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I am married at 26 with a 2 year old and another child on the way. I am looking at commercial diving as a career and like what I'm hearing about it, except for the family life situation.

Please help me get a better idea of what to expect. My understanding is that it could be anything from onshore day to day jobs where you are back most nights, to being gone 6 months at a time offshore. I don't think I could be gone much more then 1 month at a time, and would like at least a weak with my family before heading back. If I have to be gone longer at the beginning of my career until I am established, I could do that.

Does this seem reasonable for this type of career? Would the types of jobs that I would be able to get with this kind of time frame requirement allow me to provide for my family or is the pay typically much lower then those that require more time away from the family?

Thanks in advance for any input
 
I'm afraid that you will be spending a lot of time as a lowly paid tender before you can advance to being a working diver. If you are happy diving 20' to attach a line to a dropped 200HP engine right off the dock, have at it, but the big bucks saturation jobs aren't something that you are going to able to break into anytime in the next few years.
Starting out, I would not want to be selfemployed since you will start cutting corners, saving money by living dangerously.

Michael

BTW Visibility really isn't good when you have to clean stopped inlets in the city's septic system retaining ponds, and being steamcleaned everytime you climb out of the water on a hot day isn't much fun either
 
I’ve only ever worked Europe, Middle East and once in the Caribbean so I would think specifics would be different to you, but I’ve been a commercial diver for 27 years so far, and I’d hope I have some insight to the industry by now...

if you’re near a few ports and have a good skill set and attitude, you could probably eke a living out of inshore jobs and call outs but the money wouldn’t be fabulous...

...but if you want to go offshore, you need to let go of any idea of self-determination if you want to progress your career....to begin with, as a lowly tender, you need to get used to the idea that no one will remember or care what your name is..you will do what you’re told, when your told to, and do all the jobs that literally no one else wants to do and if you don’t want, or can’t do any or everything asked of you, there are literally dozens of guys like you waiting on work- so I guess you can see what walking into the managers office and telling him what your work rota needs to be will get you...

Hell, even now after 27 years, I can turn down a job with a fairly good chance of being offered more at a later date, but calling up the Superintendant from sat and asking to be decompressed as I have a holiday booked would be a one-way chopper trip...

You hear a lot about diving and home life not mixing, and it’s pretty true, but if you are flexible, you can have a home life too, you just have to accept that until the lottery numbers come up, then diving for money (for your family) usually comes first. And let’s face it, our grandfathers wouldn’t have given it a second thought- my grandad used to be a whaler, and could be away from home for 3 years in Antarctica leaving my Gran to look after home because it was his job, and it paid better than anything else he could do....
 
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