Dive Centers About Their Recruitment Process – A Must-Read for Dive Instructors
I asked 400 dive centers around Southeast Asia about their recruitment process. If you are a scuba instructor looking for a job, this is a must-read. Find out what dive centers are looking for when hiring new staff.
Background
I have been active in the diving industry for over 20 years and have managed a dive center myself, so I have a pretty good idea what dive centers are looking for when hiring dive instructors. Although I have been in this role myself, I wanted to know how other dive centers find their staff and what challenges they face when trying to fill open instructor positions.
For the past 8 years, I’ve also been active as a course director, and I want to prepare the instructors I teach as best as possible for job opportunities. So I wrote 400+ dive centers all around Southeast Asia and the Maldives an email, asking to fill in a short 2 minute, 12 questions survey.
First Impression
Just over 50% of the dive center managers opened my email, but only about 5% actually returned the survey. Apparently, hiring instructors is not a major concern for them, or they were unable or too uninterested to spare 2 minutes of their time. The Maldives was a positive exception, with a return rate of almost 10%.
In general, dive centers have a small core team of staff. About 48% have a team of 1-3 dive instructors, and less than 10% have more than 7 instructors on staff.
How Do Dive Centers Find Instructors to Hire?
I was surprised to see that social media (34.8%) plays a much less important role than I thought. Word of mouth and personal referrals (39.1%), and direct applications and walk-ins (34.8%) are just as important.
That is understandable. Making a hiring decision if somebody is in front of you, or if somebody is recommended by a friend, is a much easier decision to make than hiring somebody over a few emails and an online meeting.
By far most dive centers (60.9%) find their candidates on online job boards and forums, like the Asia Scuba Instructors jobs site or the PADI job board.
I took this to heart, and I will be looking into improving and enlarging the Asia Scuba Instructor job board in the coming months.
Recruitment Effort
In general, dive centers have their open instructor positions filled in 4 weeks or less (65.2%). Only a small percentage (13.2%) need to spend more than 2 months on the recruitment process.
They also don’t allocate a large budget for recruitment. The bulk of the dive centers (65.2%) are only using free methods to fill their instructor positions.
The number of applicants is not very high compared with other industries. Most dive centers receive only 3-10 applications on open positions (34.8%). Equally many receive 11-20 applications (34.8%). Only very few dive centers receive more than 20 applications for an open position. Based on my recruiting experience outside the diving industry (in a previous life), that is a much healthier number.
Instructors also stay with dive centers longer than I expected. From what I hear when I speak to dive center managers, this seemed to be a problem. But more than 50% of dive instructors stay with a dive center for over a year. This was not caused by the high percentage of dive centers from the Maldives that responded. Filtering out all responses from the Maldives gives a comparable result.
Finding Good Qualifications
So, most dive centers do not have many problems getting their instructor positions filled. But here’s the thing: dive center managers are struggling to find high-quality applicants.
Languages, of course, are in very high demand in this international industry, and it is difficult to find applicants who speak the languages that line up with the dive center’s customer base.
But here’s the shocker: More than half (52.2%) of dive center managers think that applicants lack general diving and teaching skills. More than half think applicants miss customer service/hospitality skills, and more than half do not have the confidence that applicants will follow safe diving practices.
As an instructor trainer, I take those comments seriously, and during our IDC’s we focus on real life teaching skills instead of just passing the Instructor Exam. But of course, there is only so much you can do in a two-week IDC.
What Does This Mean If You Are Looking for a Job as a Scuba Instructor?
Dive centers do not spend much time and effort to get their instructor positions filled and most dive centers find instructors online. However, they want applicants with strong basic skills.
Having a good CV that shows your diving experience is important. Don’t write “200 dives”. Be specific about how many dives, where, and what diving conditions you encountered.
Of course, experience as a Divemaster is important. Working as a Divemaster is completely different than following a guide on your holiday. If you don’t have working experience as a Divemaster, be very specific about what you did in your Divemaster course:
- How long
- How many dives
- Which diving conditions
- What kind of customers
- Include other duties like equipment preparation and care, shop shifts, etc.
Non-diving work experience is also important, so be specific about that too. It can show that you possess customer service skills and a sense of responsibility.
Being on-site makes things a lot easier, of course. You can follow some courses, and dive centers will pretty quickly get an idea of your diving skills and social skills.
Professional Application
Some managers explicitly remarked that writing a good introduction is important as a first impression. “Please explain to instructors how to write a good cover letter that would attract attention.”
“Hi, I’m Joe, and I’m looking for a job” is not a good introduction. Write in a few short paragraphs:
- WHY you are applying to this specific dive center
- WHAT sets you apart from other candidates
- WHEN you are available
And, yes. That means you need to do a little research before you write an application!
Have at least two references who can confirm your attitude and abilities. If you don’t have previous employers to act as references, ask the instructors who trained you on your Divemaster course and IDC.
Writing a professional cover letter and giving a few useful references will hugely increase your chance to get hired.
My Impression
It’s difficult to draw hard conclusions from this survey since the response rate was very low. But that on itself could be an important indicator. Dive centers show very little interest in instructor recruitment. They spend very little time and effort, and even less budget on recruiting staff. Yet, it looks like finding instructors with the right qualifications is a challenge.
It seems strange to me that dive centers spend lots on their boats, compressors, and dive equipment, but don’t have a budget for finding qualified instructors. What will your customers remember most? Your boat, your huge compressor, or your staff?
Appearantly dive centers have difficulty finding instructors with strong and safe diving skills and great customer service skills. Without great staff, it is difficult to raise your service levels above your competitors, forcing you to compete on price. That keeps instructor salaries low, making it difficult to attract good staff. It’s a vicious circle. It seems to me that many dive centers are falling in that trap.
For aspiring dive instructors, it should be clear that dive centers require good divers with great customer service skills. Proper training and experience are very valuable. Our IDC programs are certainly not the cheapest, and we like to think that we offer more and better training than most. However, cheaper IDC options at party islands seem to be the popular choice for divers to become instructors. Investing in proper training and options to gain experience pays off in the long run.
Conclusion
The reason behind this survey is simple. I’m constantly looking to improve our courses and the services we offer dive centers and aspiring scuba instructors. We don’t train instructors just to give them a certification. We train them because they want to work in a dive center as instructors.
Feedback from dive centers is valuable for improving our courses and delivering great instructors to dive centers around Southeast Asia.
Key takeaways for finding scuba instructor jobs:
- Most dive centers find instructors on online job boards (60.9%).
- Word of mouth and personal referrals are very important (39.1%).
- Write a professional cover letter explaining why you want to work at that specific dive center.
- Be specific about your diving experience.
- Include detailed Divemaster experience or non-diving work experience.
- Provide at least two references.
- Show customer service skills from previous work.
- Invest in quality training and gaining experience.
Finding scuba instructor jobs requires preparation and professionalism. With the right approach, you can stand out to dive centers looking for qualified staff.
Key takeaways for dive centers:
- Online job boards are the most popular recruitment channel (60.9%) but the quality of applicants is relatively low. Personal referrals and on-site evaluations help make better hiring decisions.
- Great staff is your most memorable asset – invest in recruitment like you invest in equipment. Consider allocating a budget for finding qualified instructors, or consider setting up your own training program.
- Using only free methods for recruiting creates a vicious circle. Breaking the low-price cycle starts with investing in great staff.
- Quality instructors enable you to compete on service level, not just price.
Recruiting scuba instructors requires effort and budget. You are competing with other dive centers, not only for customers, but also for staff. With the right approach, you can build a great team and outperform your competitors.
