Become Instructor or stay Divemaster?
The work of the Divemaster is so nice then why become an instructor? how many of you are wondering …
It is true that a divemaster does so many dives, sighting a lot of marine fauna, passing time by boat, in the water, with the people, the divemaster is generally recognized as the one who best knows the seabed of the area. The instructor, on the other hand, spends much of his time in the swimming pool, without particular sightings of wild animals or in the classroom with students. Those times that you are on a boat and dive probably are simple sites for educational needs and are not those remote and adventurous sites where you can make special meetings with rare and wonderful animals …
But there’s more
Work
Work or finding a job in diving is perhaps the determining factor. A dive center is often more interested in hiring an instructor rather than a divemaster because it can guide or teach or assist other instructors in their tasks. An instructor generally has superior knowledge of PADI standards and greater mastery of what security and risk management is in this discipline. In short, an instructor is more versatile and, in many cases, has more experience of diving in general.
Travel and Visa
In many places now you have to have residence permits, a company invests in personnel and looks for a professional figure that can not be found in the local people. Unlike the past, over the last 20 years I have seen a great transformation of recruitment in diving. In Egypt, to give an example, in 2000 we worked without any type of residence visa, the same in Thailand, Mexico could work without too many visas and even in Australia it was enough a ‘working holiday visa’ to find work anywhere. Now. in many of these countries the many Divemasters are now hired among the local population. Evidently the countries themselves have understood the resource of the local workforce. Locals also often cost less and there are no problems related to work permits.
Internships and wages
From an economic point of view, many divemasters now earn very little (due to local competition, as we have just seen) and in many countries Divemasters work to pay for their Instructor courses through Internship or something like that. So why should an underwater center hire divemasters, maybe even foreigners? A PADI instructor can also aspire to a higher and more attractive salary, almost anywhere.
Become a PADI Instructor
Become an Instructor then or remain a divemaster? Let’s say that now, after twenty years of teaching, I’m on the side of the instructors. I will never tire of answering my divemaster students, who ask me how to become better divemasters, that the best way is to become an instructor. The instructor has a trained eye, able to recognize and anticipate many problems that could happen to inexperienced divers as well as students. An instructor has more ‘opportunity to travel and visit different sites to improve themselves. Do not waste your time, make the right choice.
WhatsApp us