You teach a SCUBA certification course at a small Midwestern community college. You've only got five students, and you had to schedule certification dives at a quarry an hour away, but hey, you're a dive instructor.

You're assistant manager at a Florida dive shop, which means you get to dive in warm water on your days off. You get commission on your SCUBA gear sales, a nice perk you won't turn down. You've also snagged a teaching slot for next month's Open Water Diver class.

You've finagled a dive instructor spot on a large live-aboard dive boat. It's a lot more work than you bargained for, as you've also been conscripted to do boat maintenance when you're not working with divers. Since you're working in the sunny Caribbean in January, you've decided not to complain.

Finally, you've reached the big time. Through a celebrity connection or two, you've landed a cushy dive instructor gig on a megayacht that cruises the Med. While most of your students are bored celebrities with short attention spans, you occasionally get a chance to turn somebody on to diving. Plus, the salary is nice.

Enough with the megayacht and the other monuments to excess. You've ditched it all and taken a job at DAN, or Diver's Alert Network, based in North Carolina. DAN is a leader in dive safety research and applications, and you actually feel like your work means something. On your off time, you teach diving to wounded warriors.