LEAVING RAF SOON BOOKED ROV COURSE ANY FURTHER INFO PLS

[JOCKY]

I AM CURRENTLY LEAVING THE RAF IN MAY AND HAVE MY ROV COURSE AT UNDERWATER CENTRE IN MARCH I HAVE BEEN IN FOR SIX YEARS AS AN ELECTRONICS ENGINEER AND WAS WONDERING IF POSSIBLE HAS ANYBODY OUT THERE GOT ANY INFORMATION REGARDING MY NEW CAREER CHALLENGE PLEASE ANY HELPFULL ADVICE WOULD BE MOST APPRECIATED

CHEERS JOCKY

[Che]

Learn not to use Caps Lock!

sorry mate , ive been whisky free since 20th November, the rep is pissing me off, and Ive lost power to my starboard vert, I’m crabbit.

Nah, probs for you comming from an electronics backround getting used to being covered in Hydraulic oil will be the biggy, IME most electronic repairs are card out card in, though not always, some spreads are sorted with oscilliscopes and a million resistors (believe me I had to count them all before now!)

As regards the course, make the most of your flying time, its a nice new Falcon the use and the dive site is interesting ( I helped out there a while back, baby sitting the students while they do their flying)

But get your CV out there, you will be looking to get taken on as a trainee with one of the ROV companies, so a trip to Aberdeen and knocking on doors is a good idea.

It may take some time, but keep at it .

Best of luck.

[J Deans]

Should you not have got information about your new "career" BEFORE deciding to train to become an ROV Pilot??

And, yes – learn not to type in Caps.

And use paragraphs 😀

[temp]

JOCKY

There are several threads and replies on this website dealing with training courses and advice for people trying to get into the ROV industry. It’s a pity people often don’t seem to take the time to read through them, maybe the links could be better. Same old questions every few weeks.

As already mentioned, it may have been better to ask questions on here and elsewhere before booking onto a course. The consensus amongst offshore guys generally seems to be don’t bother with the course, because if you have a good trade background training and practical engineering experience then this should be enough.

The induction course may possibly help in getting work, and will give you at least some idea of what is involved, but it is mainly your trade background and attitude that will be the deciding factors. The course is just a basic introduction really. Companies will usually put trainees through their own ‘training programme’ anyway. The course may possibly lead to useful contacts or introduction from the instructors, to get your CV at least looked at – I don’t know?

If you do not get work in ROV, the money for the course is more or less wasted, and you could have spent it on more marketable training that would be useable in a variety of potential new jobs.

If your trade was purely as an electronics tech, then you will have to get to grips with the electrical power side of things – many electronics guys (especially avionics) from the RAF will usually not have worked much on heavy electrical stuff, although some other forces do cross-train more between trade boundaries.

You will also need to learn (at least the basics at first) about hydraulics – if not worked on this already, plus have some mechanical aptitude.
If the winch needs fixing then everyone has to pitch in and roll their sleeves up and get greasy – no matter that you may be an electronics tech. You will not be expected to be an expert, but it may be a bit of a shock to the system if used to just the electronics side of things.

You will need to get across on CV/interview that you can already do this, or have ability to adapt from what may be narrow trade demarcation boundaries to muti-disciplined engineering skills, as well as picking up seamanship and piloting skills etc.

Most work is based working off ships, so you need to know whether you will like life on the ocean wave, difficult if never been to sea apart from the cross-channel ferry!

The piloting side is something that everyone has to learn, only comes with experience – at least the course will give you a little bit of an idea.

Main thing though is attitude. You should already be used to teamwork in difficult conditions, but sometimes ex-forces guys can find it hard to move down into a trainee role after maybe having been in charge of several techs in their previous job (presumeably you have reached at least JNCO if done 6 yrs?). It’s not what you have done in the past that counts, more what you can actually do now, and ability to learn new skills quickly, not thinking you are gods gift to the ROV industry.

Good luck anyway.

By the way, how much is the resettlement package offered nowadays for training courses, time off allowed etc? Is it true that guys are PVR’ing from the RAF in large numbers?

temp

[JOCKY]

By the way, how much is the resettlement package offered nowadays for training courses, time off allowed etc? Is it true that guys are PVR’ing from the RAF in large numbers?

temp

Hi

Im new to using this rovworld sorry if i have got this wrong.

The resetlement is 500 pounds with 20 days paid training leave. You can use your enhanced learning credits which can be of value of up to a grand a year.

There is a lot of PVRing at the moment because the government is reducing our numbers and a lot of the techie jobs are getting taken over by civilian personal to save costs.

Thanks for the response to my question

Cheers Jocky 😀

[James McLauchlan]

Hi Jocky

Good news on the CAPS LOCK thing. Much easier on the eye. 🙂

Temp is quite correct in that it pays to read through the Forum before asking. Someone that starts with I have read and searched through ROVworld but would like further info on ………… will always get a better response to help fill in the gaps.

I would add use the search facility too. I often use it myself in Forums when hunting down links for people that have asked questions.

Check the FAQ’s HERE there is stuff in there that gives you pointers on CV preparation and other useful tips.

What would also be of use would be for you to add anything you learn in the process into the Rookie section for others to read when they are trying to get into the game.

[temp]

Jocky

£500 doesn’t sound much, with any sort of technical training nowadays costing about £150 to 200 upwards per day, certainly won’t go far towards paying for your 3 week ROV course (about £4k ish?), even with the additional £1k training allowance if you can get it.

Shockingly, it used to actually be more over 14yrs ago when I left, plus you could also claim top whack for accomodation (rate 1’s) but actually stay in cheap B&B etc and pocket the difference. You also got 28 days terminal leave, plus 28 resettlement leave, plus any annual leave left over – I ended up working offshore for 3 months before my demob date whilst still getting RAF pay, and got survival and other courses etc paid by the taxpayer too.

Mind you, I think then if you PVR’d rather than left after doing your full time, people were not entitled to any resettlement allowances at that time.
I guess you must be PVR’ing? as it used to be 9yrs minimum service for Electronics Techs, unless that has reduced to 6yrs now? or maybe you are lucky enough to be getting paid redundancy money to leave if they are civilianising everything? (RAF is down from 120,000 people when I left to 40,000 or so now).

Anyway, if you are still determined to do the course, well best of luck, although you may be better spending the money on training that has a wider appeal to potential employers, as there is no guarantee it will achieve your aim, and it is obviously very specific to ROV. If it does actually tip the balance and help get you a start, then yes it should repay itself fairly quickly, but a bit of a gamble.

If you don’t get work in ROV at first, keep trying. You can always try for other techie jobs working offshore (e.g. survey tech, comms/telecoms, instrumentation, mwd, etc), or onshore based in e.g. Aberdeen with one of the many support companies. Check out ‘Press & Journal’ / ‘This is North Scotland’ websites for oil sector jobs, plus various Aberdeen recruitment agencies.

May be easier to move sideways into ROV at a later opportunity if already working in the offshore sector. Things are buoyant just now, plenty of work about, not enough people. It is very cyclical though with slump years etc.

Plenty of recruitment websites around specialising in ex-forces, and you are entitled to free services of RFEA/CTP (they have an office in Aberdeen as well as many other places, many contacts in various industries – can use them for rest of your working life, they often have jobs before advertised elswhere).

Get advice (free resettlement seminars etc) on how to put your cv into civilian company language, interview techniques etc.
Things are much better for jobsearching nowadays with internet etc – wish there had been such a thing as websites like this when I left the mob.

good luck, let us know how you got on
temp

[Che]

There is always the option of doing Fibreoptic cable jointing/Rov pilot tech route , i think GLOBALMARINESYSTEMS are still hiring. Google them for their website plus i think SUBSERVE PRO were hiring for them.
10 week trips mind but its time on time off, not a great deal of rov "flying" but plenty chugging along a cable in ROV follow mode! (yawn)
Personally i found the fibre lointing side of it toooo boring. but horses for courses and all that.

[Author]

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