Jobs are as important for our characters as they are for real people. A character’s career might be their dream job or one they’ve chosen due to necessity. In your story, they might be trying to get that job or are already working in the field. Whatever the situation, as with any defining aspect for your character, you’ll need to do the proper research to be able to write that career knowledgeably.

Enter the Occupation Thesaurus. Here, you’ll find important background information on a variety of career options for your character. In addition to the basics, we’ll also be covering related info that relates to character arc and story planning, such as sources of conflict (internal and external) and how the job might impact basic human needs, thereby affecting the character’s goals. It’s our hope that this thesaurus will share some of your research burden while also giving you ideas about your character’s occupation that you might not have considered before.

Occupation: Skydiving Instructor

Overview: A skydiving instructor teaches willing participants the basics of safe skydiving, and then takes them miles into the sky to help them to jump out of a plane with a parachute (some solo, some in tandem dives). Instructors will teach, pack parachutes, assist clients with questions and gearing up, and ensure all safety regulations are followed.

Skydiving Instructors must be highly alert, dedicated, calm…

Necessary Training:

Depending on the amount of dives, the certifications the instructor has, and their own personal areas of interest, skydive instructors might be Coaches (100 skydives; able to teach students the essentials as they do their pre-A licence solos); Skydiving Photographers (200 skydives; accompanying individuals and their instructors on skydives to capture the moment); and the at 500 skydive mark +3 hours of freefall, they could become AFF certified by taking an additional USPA (United States Parachute Association) AFF instructor course (in the US) after getting one’s C-licence…

Useful Skills, Talents, or Abilities: A knack for languages, a knack for making money, charm, enhanced hearing, ESP (clairvoyance), exceptional memory, gaining the trust of others, good listening skill…

Helpful Character Traits:

POSITIVE: Adaptable, adventurous, alert, ambitious, analytical, calm, courageous, decisive, diplomatic, disciplined, easygoing, efficient…

NEGATIVE: obsessive, perfectionist

Sources of Friction: working for a company that is always running a tight budget (walking the safety line), struggling to make ends meet as an instructor, friction between instructors and staff over preferential treatment or work ethic imbalances, having clients change their minds mid-flight, having clients who don’t follow instructions or who take risks, problems with the parachutes deploying smoothy, an inattentive skydiver who deploys too early or isn’t paying enough attention to the position of others…

People They Might Interact With: other skydivers, first timers, staff at the facility, pilots, students, family members of participants

How This Occupation Might Impact One’s Basic Needs:

• Self-Actualization: A character who becomes addicted to the rush of skydives may struggles with feeling satisfied fully when on the ground.
• Esteem and Recognition: A character who dreams of competing on the world stage and being recognized as being one of the very best may not be able to dedicate themselves…
• Safety and Security: A career as a skydiving instructor does not pay well, and being part of the sport is expensive, meaning a portion of one’s earnings will go right back into skydiving...
  
• Physiological Needs: While parachute malfunctions and other accidents are rare, skydiving means ever-present risk to one’s life.
  

Common Work-Related Settings: airplane, field, hanger

Twisting the Fictional Stereotype: skydivers are often portrayed as fearless but many of them have a fear of heights, and it was the desire to overcome this fear that sent them on their first jump. Their love of the experience pushed them to pursue sharing it with others through instruction, but the fear of heights hasn’t gone away.

Visit the other Occupations in our collection HERE.

How will your character’s occupation help reveal their innermost layers?

Much of your character’s life will revolve around their work, and whether they love it or hate it, their job is a great way to show, not tell, their personality traits, skills, work ethic, worldview and beliefs, and more, so we should choose it with care.

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