Building your Diving Career. Or 6 key points to be a COOOOL diver with a Job

Well, I'm quite happy that people got quite "fusssssy" with my last blog about "|Free Courses...."| . I guess I could be wrong, and there is a lot of real good employer ready to give free internships.

So know about todays topic: Building your Diving Career.

In the world that we are living, competition is  a main factor in any industry. The Diving Industry is really competitive place. A lot of really good qualified people out there working hard to get that great jobs.

A few days ago, a diver sent me an email complaining why Dive Centers don't reply when they apply for a job. The reason is simple (and hold tied to your shair) every day, every ad in DiversJobs gets 500 people that make "click" and think of applying. The result a huge amount of emails that Dive Centers get everytime they post a job.

The consequences are quite obvious, only the best (in some cases) get that jobs.

In the huge jungle of jobseekers that apply for a job we have all kind of species.

a) The dreamer. - The dreamers are usually nice people (but still dreamers) with no diving idea, that just want to change their life and apply to a MSDT job or even better to a Course Director Job

b) The spammer - people that apply to ALL kind of jobs, sending usually their CV without any introduction

c) The Only-Manager - Usually Instructors burn-out that just want to set into managers of a Dive Center

d) The Rockefeller - I have seen people applying for jobs and requesting at least 3000 us dollars per month. Well... if work in the UK or in Australia , may you will get that (if you are lucky), but in many normal diving destinations, getting that sort of money is simply unrealistic.

So, what about the real candidates? The good guys, the people like you and me....

Well, in between normal people (and by saying normal, I'm talking about mentaly normal people) we have instructors with great experience, with amazing qualifications and with really fantastic CV's.

So, which kind of individuals get the jobs?

I can define a 6 key points that are important to mention:

1. Languages:  As an instructor you always want to reach and be able to teach the biggest amount of divers. At the end of the day, that is what your boss wants. So multilingual instructors are always wanted in Dive Centers.

But also remember: The key languages are the languages spoken in the diving industry. So, if you speak portuguese or Basque... well it really doesn't make a huge difference (unless you work in Brazil or the Basque Country....     )

2. Diving Certification: I know that here many of you are going to jump an scream at me... but if you really want to be able to work in any sort of dive center you need to be with PADI. Ok, scream at me, tell me about PADI ascent rate, bla, bla, bla... I know, I don't make comission by talking about PADI, but if you want to work and want to make money and want to get more chances of a job, you need to go PADI.

PADI + MICROSOFT + Coca Cola... if we could choose we will may be go with SSI + LINUX + Water...  but there are almays more jobs for PADI Instructors than for SSI instructors. *

* If you don't believe me, go now to www.diversjobs.com and search for SSI Term. How many jobs do you get??? Now search for PADI. You compare the results.

3. Be better. Teach more stuff.

So you can teach open water courses. Great! So the rest of the 5000 people applying for that job you want. What else do you have? Can you teach Nitrox? Can you teach any DAN course? Can you teach any Trimix? Study.. study ... study... get more and more certs and get more and more credentials... . 

If I need to hire a PADI OWSI or a PADI MSDT... I go for the MSDT. The reason? Easy, the MSDT can teach more courses than the OWSI. Simple thinking.

4. So you dive and...?

Diving usually is in the water. And the water industry is huge! Many companies also need people with more qualifications, like Skippers, Coxswain holders (in Australia), Master Class 5 and people with boat handling papers and certifications.

This are DIFFICULT courses to take and usually this sort of divers get a lot more job offers. If you can dive and also take your customers in the same boat... the Dive Center managers is saving money and you have a bigger % of keeping your job. Usually really important if you are working in Australia and the US. (Also key for big liveaboard companies).

5. Market yourself: You need to sell yourself, you need to have a teaching style... a marketing way of be able to become "different". How? That's the 1.000.000 dollars question. You can try to create your own diving specialty... or become an expert in one topic... . But do something different. Bringing something new into a dive center always helps.

6. Sales and money mind:

Dive Centers (almost 99% of them) are run by people that need to make a living from the business. So, is always important to get people with SALES spirit. I read a lots of complains of diving instructors and divemasters about... "I love to dive... but I hate to sale and do marketing..." Well, the best instructors in dive resorts are the instructors that manage to Con-Ed their students. Instructors that bring more income to the dive center. You must think: I didn't join this profession to do that. Well.... if you don't bring money to a dive center, sooner or later you will be walking out the door. Believe me...

Also I find that people that make a little bit of effort get a Job. Next time you find the Job you want, make a quick international call (don't be mean, if you really want  the job, spend that extra 5 dollars and pay for the phone call) and have a quick chat with the employer. Let them know you are a REAL candidate. Let them know how good you are.

Don't follow the crowds, try to be different......

Like a guy that I used to know that was scared of not getting a job, so we created one day a jobsite for divers, and he name it: DiversJobs.

11:46 PM - 10/27/2005 - comments {1} - post comment

The worst thing you can do.

5:49 AM - 10/17/2005 - comments {2} - post comment

Relation Jobseeker (Diver) and employer (Dive Center)

Ok, first of all is quite late... so sorry about the spelling mistakes and my horrible grammar.....  

I decided to create this Blog because many times I see crazy things in the diving industry and many times I simple go quite... thinking... "It is a crazy world...."

Since I created DiversJobs (one of these days I will write how DiversJobs started...) I have seen all kind of things. From Employers posting ads searching for divers to search for golf balls in lakes... to scams... abuses... fake jobs... and people that sometimes forget that Scuba Diving is a serious industry.

I know this is not a new subject, many people have posted a few times, their frustration regarding the lack of serious relation diver professional and employer. 

Working in diving is for me the best job in the world. But nothing is always gold... and working in diving brings many risks and difficult situations that diving professionals have to face and think about.  To understand this topic we have to think... what does it means to be a Diving Professional... and that question is like the chicken and egg...

Across the world we see many amazing diving instructors, with years of experience. Intelligent people that understand that you need to renew always your training and understand diving as a service and as an Education and Recreational Industry.

In a sad way, diving has become also an option for people to resources, to travel and have a great time while working. I think that is where many troubles start. The lack of unity in the diving industry.

Let me give you clear examples....

If you go to dive in Egypt you will find that the diving industry is a bazaar. People offer you courses every day cheaper and cheaper... if you don't like the price... you will always be able to go to the next dive shop and target for a better prize. The result? Many strange dive centers with dodgy equipment....  bad staff members... etc.

If you go to Koh Tao in Thailand instead, Koh Tao brings something called Koh Tao Doc. An association created by the dive centers to unify their interest, standards, and prices.

The result? A better industry. No dodgy dive centers.... (or at least smaller %) .

With the diving industry is the same, and in the diving job field there is a clear virus.... the lack of benefits and rights the diver professional suffers.

Few Dive Centers and in few countries in the world offer serious job contracts with full social benefits supported by the local labor law. USA, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND and the UK are some of the few where the regulations are clear and few people try to bend them.

In the rest of the world, in amazing diving destinations the flow of diving instructors is so big that the simple "Freelance work" is the daily bread in the region....

You come, you teach an open water course, you get paid and bye bye ....

Is this ideal?

Obviously no.

Is this a dive center problem/fault?

In a certain way... may be it is. But in a bigger percentage is a cultural problem, an education issue. Until the professional community (and I'm talking about divemasters and instructors) don't start  to demand contracts and clear deals the problem will continue.

People get  abuse when they allowed people to do so.

So....

what is  the solution?

Clearly, I have no idea. May be the change is from inside. may be if we understand that we can't claim legal rights if we don't eve apply and accept the local laws of the country where we are working.  And by saying this I want to finish this blog with an easy remark....

Are you searching for a job in South East Asia? Are you searching for a diving job in the Caribbean?

Are you ready to go an apply for a working visa?

May be not....

Why not?

Because it is a hassle.....

So... then when something happens, why do we keep complaining by using words as "Legal Contract" and "Legal agreements"

4:38 AM - 10/17/2005 - comments {0} - post comment