101 Questions..Salary, conditions, prospects etc etc

Hello, newbie here, be gentle.

If you had a £70k pa salary for working a Mon-Fri 8-4 in a FT salaried basis onshore getting home to the wife and kids every night, would you look at chucking all that in and starting afresh as a Trainee ROV pilot/tech? It may seem like a strange question, but £70k is at the top of my payscale and for the next 40yrs or so all I expect to get in future would be inflationary based pay awards. In other words, there’s no future career progression (Unless I went up the management corporate white collar route, but not something i’ll ever want to do)

£70k PAYE salary works out around £3,775pm take home after normal taxation and a 6% SS pension contribution from myself (£350) and a matched 6% from my employer (£350)

Okay, now that’s over, I know starting afresh as a trainee, my salary will literally be cut in half on a PAYE basis until I establish myself and rise up through the ranks, that’s fine, I’m prepared to do that for a better end goal and salary in the long run, so here’s a list of questions…..

1) I have been told the company have a 5/5 rotation and have vessels all over the world including Africa, none in the North Sea though. Is the employee given the choice to work in high risk areas such as Africa or is it expected of a trainee starting out to do as your told and go anywhere they wish to send you?

2) If a 5/5 rotation, say based in Singapore, is it truly 5 weeks on 5 weeks off or is the 2 days spent travelling there and the 2 days spent coming back from your 5wk off time? Also, is travelling time to these locations counted as offshore day rate or onshore day rate?

3) What are the conditions like on these big vessels, are they infested with rats, lice and bedbugs or are they new, well equipped vessels with single man rooms, en-suite, WIFI, gym, recreation areas, pool tables etc etc? In other words is it 2013 standards or 1980 standards?

4) What is the job like, how does the 12hr day pass, is it high intensity never get 5mins or is there a lot of breaks, tea breaks, waiting around etc?

5) How long before a trainee works his way up the ranks to Superintendent level? 4-5yrs for someone that’s switched on and not a clusterfuck?

6) From a PAYE salaried point of view, what are Pilot Techs earning, what are Supervisors/Superintendents earning?

Next set of questions goes to those that are self employed/LTD company and of course this is where the ROV industry is appealing with some day rates on offer £500-£800 per day and tax fiddling to keep a great whack of gross salary.

7) The guys that are working one contract to the next, do they find it hard to continue to find jobs month in month out, year in year out? 30 days at a £500 day rate will net £15000 Gross and then you take a month off to recuperate at home and that £15000 Gross is effectively for 2 months so (£7.5k per month). Is it easy enough to continue to find contracts?

8 ) Take the above as an example, how much of this £15k gross could you expect to keep after LTD company taxes and whatever you need to pay, insurance, accountant etc are taken off?

9) Are the LTD company guys routinely getting 182 days every year at £500+ per day rates

10) Am i mad for considering a career move to earn extra pennies or is it a brave bold ambitious move in order to earn more money in the long run?
With a £70k gross income at the moment I am effectively seeing 12 x £3,775 + 12 x £700 in pension so a package of £53.700/£70,000 (76.7% of salary)

Okay, not really 101 questions, but still, some questions that have been going through my mind. I really need some advice on this guys, throwing away a £70k salary to start out in this industry in the hope that I’ll be earning a 6 figure salary within the next 5yrs, what would you do, is it an industry to get into when I already have a highly paid secure onshore role?

Perhaps getting home every night, being home for Birthdays, Christmases, weddings, parties, kids starting school etc is more important than earning more money, I don’t know.

Thanks for listening.