Newbie away to book course as UWC FW, come chat

Hi FS,

I dont think the guys posting are trying to prevent new guys entering the industry and many of the guys offshore with experience started at training schools.

The thing that I and others are trying to warn of is that the courses are expensive, and wont help at all if you do not meet the IMCA entry=level criteria for ROV Personnel. Go to the IMCA website (www.imca-int.com) and read the carreers "I want to be an ROV pilot" for more info. If you do, its a different story. Many posting go to great lengths to affer advice to those who do meet the standards and who are self-sponsored starters.

I have met a lot of people, out of pocket for a lot of money, no relevant background, who on hearing you are an ROV guy, tell you their story. I have also sat at project planning meetings and offshore having to screen applicant CV’s and again, as said elsewhere in this site, the guys without relevant technical backgrounds dont get considered. I will say that again, the guys without relevant technical backgrounds dont get considered. The risk is tooo great. From experience, no matter how keen adn hard working, what you need on a team is a tech of sorts. Mechs will ususally land up on Workclass systems, electric/electronic on eyeballs and many in-between.

If you are lucky, you may become a bum on a seat, or like some guys I have met offshore, volunteer to work for free (a certain Middle East company is good for this) to get experience. Once the guy has done 3-5 trips and clocked up 100-150 hours flying on more common vehicle types (seaeye usually) then he is usually accepted on the books of agencies and then is over the fence.

However, although no figures are available on this, training schools are churning out bodies with "IMCA" Pilot/Tech II certs (just check the waiting list and lead time to do a course) and these guys are then, in turn, flooding each and every ROV company with emails and attachments, knocking on doors (etc) but thats where the dream ends for most of them. A month ago I was in the office for a project briefing. I asked the HR and project managers what the application rate was of new guys. They showed me their email in-boxes and postal in-trays. Over a week, there must have been 14-21 emails in (most of them were wthout tech backgrounds) and each had to be emailed out of courtesy to say sorry. The mailed stuff was harder to deal with and I dont know if the office wrote back. I think, where possible, the applicants were emailed to say sorry. The few with some experience or a good technical background were put in a seperate folder/mail box and told that they were "on file" but not to consider this as being on standby for imminent employment.

Good luck, what is posted here and elsewhere is the reality. You make the call as it is your money/future at stake. I trully hope it works out, but it does appear that the reality is rather diffirent.

I attended a two week ROV Competency course last month and amazingly enough passed the ROV tech 2 qualification which means F##K all.
I do have the "relevant" background (Electronic bias Field service engineer 5 years and Engineering Technician Electrical and pneumatic bias 2 years) and the qualifications HND Engineering Electronics. I have sent off countless CVs and online applications and had two responses to say no thanks.

That is all no interest whatsoever.

In my opinion for what its worth unless you know somebody who can give you a start you are wasting your time and money.

I really hope you havent booked the course yet Finding_Stu.

Im with Lostboy on his views on Training Schools, its not worth it mate.

Yes the course is alot of money and yes its better having a degree in electronics,but for some off us that dont have experiance this is a good way to get it, the guy paying for the course always works harder than someone getting it paid for,
i may not have experiance but i have common sense,and a good work ethic,and as i dont have the experiance or a dad thats high up im going to work that much harder,

Its near vital to have something on paper before you even think about stepping into the ROV world. I didnt and if it wasnt for the people I know I’d still be jobless and one step away from busking. Just to give you an idea of how bad it got, I had to sell my much loved jeep and I went into my 4 figure overdraft quite a bit. The feeling of panic, that sickly feeling in your gut when all the emails are ‘sorry we’re not recruiting’ or ‘we’ll keep you on file’ aint that great.

to the people who are put off by the "boo boys" then i suggest you reconsider if your that weak,

to those who feel the underwater centre "and others" are miss leading and feel let down now you have read through this site then i suggest you you reconsider if your that stupid

Im not one to knock at grammar and spelling (being Scottish myself) but put some effort into the basics. Im probably what you would consider a boo boy and ive got good reason. Im not to sure what you’re trying to say with thoes lines but theres alot more of my kind (the boo’ers) than yours.

right now i have no chance getting a trainee ROV job,with the course i have a chance to get a foot in the door and earn enough money to make the course worth the investment

To be honest mate, its alot of money for a few shiney bits of paper. The courses do very little in preparing you for life offshore. I came away feeling pretty good about myself ROV wise. Sadly the first day in the workshop, I was met by a brand new Innovator and I knew I was in way over my head. Luckily I can make a good cup of tea 😉

My advice would be goto college and get a HNC in something relevant. Its also a big, big help if you know someone in the game. I’ve been really lucky and I know theres alot of guys out there who havent. Only 5 out of the 8 guys from my UWC have secured work and we finished at the end of May.

Conclusion: Rov course’s do not guarentee a job at the end of the day.

Hey Stu,

I agree with Buffel, you could try and prove something and go ahead and do it and I really hope it works out for you.

However, the fact that companies wrote back saying no thanks and you had no reply from others as well as the well-intentioned comments you have read both on this post and others in the site should tell you something.

If you do go ahead and do it, I suggest you keep your day-job and do the taining during a leave /vacation period. I did it this way and as a result, was earning money for the 4-month period it took for me to get work after my course.

Instead of trying to argue the toss about this, put some time into determining when companies generally do recruitment drives. It is going into the off-season time in some regions and as a result, most companies will not hire new people, but rather rely on free-lancers or agency personnel who have experience to cover seats on projects that may be running, or will be putting salaried staff out where possible to keep them busy and from leaving. This may give you a better idea of when to approach companies with a reasonable chance of success.

Good luck

its what i want to do and the course is a better option than uni or working up from a roustie, which would take longer and therefore could be a worse option.

It would take longer Stu, but you would be better prepared for the industry than to rush in.
It’s great to be keen, but appears that a majority of newcomers want to get there quick, rather than working their way up or experiencing a trade.

I started of as T-Boy well over a decade ago and worked my way upwards to Chief T-Boy and it worked for me. I had an electronics apprenticeship behind me and another six years of Admiralty (MoD)experience. I think most of the guys that have been doing this job long term have ‘bottom crawled’ for some time in their career.

The boards are not biased…if you read into the posts carefully, most people are just sharing the harships and wisdom of progression and preparing you for an offshore life before you go and give your money away.
Think on.

Hi Stu
You can get out with me any time, but i don’t think you will last 1 trip with that attitude, also not sure my Boss will hire a guy with no background at all, not sure what you think they can learn you about electronic and hydraulic in a few weeks on that ROV course, flying is the easy part, you also have to keep the beast alive, not much time to teach you if sub is in water all the time, BTW with me, you fix it first then you fly, hope this will help you to get down to earth again.

PS as Buffel say: You have not got a clue.

Hey Beagle

What are the rates like in seismic these days? Have you any idea what a Senior Observer is on (if they still call them that).