Commercial Diving careers

[lisurfer49]

Hello all,
I am coming close to finishing college here at Roger Williams University with a history major. However, I do not have much interest in pursuing it after i finish and have been looking into possible careers to look at. one of which is commercial diving. i have done some research and have a few questions hopefully someone can help with.

I have realized the majority of the work is in the gulf, i was wondering if work would be easy to find outside of the gulf? east coast or west coast or even out of the country. I am very used to very cold water as i surf year round in waters that get as cold as low 30s and air can be below 0F and spear fish until the fish disapear which is around this time of year. So i feel i have a bit of an advantage with that and perhaps finding cold water divers is not as easy to come by. cold/cold water is something i never minded all that much. would this be a good edge to have and persue if i decide to persue commercial diving? or is the majority of the work, like i found to be in the gulf or warmer areas?

does anyone have a school they can recomend? i was recomended one in Texas, i think it was the Huston one the guy was talking about and i saw one in NJ that i was interested in as it is close to where i am from (long island) and was an accelerated program at 5 months. I am currently very burnt out on school and my only interest in returning would be for commercial diving if it seems like a viable profession to persue. i realize it will be an expensive thing to persue and i want to make sure i commit fully, this is something i cannot half ass. i am incredibly in love with the ocean, i grew up surfing year round in the north east, i have been scuba diving for 5 years and spear fishing for 2 years now. its something i can never live without and if i can persue a carreer with it, id be stoked and would be more then enough motivation to get me back into school.

thanks for reading
Jake

 

[Doc]

Jake- On ScubaBoard, we all make "first posts".

When readers see such initial writings, sorry to say, they look at it with a rather critical eye. Let me get the harsh part out of the way first. We often look for "trolls" or people that are setting up a story looking for responses for unusual reasons. Let me ask you, Jake- you are about to get a degree in History, assumably that means you were headed towards teaching. Why is your syntax, punctuation and structure so cattywampus? If we can get past that, some folks might be able to offer constructive suggestions. So we'll assume that you are just what you say.

I will form my answer in a more general nature. In that you just put (assumably) four years of tuition down on a degree of questionable value unless you also have a teaching certificate (usually meaning yet another year), I would counsel that you embark on your next intended career path with a great deal more research and better planning.

GOOGLE the words Commercial Diving School . They have people on staff in a placement capacity that should be able to give you a fair picture of employment opportunities.

 

[Garrobo]

You actually are a good candidate for an "Ocuppy" position. Do you live in your parent's basement?

 

[Superlyte27]

GOOGLE the words Commercial Diving School . They have people on staff in a placement capacity that should be able to give you a fair picture of employment opportunities. -end quote


Are you on drugs? WOW! That's the worst advice on scubaboard i've ever read.
Go ahead and call them and let me know what they say.... I'm just going to guess they are going to say "commercial diving is the fastest growing industry on the planet and there are tons of jobs awaiting you".

Here's the truth. Comm Diving in the gulf has been the slowest it's ever been in 20 years. There are 10'ish schools in the US each pumping out 30 students every month, each month. 30 x 10 = 300 new students every month looking for a job in the US for an industry at it's peak only supported about 2500 divers. Qualified candidates at the top of their class are waiting more than a year, sometimes more than two years to get any job, let alone a decent job. You think the schools are going to tell you that? Hell no, because they want your 30k tuition.

If you're dumb enough to pursue this career path, go to the community college in Lousianna at 5k for tuition instead of a big named school at 30k.

But what do I know....

 

[VFV]

I am always fascinated to read about underwater archeology in the papers. I have no idea what careers this field holds, but a quick google search yielded a lot of information on the web page for The Society for Historical Archaeology-- The Society for Historical Archaeology Just a thought.

 

[Bombay High]

Hi Jake,
Think long and hard before you pursue this any further. Commercial diving is VERY different from surfing and scuba diving for fun.
It is an industrial job that happens to be underwater.
Being comfortable in cold water is not a pre requisite at all. Most of my work is in a hot water suit.
This may not be the correct forum to ask this question (Basic Scuba)

Regards
BH

 

[lisurfer49]

contrary to what some of you seem to think, i have done research. i apologize my grammar is not up to par for you guys but i am in the middle of writing multiple papers, one of which is a semester long term paper for the class in which it basically gives me the degree in history. basically all history classes leading up to this. 20 pages and 20+ books later, and still not finished, i could not give a **** of what my grammar is like on an online forum and hopefully those offended can get past that. as of right now i am not perusing teaching nor did i really have any intention. this does not mean i regret taking this as a major and this does not mean i made a mistake, which some of you do not seem to get. very understood that this is a very physical job, in fact all my jobs have been that way, except one. i have been working in landscaping for about 4 years now, have done the restaurant thing, worked on a few boats, bottle boy at local deli and have also done the office commute into the city thing. to be honest the working outside, sweating my ass off, physical labor has been much more appealing to me and leaves me feeling much better. this is one reason why i want to pursue commercial diving. i would much rather work with my hands doing work like this and like said before, if i can do it in a medium that i love (the ocean), i would be probably the happiest person alive. it is quite obvious it is nothing like surfing or recreational diving, that was just reference as to how much i enjoy the ocean and why i would be very happy if i could pursue a career involving it.

i would be much obliged if someone continued to answer my questions and thank you very much for those who did so in a mature manner. i am not a troll, i do not have the time to do so. if i was i would have thought of something much more clever then asking for advice on a SCUBA forum regarding pursuing a career in commercial diving. this is part of my research looking towards doing it

 

[lisurfer49]

I am always fascinated to read about underwater archeology in the papers. I have no idea what careers this field holds, but a quick google search yielded a lot of information on the web page for The Society for Historical Archaeology-- The Society for Historical Archaeology Just a thought.

this is cool man, i will look more into this. thank you

 

[lisurfer49]

Hi Jake,
Think long and hard before you pursue this any further. Commercial diving is VERY different from surfing and scuba diving for fun.
It is an industrial job that happens to be underwater.
Being comfortable in cold water is not a pre requisite at all. Most of my work is in a hot water suit.
This may not be the correct forum to ask this question (Basic Scuba)

Regards
BH

thank you, the plan is to finish my schooling here, which i am a semester away from doing so and take a year off in which to think this and other options over, so i am planning on giving it plenty of thought. this is part of my thought and research toward doing this. by looking for advice from people that have experience in this field or can provide advice. ill try to find a more appropriate place to place my question

 

[lisurfer49]

GOOGLE the words Commercial Diving School . They have people on staff in a placement capacity that should be able to give you a fair picture of employment opportunities. -end quote


Are you on drugs? WOW! That's the worst advice on scubaboard i've ever read.
Go ahead and call them and let me know what they say.... I'm just going to guess they are going to say "commercial diving is the fastest growing industry on the planet and there are tons of jobs awaiting you".

Here's the truth. Comm Diving in the gulf has been the slowest it's ever been in 20 years. There are 10'ish schools in the US each pumping out 30 students every month, each month. 30 x 10 = 300 new students every month looking for a job in the US for an industry at it's peak only supported about 2500 divers. Qualified candidates at the top of their class are waiting more than a year, sometimes more than two years to get any job, let alone a decent job. You think the schools are going to tell you that? Hell no, because they want your 30k tuition.

that has been the general consensus i have found while doing my research, that you are better off asking outside of the schools from personal experience before going to one of the schools with questions.

its a shame it is slow, this is why i am doing research before jumping into it. i appreciate the advice and heads up