were sporadic... some years 10 dives, some 50. When I arrived in Asia, I had 200 plus dives and fully intended on becoming an instructor as fast as possible without rushing it. Aside from my recreational diving, I gained invaluable experience working at an aquarium for two years back in the states. I learned a lot about fish identification, marine behavior, trained with full face masks (including ones with com systems) and gave audio presentations to school groups while diving on the other side of the window. Weirdly, I also gained an amazing presence of how to use my buoyancy control with precise breathing adjustments. Try hovering mid water in front of a group of 100 kids while talking, breathing and not looking like an ass sculling my hands or bobbing up and down.

So, all that said, I've made a run of it I'm quite proud of. I've worked as a full time instructor for three shops on two islands in Thailand. Both the Gulf and the Andaman side. I've freelanced with about 5 other shops, but at the end of the day, I've landed at at shop that feels just right. Small, but with enough business to make a living full time. I've worked longer hours at big factory shops and made more money, but I've now found the balance of enough money to be happy, and a job that makes me proud to show up to work. Most of all, as has been said, I never stop learning.

I've staffed a few IDCs, but even when teaching my OW courses, I constantly re-evaluate what I could do better next time based on customer ability and shop schedules.

So what's my point? Working full time is a reality even if you DON'T have multiple languages and connections set up ahead of time. Putting in the time, being realistic about the work load and exhaustion that comes with it, and having financial security to get you through the slow months might just be enough. It was/is for me.

Good luck mate, and I'd love to hear how it works out for you.