But things do work differently from country to country
I agree, there is huge variation in DM working practice/expectations from country to country. Here in Asia, I have rarely (
if ever) seen a DM assisting with courses - it just doesn't happen. Sometimes DM trainees will assist, but for the purposes of their own training. Once training is complete, it ceases. Same for compressor, boat skills - invariably dive centers have local staff to do those functions..and the DM won't touch it.
That leaves the solitary function of dive guiding... and most dive centers won't employ someone who can 'just' do that. They'll employ instructors (
which are plentiful - it's an employer's market) who can do everything; guiding and teaching.
If you
need to earn money from employment in the diving industry, then you'll realize pretty quickly that DM isn't a viable option. There will always be pressure to move upwards along the professional ladder. First to instructor, then adding more and more specialties, then towards instructor-trainer and/or technical etc...
At each stage, qualification has to be balanced with experience... so it takes time. B
e wary of employers who hire without demanding substantial experience - if they don't value/demand that, then they probably won't reward it either and/or have lower standards of quality.
The financial investment is un-ending. You learn, quite quickly, to analyse career development from a 'return on investment' perspective - identifying what progression is likely to recoup value in respect to higher earning potential etc etc..
Philippines/Indo tend to use locals as DMs
Certainly for the Philippines, it'd be impossible to cover your living/visa costs on a DM salary. Hence, the vast majority of DMs are local. DMs get paid about 250php (
~$5) per tank, per diver here.... generally, it's commission only. That's a lot of money in local terms, but nothing for someone coming from the 'first world'. Visas are priced on a 'first world' scale though...
The only foreign DMs that I know here in the Philippines are basically retired on a pension and/or are married to a Filipina, thus have resident status and are in the country anyway - so work visa isn't an issue. There are more foreign instructors, but they tend to own dive shops; thus have a 'business visa' deal (i
nvest X money and employ X locals, get a free work visa etc..)
There's a lot more DMs working in countries like Thailand. That happens for several reasons: (
1) Because the standard of English is lower amongst the local population, (
2) that the income isn't as attractive, reflected against the economy, (
3) there are many backpackers working as DMs, who don't mind 'beer money' commission-only (per tank) salary and (
4) most of those backpacker DMs are working illegally (
no visa).
The language thing is often exaggerated. IME, having either foreign language skills, or having English as a mother-tongue are equally important/useful.
I disagree with this, at least for SE Asia and other very international tourist destinations. Languages seem to be a very important hiring criteria from what I've seen, but more critically with instructors than DMs. For each language an employee is capable of speaking, the available market widens for the dive center. However, the benefit in that market penetration is really dependent on whether X, Y or Z nationalities visit that region for holiday.
For instance, Hebrew has value in Thailand, but not in Indo...
And being a good DM is much more important than looking good in a bikini. :-D
This differs from the prevalent attitude I witnessed frequently in Thailand. LOL
