New to ROV

[centurion]

Now you’re telling me something I can believe 😀

[Balloo]

Postie and general dogsbody

[TheBaron]

When I was demobbing from the SAS Green Ranger Berets, they warned me never to even remotely mention my former specialist operations, or even the fact that I was a former member of the SAAGRB(nick-named ‘zagreb’). I have kept shtum about it so well that even my current employer; MI5: don’t even know about it! 😯 I’ve been told that I will have to do a few years in the French Foreign Legion to become a diver, but I’m too weary for all that malarkey these days. Anyway, does anyone have directions from Millbank to Gorky park? My tri-flux-maser GPS++ is playing up. 🙄

[Catfish]

Hi, I am currently studying ROV Pilot/Tech here at The Underwater Centre at Fort William, Inverness-shire, Scotland, UK. I have a degree in CSIT and worked as a Rich Media Designer/Developer before so this is like a huge career jump for me. I am just wondering if there will be alot of ROV jobs once I finish the course on Dec 14. Would really want to get tips from the pro’s here. 😉

😆

Where You from?

[Catfish]

Planning to go FW on june next year. 😆

[ionicwings]

Planning to go FW on june next year. 😆

Well, In my opinion, I think my father did the right choice of convincing me study here in FW. I mean… being trained in a different environment, outside your comfort zone (e.g. English not your first language), for me, is a good training.

We just had our 2nd ROV flight today and it was awesome. I might say as a first timer, I am pretty bad at flying but with the tips that our instructors gave really helped. I was pretty anxious on operating the crane though since I never even got near to it before. But it was pretty easy once you’ve get a hang of it.

So far, it’s all been good here in FW and I am liking it! 😉

btw, im from the Philippines 😉

If you want it…..you’ll get it!
Good luck, and I hope to hear back from you in these forums in the future.

well I definitely want this so I am sure I can get it.. and you’ll definitely hear from me once I get my first job!

Actually I’ve been looking forward for the Electronics part of the course since as a kid, I’ve always wanted to do electronics stuff… All just diverted when I first got my PC and that explains my CSIT course. 😆

[senior]

Hi,
Ionicwings,the course was good for me too,i have got an interview with technip for a possible start,I hope anyone reading all the positive and negative "posts" will think seriously about the course,as there seems to be a lot of "legends in their own tea time"out there,who just want to trash talk about us trainees,these persons are all forgetting that they started at the bottom too 😉 😉 😉

[Ray Shields]

Hi,
Ionicwings,the course was good for me too,i have got an interview with technip for a possible start,I hope anyone reading all the positive and negative "posts" will think seriously about the course,as there seems to be a lot of "legends in their own tea time"out there,who just want to trash talk about us trainees,these persons are all forgetting that they started at the bottom too 😉 😉 😉

As we all know on the forum we get our share of idiots and prima donas. But there are also a lot of people who have gone through this, a fair few who did these courses and found it was not what they expected, did not help them get a job or plain wated their money.

There are also a few who are either involved or have some input or experience in the companies that are taking on trainees. Their input to the forum must surely help anyone applying for jobs. I mean, if you have 300 people applying for 10 jobs, wouldn’t you want to know why these 10 get picked and the other 290 didn’t?

You will always get exceptions, people who dont have experience/qualifications, do the course and then get a job in ROVs. Good for them, but this is not the norm.

Advice is given on here – no-one has to reply to any message on here and no-one has to read/listen to the advice given.

Good luck with Technip and maybe in a few months time you could come back after having experienced offshore and compare it with the course done at FW and tell the rest of the people thinking of doing it if it actually helped you prepare or not, or in what areas it did and what areas is didn’t.

[Ewan McKen]

these persons are all forgetting that they started at the bottom too

Not everybody started at the bottom.

In the good old days if you could drive a tractor (in my case a Ford 550 Digger) you could get an ROV Job.

My first ROV Job was Night Shift Supervisor on a Super Scorpio (I had never seen a Super Scorpio before).

I was rapidly demoted, but only as far as Pilot/Tech, I was still three grades of trainee off the bottom (that is about 18 feet in old money).

[Cabledog]

Guys,

If you want to do a course do it ONLY after you have;

1. Ensured you have the correct background
2. Have farmed your CV out to as many companies etc you can find.
3. Called the rov/ops manager
4. Knocked on the door to the office.
5. Followed all the other constructive advice in this forum

Then THINK about doing the course whilst still passing out the CV and calling people to chase it up, go knock on their door and present yourself in person, if you can get into the office you stand a reasonable chance.

The course may help you, it may not. Lots of guys have done one but are still not working a year later some do it and get the start right away. It is a bit of a lottery and costs much more than a pound a week. It may take time to get going but determination and self belief goes a long way.

If you get started most companies will send you on their own course anyway regardless of you having been to Fort Bill, Subic or Tafe, and that will then feel like a bit of a waste of your cash.

One other thing intit amazing how many special forces guys find there way into this little corner of the offshore industry.

Baron avoid the legion, they are not know as custard chucking surrender monkeys for nothing 😳 Let me know when you are next back at the branch, I will be the one with the Telegraph under my left arm and me Y fronts on the ootside of me trousers 🙄 Maybe we can go for an evian 😯

Be good
Dog

[PaulB]

I have just posted a reply on the Fort William thread in Rookie Corner. It relates to this thread too. Rather than repeat it here, have a look at some facts/figures. It may help put things into context and dissolve some myths.

As many of you will see, there is a lot of information and mis-information on this website (that is the nature of anonymous forums) where some people/organisations use such media to discredit any competition for their own purposes.

Paul Bury – Head of ROV Training & Operations
The Underwater Centre (Fort William) Ltd

[ionicwings]

Ionicwings, the stage you are at now will be a crucial indicator of your own character. This is where YOU are in control of your own destiny. Turn a negative into a positive and get marketing yourself. Bang on doors, take appliqué technical courses, ask around, listen-in, read all relevant material, get in peoples faces, look for back doors, look for side entrances, cut the dross from your CV, nepotism, drink in bars frequented by offshore workers, prostitution and/or whatever it takes. If you want it…..you’ll get it!
Good luck, and I hope to hear back from you in these forums in the future.

hi… I just got a job as a contractor for an agency (they are really nice & accomodating). Still not sure of the date but they promised me a job either in US, Japan or Curacao… my course ends on December 14 and I am going back home to Philippines this 16th so I am really happy.

i also got a promising reply from an institution saying they might have a job for me by 2008 as for someone with software experience like me. As you might read in my previous posts.. I have a degree in CSIT and I have more than 2 years of programming experience. It’s for an AUV job most likely using C++, MOOS and Linux and ofcourse technical/engineering stuff for maintenance of the AUV which I have been familiarized in my ROV course… So my ROV Course + programming experience really helped…

anyway, thanks for the tips in this thread. most are helpful specially for a newbie like me. I’ve seen alot of posts here with tips for newbies, I’ll try to absorb them. I still have ALOT to learn though and I will try really hard to meet the industry’s standards.

😉

[Andy Shiers]

hi… I just got a job as a contractor for an agency (they are really nice & accomodating). Still not sure of the date but they promised me a job either in US, Japan or Curacao… my course ends on December 14 and I am going back home to Philippines this 16th so I am really happy.

Oh dear 😕
I hope I don’t meet you on the free lance circuit 😕

[Author]

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