[Alberto]

Hello All,

I've just done my basic commercial training (to offshore, open bell level, over in PDC in South Africa, also DMT and MIST/BOSIET) and am looking to the next step. I'm in the same boat as a lot of recently qualified guys of relentlessly applying for positions in the hopes that eventually something will turn up, but looking over the forums it seems there are quite a few of us. To give myself a leg up I am considering doing my 3.1U inspection course, which is quite an investment having just shelled out for the initial courses. My justification was that whilst I was looking for work (which I understand can take months) it would be good to be productive with the spare time, which is partly why I did the MIST/BOSIET now. The 3.1U is a course that looks awesome, seems like it would make me more employable and would also keep my eye in using the helmet etc. It all became second nature during the course, which finished about a month and a half ago, and I'm desperate to not become too out of practice.

Anyway, turns out the course is fully booked until summer in the UK, and for the next few months in Thailand and hopefully by then I'll have work of some sort. So, my question is this; how do I go about planning time off within the industry?
More specifically, how do companies generally feel about employing a diver who they know needs time off for a course. Eg. if I book the course in June, then I am lucky and get offered a contract for a few months between May and July then is it generally possible to mention this before starting? Or am I better not mentioning it and rebooking the course for a later date and losing the deposit? I'd hate to put companies off employing me, but its a course I will want to do at some point sooner or later.

The other option would be to book a space on the course for asap and go back to other (non-diving) work until I've completed it, then send the CVs out again, but for obvious reasons I'd like to get stuck into the industry as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[diverstu]

You kinda need to work this one out yourself, dude.
My first observation would be to relax about trying to decide what to do if you had to choose work over 3.1u. You should probably be using all the worrying time focusing on whether you get this work or not. For someone totally fresh to the industry, getting any kind of paid work (and therefore experience) is everything. Even in a busy time, many 'commercial divers' never actually get a paid job, and end back at their own job in a pile of debt. So look for work. Hard. Don't expect to be doing Hero Diving off a brand new DSV straight out of the trap (although, of course, this could happen). It's totally OK to start off checking moorings on fish farms, or airlifting silt from dock gates. This is what is called 'gaining experience', and it's never time wasted. Working on a shit pier construction job, or whatever, will get you working with guys you can maybe learn from, hear how stuff really works in the world of diving, and get you a little bit of cash, so you can live, and maybe even pay a bit of your debt off.
As for the 3.1u, well, as you probably know, many guys finish their course and go straight onto an inspection course without even getting paid to go into the water. This is because, to a certain extent, diving is now very much about collecting tickets. Not too long ago, a diver had to produce evidence of experience to even enrol on a 3.1u course (I kinda think this makes sense, as, however unlikely it is, theres always the possibility that you could end up doing your first paid dive telling somebody whether their multi-million pound toy is safe, or not)
So, personally, I think that getting some experience (and finding out if you might have a future diving, or not) is a good thing, especially when you are talking about tickets with a short shelf-life, such as inspection, or offshore survival, etc. why get even more into debt to get a ticket that could easily 'run out' before you ever use it?
Aaaand......on the other hand, yes, if you get a 3.1u, you might have more chance of getting a job, along with a 3.2, DMT, ACFM,Rigging,Boatman course......
So it's really down to you- how many tickets are you willing to pay for, in order to get a job, to see if you can cope with working with idiots on a rat infested barge, catching fish to eat, or starving as the stores weren't sent out due to bouncing cheques, purely to get experience to get better work....nobody can tell you how far you are willing to go except yourself.
(Short answer from me- go get a few days work and see whether you think the guys working with you are 'a laugh' or, ' a shower of unsafe, immature cunts' and take it from there)

 

[Sandman]

Personally I'd take any work you can get straight out of school, you'll learn more working than the school can teach you and you'll be picking up contacts along the way.

I did my DMT a few years ago and met a lad on it who had all the tickets going and had never done a days work since he left school. Everyone was telling him to go out and get some experience and some cash coming in but he was waiting for the call to go straight offshore, he's probably still waiting.

 

[diverstu]

Unfortunately, though, he might have actually got offshore. And probably fucked it all up by not having any experience behind him, and didn't get asked back...

 

[Evolvediving]

The certs don't get you very far nowadays mate, am also a topside welder to trade last job I was on there was a lad with a phone book worth of welding codings but when we started the job he couldn't burn his fingers. 1 shift and they sussed him. Diving is exactly the same.