Get a dive job as couple | Top 5 tips how
Have you had struggles as a diving couple to land your dream dive job together?
I met many couples in Southeast Asia and Australia and they shared their struggles and how they mastered them.
Here are the top 5 things a diving couple can do to get dive jobs together.
1 — Read and understand job postings of dive centres
Understand what dive shops are looking for.
Put yourself into the shoes of a dive shop. They want to have the best two dive professionals they can possibly get.
However, a dive shop knows they won’t get the perfect two master of all trades personified in just you two.
I suggest an approach that worked well for me in the past:
Take all skills you found in the different job advertisements. Write them on a sheet of paper and continue with step two.
2 — Diversify your skills
Discuss which of these skills you both have and which ones you can obtain in let’s say six months time. Are there too many both of you could learn?
Split it up and one of you learns a bunch of skills and the other one learns the other set of skills.
When you apply for an employment in a few months express the combined benefits you will bring into the company if they take you together.
Some dive shops look specifically for instructor couples as Cruise Directors on liveaboards.
3 — Write a killer job application
As a diving couple, send two separated CVs.
As a rule of thumb you can follow a proven structure for a CV
- Send a professional photo
- Key info on top of CV (critical)
- Body (diver and non-diver experience and skills)
- Referees
Do formatting, spellcheck and a proofread from a friend.
This shows the basic structure.
I landed great dive jobs overseas using this structure without any personal recommendation.
4 — Offer something only you as a diving couple can offer
If the company you are applying at has lots of couples could also mean they bring their children.
If a guest couple trusts the diving couple they would rather give their child for an hour to the partner of their dive instructor than to anyone else.
The dive resort can offer a paid service to take care of the kids for an hour which brings an extra buck for the company.
5 — Go the extra mile when you look for dive jobs
Go out and talk to dive shop owners, to managers of liveaboards etc.. Ask them why or why not they hire a diving couple.
Show up in person. This will show you are dedicated and you are a doer. I know this is only possible if you are in the area.
Otherwise personal contacts, emails or social media is a good way to go.
Takeaway
My couple friends got nice jobs they loved. One of their pieces of advice was that the effort you put into your application, your skillset and your attitude is what you generally get back.
This counts for couples as well as singles.
I am looking forward to your thoughts in the comments :)
