Commercial Diving!@#$%^&*()

[BanditDJB]

I want to switch careers. I hate my job. I would like to get into commercial diving and i've been looking for places that train you to do this. I tell you the price is not bad. I can afford to go to any dive school I want, But the problem is that I would have to basically quit my job, move into some hotel, and leave my family for up to seven months. I cannot find any trainning program that wouldn't require some unrealistic crazy antics such as these. Yes, I know that sacrifices have to be made when you go into a career change but I do have a family to support in the meantime. I live in southern louisiana and this looks impossible! Although giving up is not in my genes.

 

[maged_mmh]

plan B??

 

[String]

Unless you already have a vocation like welder, construction etc then commercial diving training isnt going to be that useful anyway.

 

[muddiver]

Check out Young Memorial Technical College in Morgan City, LA. Louisiana Technical College, Young Memorial Campus - Commercial Dive School

It's the least expensive and shortest program available. It's just over an hour drive from New Orleans and most people I know drive that far/long to go to work every day. It is also located in the middle of the offshore commercial diving industry so it will be easy to get a job when you get your cert.


Give up your job? Well you are going to have to make some choices. Unless you can find work after class or between classes, quitting your day job is the only way your going to get a commercial diver certification. Your other choices are move to an area that has a strong union labor base (i.e. New York or Los Angeles) and get in the Pile Drivers union or join the military and get into either the Navy diver program or Army diver program.

If leaving your family for long periods of time is also an issue. You might as well forget working as a commercial diver. There are a few small shore based companies you could work for that will not send you offshore for weeks or months on end. The ones around here like that don't pay very well, unless you have a really good reputation in the industry and they are paying union scale.

Aslo, you need to move fast because in eight more years you will be considered too old to work offshore as a diver. It will take two or more years working as a tender (apprentice diver) before you even do any diving for an offshore company. Inland companies will dip you right away, but you will still get paid less than the seasoned divers.

You are in Louisiana! Pick up the phone book and look for a commercial diving company and drive down to their office and see if they will hire you as an apprentice or yard hand. Many a diver in the past got started that way. Don't sit on you a** and think that there is some easy way to get into the industry. Do some planning and figure out what you need to get the job.

 

[vicdiver656]

I want to switch careers. I hate my job. I would like to get into commercial diving and i've been looking for places that train you to do this. I tell you the price is not bad. I can afford to go to any dive school I want, But the problem is that I would have to basically quit my job, move into some hotel, and leave my family for up to seven months. I cannot find any trainning program that wouldn't require some unrealistic crazy antics such as these. Yes, I know that sacrifices have to be made when you go into a career change but I do have a family to support in the meantime. I live in southern louisiana and this looks impossible! Although giving up is not in my genes.

Dude, I hate to dampen your enthusiasm, but what about your family? You gotta think about whether they can survive without you in the first place. Why not try working at a dive shop for a while? (presuming you're certified) Then, if you still want to move up, go to a dive academy. BUT DON'T LEAVE YOUR FAMILY!!!

 

[crpntr133]

Now you know several of the reasons that I didn't go for my commercial certs. If I was 18 fresh out of high school I would do it, not now.

 

[captain]

Do a search. There were a couple of other threads on this subject in the last month.

 

[Gary D.]

I was offered a commercial diving job with Standard Oil in 1970. A couple of things kept me from going to work for them. #1, to make better money than the Navy paid me I would have to be ready to move to any location around the world at the drop of a hat. #2, I’d be away from home more than I was in the Navy. #3, Safety standards the Navy had in place were much better than those in the civilian world. #4, In the Navy you could refuse to dive with no questions asked. Refuse in the commercial world and you were paying for your own trip home, unemployed.

Think hard about it. Besides, diving is only a method of getting to work and not your job. Then there is the gear issue. You may have to purchase your own which makes school look inexpensive.

Gary D.

 

[captain]

Then there is the gear issue. You may have to purchase your own which makes school look inexpensive.

Gary D.

Like $6800 for a Kirby Morgan Superlite 17 helmet with out the umbilical and com gear.

 

[DeepSeaDan]

Unless you already have a vocation like welder, construction etc then commercial diving training isnt going to be that useful anyway.

...Nonsense.

Mechanical aptitude or a trade is a big plus, but you can learn on the job, it just may take you longer to break out as a diver ( "Tendering" - a form of apprenticeship, comes first ).

Note to Mods.:

{ I think you need a sub-category to address the frequent requests for info. on this subject. I'll help write a sticky for it. There is too much well-meant, but inacurate info. being put out...}.

DSD