G'day! (hope that's not insulting coming from an American)
This is the first place I've posted this question/situation, so it may sound a little rambling...
Early last year I decided that I was going to train up to Instructor with the purpose in mind of moving to Australia to teach and do some ocean conservancy work. Since then I have almost completed my Search/Stress and Rescue cert, and I'm looking forward to starting my DM class. I'm not truly happy with my current SSI LDS, so I'm considering switching and just going PADI (since that's what I was going to do my IDC with anyway), but I have a question.
Would it be easier to call a dive shop in Australia and ask if they would have a position for me if I did my IDC with them, while at the same time offering my 15yrs of I.T. experience (which is what's going to give me the points required to get into Australia) as a secondary benefit? My long term goals are to learn the whole of the dive shop and make it a successful business where we also give back to the community by having a strong ocean conservancy policy. But that's something I want to work towards, or join a shop that already has one in place.
On another note, I have a buddy in the UK (she's already a DM) who wants to join me.
If it helps, I'm a 30yo male fluent in English (only at this point, but I'm open to other languages). 8yrs of diving experience, but only about 180 dives (and a good number of those are theatrical show dives I did while working for Royal Caribbean)
Thanks for any input, and feel free to ask more questions to help you help me.
This is the first place I've posted this question/situation, so it may sound a little rambling...
Early last year I decided that I was going to train up to Instructor with the purpose in mind of moving to Australia to teach and do some ocean conservancy work. Since then I have almost completed my Search/Stress and Rescue cert, and I'm looking forward to starting my DM class. I'm not truly happy with my current SSI LDS, so I'm considering switching and just going PADI (since that's what I was going to do my IDC with anyway), but I have a question.
Would it be easier to call a dive shop in Australia and ask if they would have a position for me if I did my IDC with them, while at the same time offering my 15yrs of I.T. experience (which is what's going to give me the points required to get into Australia) as a secondary benefit? My long term goals are to learn the whole of the dive shop and make it a successful business where we also give back to the community by having a strong ocean conservancy policy. But that's something I want to work towards, or join a shop that already has one in place.
On another note, I have a buddy in the UK (she's already a DM) who wants to join me.
If it helps, I'm a 30yo male fluent in English (only at this point, but I'm open to other languages). 8yrs of diving experience, but only about 180 dives (and a good number of those are theatrical show dives I did while working for Royal Caribbean)
Thanks for any input, and feel free to ask more questions to help you help me.