Living the Dream: Surviving a live-aboard job
Posted By Vladimir Soto on 27 December 2005
Still reading this, huh? That's the spirit. Ok, here are a few tips that might help you better prepare to get one of these gem (although not perfect) jobs. Be sure to have some solid boating skills. Check with your local coastguard office, they might offer a cheap course. Try and learn some basic mechanical skills as well. Have STCW95 basic safety training. This is an international standards course required for mariners working aboard commercial vessels. Having this will make you a more attractive candidate. There are a few parts to the course, first aid, crowd control and basic fire-fighting being some. This last one was great fun and left me with the utmost respect for fire fighters. Be sure your dive teaching skills are solid, you have a good grip on teaching standards and are attentive to all details when filling out all the required teaching paperwork.
Have a few specialties you are able to teach. Nitrox is by far the most commonly requested, but underwater navigation, deep diving, fish I.D., buoyancy, photo and video are also popular. If there's a peculiar dive environment in the area you are applying for a job at, be sure you can teach that specialty. For example, be able to teach drift diving if you want to work on a live-aboard that cruises the waters of Cozumel. Develop patience and attention to detail. The monotony of diving the same sites week after week encouraged me to appreciate every site for what it could offer and was rewarded, when accepting such offers, with the capacity to see something I was once blind to. Try to take on photography or video. It's a great way to keep a record of your experience, the challenge of improving is stimulating and these activities will help you see stuff you usually didn't. However don't expect all live-aboard companies to offer you the chance to be the photo or video pro right away. Unless you can say Amos Nachoum's imagery actually improved as consequence of your tips and you can have him vouch for that, you'll have to be lucky and/or earn the place.
Some companies, for example, reserve the right to create and sell the weekly video for their captains. They see that as a privilege, and considering one could double the amount of tip money made in a week by adding the sale of several $50 or $60 videos, that's not too shabby of a privilege. Not all companies are set up in such a way and sometimes the captains are as interested in being in charge of the video as they are on letting any overtly lushed up guest take the wheel and go slaloming in between some protruding coral reefs. If you're going as far as thinking what to take with you, less is more. Really. Unless you'll break a teaching standard not having it, don't take it. One whistle is good, take the lightest bc you have. You'll be very happy dragging the least amount of gear possible. As it is, you'll need plenty of space for all your teaching materials.
Surprised? Employers commonly use the leverage they know the job holds. One way they do that is by not spending money on things YOU can spend money on, like teaching materials and slates, for example. Go digital if you haven't yet. Your first job is the hardest to get. Call all the companies you can. It's better than email. Find out who's in charge of hiring. Ask what you could do to become an ideal candidate for a job with them. Ask if there's a fleet captain you could talk to. Try to meet crew that works on the boats. DEMA is a good place to meet people. Take your resume and caffeinate your charm. Regardless of the compromises, if you like diving, traveling and teaching, this will be an experience you will never forget. And besides, nurturing the dreams of those who wish they could go for it but can't will be worth all the hard work. Hope you get a chance to live the dream and survive to tell us all about it.
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