How to Establish a Scuba Diving Career


When you develop a passion for something, you want to immerse yourself in it. This is literally true for those who enjoy scuba diving! What better way to spend your life than doing something you love?

Diving instructors

As with most occupations that people easily fall in love with, there is a competitive element that affects its value in monetary terms. Like ski instructors, scuba instructors do it for the lifestyle that comes with it rather than the money they earn. In fact, it may surprise you to know that your diving instructor earns very little, if anything at all.

Someone who wants to teach diving professionally must be totally dedicated to following all the steps and climbing the ladder to become an open-water instructor. The problem is that once divers are newly qualified, many decide to go on to further levels of certification by doing more courses.

This often leads to a desire to be an instructor. So scuba instructors end up teaching newcomers who may one day compete with them for their own jobs. Many instructors go on to certify as instructor course directors so that they can earn money teaching more people to be instructors…and so on.

Working as an instructor gives you the chance to live and work somewhere exotic. Such a lifestyle is desirable, but to achieve it you will inevitably need other skills, too. Diving instructors are sought after if they also have knowledge of building construction, carpentry, electrical installations, boat engine mechanics and underwater photography -although, thanks to the advent of digital photography, this is no longer seen as scarce. In poorly supplied remote locations, diving instructors need to be resourceful people.

Other diving professions The demand for professional divers to work in the oil industry has diminished with the advent of more cost-efficient remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) that never need to rest – nor do they suffer the medical problems associated with saturation diving. In any case, oil industry jobs are more about welding and cleaning than diving.

Some people qualify with degrees in marine biology, but there are few diving jobs that demand their skills – except, maybe, working on a fish farm.

Teaching others to dive can be a rewarding experience. By teaching someone to use scuba equipment safely, you are giving them the opportunity to visit a new and undiscovered world. It is especially rewarding if that person overcomes some psychological difficulties on the way, such as claustrophobia. If you like working with people, you’ll enjoy seeing them progress from those first nervous steps in the shallow end of the pool to being out in the ocean and meeting animals and exploring shipwrecks. Being a diving instructor is a job particularly suitable for young people taking a break from full-time education or for older people who can afford to pursue their passion.

If you want to train to be a diving instructor, whether a volunteer in a club environment or a professional with a school, you must continue to build on your diving skills after becoming a certified diver and take all the necessary courses.

Filed Under: Sports & Fitness

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About the Author: Cody Riffel is a regular contributor to MegaHowTo. She likes to write on variety of topics, whatever interests her. She also likes to share what she learns over the Internet and her day-to-day life.

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