Hello Megan, When I have a potential candidate applying for a position a few things that I look for are as follows. First a well written resume / cover letter / or even a well filled out application can be deceiving. However, I look for well detailed account of the person's qualifications. Those you have listed are case in point. But I also look for areas where the person may not have that much experience but they are honest about it. Examples would be a lot of certifications listed but not a lot of dives logged. For instance a person who has been certified for say 15 years, with 20 different certifications, but only has say 70 dives or so. Another example would be say listing you have been certified for 4 years and say logged 1,000-2,500 dives (Meaning an average of 2 dives a day, for 4 years, 365 days a year). Next I will take a look at references and see who they associate themselves with. This is for 2 reasons. First, it tells me if they can have a relationship with many diverse people (in the future being Instructor for all types of people), and second it gives me an idea of who they are. This plays a big role later on down the road when I sign off on an Instructor in a business setting, being able to deal with customers or even operating the business when I am away for one reason or another. I also want to know if the candidate is willing to learn new things, or if they feel that they have learned everything there is about diving. A candidate who writes they have all the specialty certifications they want, not including say sidemount or public safety diving, but yet this area is big in those specialties, then I need to know if the candidate is willing to learn new things, or settle to just not teach those areas (good or bad, honesty is key). Last but not least I look for proper spelling. In this industry, there are a lot of knowledgable people, but those that teach and continue to grow this industry are held to a higher standard. We are the ones that will train the future divers and instructors and the very basics that we learned in school sets a standard for everything that we do. When we become a professional and teach a sport, skill, or anything that holds the potential for someone getting hurt, then taking the time to double check what we write down for mistakes show that we have attention for detail, something that is a must when setting up gear or watching students perform skills. Now with that being said, I am a former Law Enforcement Officer that has spent many hours sitting in court winning and losing cases, all because of reports being misinterpreted because of how I documented events. Now I am not trying to compare Law Enforcement to Diving, but we take people under the water for a living and while they are in student status they are our responsibility. After they get certified, if they get hurt, they can still come back to make claims that we trained them wrong. So proper documentation is key. It all starts in the beginning when you fill out your resume or application. Always make sure you are completely honest and don't be afraid to just be yourself. We are all individuals and have our own personalities. Good luck and God Bless.
