I made my practical training last spring in Thailand on Koh Tao island. I spent almost three months there and worked as an office trainee in Finnish scuba diving center, Koh Tao Divers. Koh Tao Divers have another diving center in Malta as well.
Why I chose diving center as a place for my internship? Well, I thought for a long time what would be a perfect place to do my practical training in Finland. I was sure, that I won’t do it at any restaurant or hotel. I wanted some new and different.
It was rainy day of October 2017 and I was browsing my Facebook. There it was. Turquoise advert of Koh Tao Divers, which told that they were still looking for office trainee for next spring. I didn’t think twice, so I sent email and there wasn’t even two weeks and I got to know that Im leaving to Koh Tao island on next March.
After those three months I spent there, I couldn’t be more happy I did it. It was absolutely one of my best decisions of my life.
So, what was my job description at Koh Tao Divers. I was working at the office, so main things what I did was customer service, finding suitable instructor or divemaster for customers, sell our courses and fundives, take care of our accounting and payment of wages, buying retails for our shop and keep in touch with our partners.
The most valuable thing what I learned during my internship was organizing schedules between instructors, customers and boat. Situations will change so quickly, so you need to react quickly as well. Organizing skill is very valuable in any job, so you can exploit it in a future.
I think that working culture at Koh Tao Divers was pretty same that in Finland. It can be affected by the fact that the company is Finnish and most of employees are Finnish. Of course working in scuba diving center is much different than example in hotel or restaurant. Dives are conducted on the terms of instructors and students, when for example in restaurant there is superiors who decide on things. The most important thing in restaurant is that the customer is happy. Of course that is important thing on diving centers as well, but safety is the most important thing on diving.
All though I loved my job in office, it was even more interesting when I got chance to learn scuba dive and do any courses what I wanted. I did SSI Open Water Diver course, Advanced Adventure course, Deep Diving course and Enriched Air Nitrox course and many, many fundives! It was really rewarding when you really understand what everyone is talking about, you can give advises to customers and be a part of that small diving family. Now I really can say, that I finally found my very own sport what I can be into in future.
If you wanna read more my internship at Koh Tao Divers, take a look my blogpost on their website: https://kohtaodivers.com/blog/108-internship-at-ktd-learning-new-skills
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