Diving as a career.

[SamArkey]

Hey everyone!

So for quite sometime now I've wanted to have a career that involves the ocean. I volunteer at the state aquarium, I recently started scuba diving, and basically my life revolves around the ocean. I'm a junior in high school, and I still have no idea what I want to do once I get out of there:11: .

I just wanted to see what everyone else does for a living, maybe it will help me decide or maybe get me on the right track.Careers that involve diving are a definate plus. So everyone PLEASE can you share with me and everyone else what your career is ? Maybe explain it a little. I think it will help me ( and maybe anyone else) a lot.

Thanks

Sam

 

[DennisS]

There are opportunities in science, there are positions that require divers from Phd scientist to technicians. There are very few positons that involve just diving. Here's a link to MATE, it's a good site to look around and see what kind of jobs are out there. MATE - Marine Workforce Information
NOAA has shipboard jobs that are great entry jobs they let you travel the world and don't require anything more than a high school education, you can get a position as a shipboard diver after you've been there a year. It's great way to put away money in a short period of time. You live on the ship and all your meals are provided. There is a lot of opportunity but you spend a lot of time at sea. You might do one dive a month or be involved in projects that require a lot of diving. Diving is secondary to your job.
http://www.moc.noaa.gov/shipjobs/
They also have an officer corp that has all the benefits of a military officer, They usually work 2-3 yrs at sea and 4 on land. You can get on dive status but it's a seconday job. You have to dive once a month to stay current.
NOAA Corps
There's commercial diving that pays well and is very demanding, and recreational instruction that doesn't pay well. I'm not familiar with making a living doing either of these. I do have friends that are commercial divers. They make good money and spend most of their time at sea, or unemployed..

I worked as an oceanographic technician on NOAA ships and at the Miam lab, I spent about 210 to 250 days a year at sea when I was on the ship. NOAA has great benefits, if you work for the govt all your time counts to retirement no matter what government job you switch to during your career.

I currently work as a contract relief tech on an EPA ship. I don't dive, just fill tanks with nitrox and run the boats. The ship spends about 2 months in the Caribean and several trips a year out of Miami studying reefs. This is just the diving part of the job, most of the time involves CTDs, side scan sonar, towed cameras and sample grabs.
http://www.epa.gov/owow/osvbold/index.html
http://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/coral/index.html

Welcome to CFCC's Marine Technology Department here's a marine technology program near you, similar to the one I went through. I didn't see any diving though. I went through a program at Miami-Dade's marine tech course and had 4 semesters of diving.

Hope this helps

 

[Garrobo]

Get someone to loan you about a half million and open up a small dive shop. Good luck.

 

[pwl]

Get someone to loan you about a half million and open up a small dive shop. Good luck.

nono - i think she wants to be able to actually go diving herself

 

[SamArkey]

I actually wouldn't mind opening a dive shop, but I think that will have to wait until a make some money.lol

 

[Garrobo]

pwl:: You hire a manager and then go out on the boat with the clients.

 

[SFLDiver3445]

Hi Sam,

As you've probably heard and been told a thousand times, do something you love; however, that doesn't mean you should not be practical and not give yourself options for the future, in case your perspective changes down the road. I became a PADI dive instructor pretty early in life, but I quickly realized that it is not as glamorous as I expected, so I finished up in college, got my degree and entered the corporate world, but I never stopped diving, I just didn't do it for a living, and I can't even begin to tell you how much fun I've had throughout the enire process! You've even talked about openning up a dive shop, well, don't assume that you will be able to dive as often as you think, because you need to run the business and you cannot always do that from the boat - The dive shop needs to be manned on the weekends, which is when many of your customers will need your services, but that's also when you would like to be out there diving. But if that's what you potentially want to do, get a job in a dive shop, learn the ropes and plan for the future, because if that's what you really want to do, you can absolutely make it happen and nobody will stop you from making your dreams come true.

The bottom line is, make sure that what ever decision you make is in line with what your heart tells you to do, but be practical, in case you chose to go another direction. Most people have the opportunity to study early in life, but as they get older, other responsibilities make those options more difficult to pursue at that point. So if you have the opportunity to pursue an education early in life, do it, then do whatever you want after that, because you will always have the education to fall back on then if your perspective changes!

One other piece of advice, NEVER HAVE ANY REGRETS IN LIFE! Make your decisions and live with the consequences, but always look ahead. You can look back, but only to learn from your previous decisions, but never regret your past decisions, because it's a big waste of time to worry about the past!

Best of luck,

Adrian

 

[DepthJunkie]

One other piece of advice, NEVER HAVE ANY REGRETS IN LIFE! Make your decisions and live with the consequences, but always look ahead. You can look back, but only to learn from your previous decisions, but never regret your past decisions, because it's a big waste of time to worry about the past!

AMEN!

 

[Oriskany Divemaster]

Sam,

There's no money in diveshops. But there's money in diving.

ODM

 

[scubadobadoo]

I'll be totally negative (I apologize in advance) and warn you that if you truly love diving then consider doing it for fun only because after time, doing it because you have to WILL effect your attitude towards it. For example, I am an actor. I still love acting but I now have been doing it for a living for almost 15 years and that means doing commercials, soaps, infomercials, and other projects I HAVE to take to PAY MY BILLS as an actor. Oh, and try doing the same show for a year straight every night. Trust me, the "fun" and "glamor" wear thin after a while. Singing the lyrics to "Shipoopi" from The Music Man nightly starts to suck...really suck...after a few months, lol. All that said, I still wouldn't choose any other job BUT now when someone asks me what I love I don't say Acting because that's just a job. I now answer diving and I would never do it for a living. Money changes everything. JMHO's. YMMV.

Good luck and I do wish you well!