Posted by Eric Frasco on June 04, 2002 at 22:59:17:
In Reply to: Southern California PADI IDC Instructor Wanted posted by Alex on June 04, 2002 at 13:24:13:
Alex:
The advice Chris Knight gives below is good, ignore the mockeries from the peanut gallery. There are good PADI Instructors out there, and if you want to become one of them, you need to do your homework, and you need to NOT bow down to pressure from your employer. They may be paying for your Instructor Certification, but will they pay if you get sued for poor instructional supervision?
Your employer's requirement that you be certified by the end of this month touches a raw nerve that has become a matter of many postings on this web page. It merely adds "fuel to the fire" in the ongoing concern (expressed by many that post here) that you can go from Open Water Student to Instructor in just one month.
Please be more specific - are you already Dive Master or Assistant Instructor, or are you just an Open Water Diver?
If you are already Dive Master or better, then follow the advice of Chris Knight.
If you possess a lower level of certification, then do a serious amount of soul searching and ask yourself if it is more important to rush through your instructor training (do you want to be a "three week wonder" or do you want to be a thorough and well respected member of the instructional community?).
Don't choose your instructional training just to meet an arbitrary and artificial deadline. Choose your instructor training based on the very best instructional training staff you can find and afford.
I could tell you a lot of sad stories about the Three Week Wonders that I have had to work with over the years, but the bottom line is: none of them are in the diving industry today. They all flunked out.
Don't become a statistic. Choose wisely when it comes to getting your training.
The time and effort you invest in getting good training will pay off over the long run.
-Eric-