Starting a commerical diving career

[Pajjpen]

Hey! I live in Sweden at the moment and really want to make a career in the commerical diving industry (or any other diving industry that pays well for that matter)
Ive been thinking of going to a commercial diving school in Australia as i that is the place i want to work in but I cant find any good schools (found 2 but they wont reply my emails) so that is out of the question.
After this ive been looking into schools in the us and all over the world, altho only english speaking countrys for the obvious reason. When im done with the course I would have to move back to Sweden, unless i find something right away which is highly unlikely, and I've read that the first job is really hard to find and you basically take whatever smal job you can find just to get the experience, and living in sweden I dont think there would be much work nearby, meaning id have to travel quite far just to do very small jobs in other countrys etc, which would be very costly. How have u other guys managed living in countrys that doesnt really offer much work?

Best regards!

 

[Heliumthief]

Probably 60-70% of European Commercial Divers live and work in different countries, if they choose to. For most, the work is in the Middle East, Far East, West Africa or the North sea if Offshore, and for Inshore, the 'open borders' policy on the EU means the only barrier to working in most of Europe is pay-rates.
As for training, for anyone intending to work worldwide, you would be looking for an IMCA-accepted ticket, which will let you work in most countries without too much problems. This boils down to the two UK schools (The Underwater Centre, and the Professional Diving Academy, in Fort William and Dunoon respectively), INPP in Marseille, PDC in South Africa, The Underwater Centre in Tasmania, or the NYD in Fagerstrand, Norway. The overwhelming majority of Divers you will work with in your career will have trained at one of these schools.

Australia is not an easy place to get work for someone from overseas- much of the work is reserved for Aussies, although you may get lucky if you can get a work visa (similar to the USA). There is Inshore and windfarm work throughout the Baltic just now, and the outlook for diving work worldwide is pretty good, but like you say, getting a job with no experience is hard, and there's no 'secret shortcut' to getting work, apart from being more motivated than all the other new divers, and even then, there might not be any work for you......

best advice would be go for the Norwegian school, as it costs considerably less than the others, and the training is as in-depth as you can get, then work hard, send c.v.'s out everywhere, phone companies, look for one or two day jobs near you, never turn down work, and always be responsible and motivated. If you can pick up a few offshore trips in the Middle East, go for it, as, although the rates will probably be poor, you will be diving in many situations that you just wouldn't be able to in other regions.

...and always have a get-out plan, in case you don't get any work...

---------- Post added August 21st, 2014 at 10:35 PM ----------

As a start, you could contact these guys, and quiz them about the amount of work, employment chances, etc.

eriksson diving subsea contractor underwater inspection operated vehicle diving commercial sonar services towing coastal

YDAB - Yrkesdykarna i Norrköping AB. Professional, Commercial diving on the east coast of Sweden

NDE Offshore

there are probably dozens of small diving companies from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Northern Germany etc who work locally on harbour repairs, mooring work, aquaculture, power station work etc- these smaller companies (what the US call 'mom'n'pop' outfits) will be a little harder to find on the net, but as you are swedish, you might be able to find out more of them, web serches in swedish only maybe, or check out the local version of yellow pages...

ask them your questions, maybe even try to go along to a worksite they have, if they'll let you and see what's what. I have heard of a swedish company that took on a trainee diver, courses paid for in return for a certain amount of time under contract to them....

 

[Mackenshaw]

About aquaculture. Do you know if there is much aquaculture requiring divers in France?

 

[Heliumthief]

I don’t think so…certainly not one of the ‘famous’ aquaculture countries. I’d guess some caged fin-fish in the Med, and some shellfish on the wet and north coast