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A little advice for a new diver (UK)
I am a newly qualified commercial diver living in England, i have recently completed my HSE surface supplied, HSE SCUBA and HSE surface supplied wet bell top up, as well as first aid and Kirby morgan user/operator certificate. I was wandering if anyone could help me with some advice. I want to get my B.O.S.I.E.T and 3.1 inspection tickets to help my chances of getting regular work. However until then i need to be earning, as well as getting on job experience under my belt, obviously i didnt expect to fall into a job (i have some money set aside), but its now been 3 weeks of solid CV sending and phone calls to everything from small civils companies to large inshore&offshore companies, and the best i have had back is 'we will keep your info on file and let you know if anything suitable come available'.
I would appreciate any advice that will help me find work in these first few months.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Martin Morris on
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This worked for me. The dive company I decided I wanted to work for was here in Texas. Schaefer Diving. I asked ops manager for office I wanted to work for if there was job ongoing in area I could watch for educational purposes. Had ship repair job at local docks ongoing. I showed up in work clothes and PPE's and went to work. The guys on job thought I was an employee. I busted ass that day for over 16 hrs for free. Showed up next day ready to work and told supervisor I was not employee but had applied. He called the office and told them to put me on payroll and sent one slacker home.
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Permalink Reply by Fred C. Johnson on
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Martin was right on the mark.
With my outfit the CVs were stacked up in a basket.
The guys who showed up wanting a job and ready for work were the guys that I hired.
Showing up on a regular basis tells me you are committed , and that's the hands I hired.
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Permalink Reply by stuart anderson on
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Yeah....might not be a good idea to try working for free in the UK- that's a sure way of getting a punch in the face and a seriously s*** reputation....for years we had a problem with cowboy contractors using new divers who would work for free just to get a few logged dives, meaning they weren't working divers, so they didn't need to adhere to regs, get insurance etc. took a long time to get rid of these arseh***s, and we don't want those days back....
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Permalink Reply by Forde-michaelFrost on
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Hi, appreciate the advice Stuart. And yes i did think that turning up and working for free would have some sort of health & safety/ insurance implications, Although i have no problem working for little money in order to get some working logged dives under my belt. Do you have any advice on getting legitimate work or is it just CV's and phone calls until i catch a break.
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Permalink Reply by A.. Parnell on
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Yea I have some advise for you. Don't ever show up saying you'll work for free or little money. What you want to become a whore or a professional diver? The only reason your even considered is because some contractor needs to get something done. You didn't hear that dive school duck its prices when you walked thru the door did you?
If your qualified get paid as a professional Diver for filling that opening and need not some pansy nervous nelli or nedd. You paid what $20,000 to $30,000 to become a commercial diver and you want to work for Free or less- I'll let you decide if you really want to be the Professional Diver or not. Once you bend over they never want to let you stand up again. Ace Parnell
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Good advice, and i have no intention of working for free, i have a loan to pay off. Im just looking for a way to get my foot in the door that doesn't involve sitting at a computer or by a phone waiting for a break. Im not the type that can sit round and wait, i have to be doing something, i almost booked my dmt for next week just so i wasnt sitting around. I am going to be a diver, nothing is going to stop that, just want to be working asap.
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I don't mean for anybody to work for free. The 1 day I did it without authorization would have been a big mess if I had been hurt. I took a risk and it payed off that time.
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Cv's and phone calls, dude.
Target as many companies as you can, email your cv, then follow up with a call, asking if they'd got the cv, if they have any work coming up, if they would employ you in principle from the info on your cv, etc. always ask when to call again, when they say 'nothing at the moment' and keep them to it. Diving is all about connections, and if you are polite, and ask questions then you might get remembered when they need someone at the last minute.
Use the Internet, search for news of companies being awarded contracts, etc and follow up all the leads.
If there's any companies close to you, go along and have a chat- be honest about what you want, and ask for advice, pump everyone you meet for information- you will always get a few with attitude who don't want to talk to you, but most decent divers like nothing better Thant to regale a new start with their tales of diving. Make yourself available for last minute callouts and guys dropping out, never turn work down, and try to become the reliable 'go-to' guy for them. Forget about being a Sat diver with SS7- the way to get there is knowledge and respect of and for the job, and a good reputation. Keep these going, and work hard, and you'll go as far as you can go.
As for other work further away, never turn down a couple of days work, even if it's in Stornaway- you might find there's a few weeks work- they just want to see you're not a c*** first...
Some guys years ago used to fly out to the Middle East or Singapore and stay in flop houses looking for work, but this doesn't work well anymore, and you might well find that guys resent you, as this situation used to make it harder for experienced guys to get flights out paid for..
Wind farms have still got work, I don't know much about the industry, but there are some good companies such as HSSE and RED7 involved, and some Danish, Swedish and German companies with various safety reputations around, but there's more tickets to get for these jobs. By all means look around Europe for inshore work- I've heard of new guys getting on work in lakes in the Alps, etc, but many countries have dubious safety practices, and pay scales. Off the top of my head, Scandinavia, Germany, France...the Baltic and North sea countries basically are an option, but you have to get a****sed by the Dutch to get work there (look for NDC certificates on Google)
You'll learn quickly not to run yourself down, and say you're happy taking less money, as you are new to this- the companies knew this anyway, and generally pay everyone less than they should or could anyway. The only thing you do by putting out how you know that you will get poor pay to start off is get even less money than you would have.
If you have any kind of attitude other than 'I'm all right, jack' then think about joining a Union- AMPS/Unite for inshore, RMT a for offshore, generally. There are a lot of pro's and very few cons, unlike the companies who won't pay until you get the union onto them.....
An hour on the Internet looking for diving company information is never an hour wasted, and a DMT is always a good thing to have. Wait till you have some experience before a 3.1 or 3.2, though, and an OPITO Slinger/banksman or Rigging ticket is never bad to have....
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