Subsea 7/I-tech

[Craig McColgan]

Hi guys, just joined and I am about to go though the interview process for ROV trainee positions – the information on here has been very helpful!

I’ve been offered an interview with either Subsea 7 or with their i-tech division, the position is the same and both are on a day salary (undisclosed); are their any advantages of one over the other that I should be considering? Obviously the ideal scenario would be to sit both interviews but this isn’t an option!

Quite excited by the opportunities, any thoughts would be welcome.

[LukeD]

Well ……………………….. What is it you wanna do ?

[Herman]

From my experience with the club, which is a few years back, Subsea 7 ( Construction side) was always keen to hit you with Hypo tax. A hypothetical tax they withhold – without ever giving you any kind of proof they paid it somewhere. In my case it was up to 30 %.

Never had that with i-Tech (Drill – Support).

It might have changed, may be you can find out in the interview.

[Wade Berglund]

I did the interview but as a senior P/T. That was last year and the hypothetical tax was an issue. When I asked very relevant questions about it I got the run-around and no proper answers were given.

Just stay away from them. That was SS7, don’t know about I-tech. Losing 20-30% of your wages from your day rate is not worth it, especially when you may have to end up paying your normal tax on your earnings on top of it anyway.

As described to me the Hypothetical tax levy was done to cover the issue of foreign countries levying a tax against workers in their zone. Some companies/agencies will do the opposite, they will bump up your day rate to cover incurred taxes on individuals while working offshore.

Good luck on your decisions.

[Craig McColgan]

Luke I think that was pretty much the question I was alluding to!

Cheers for the replies guys, wasn’t aware that the split was construction/drill support as their web page just describes i-tech as a ‘global division’.

I’m leaning towards the SS7 due to other work commitments; I think construction might be a bit more interesting than drill support?

Thanks for the heads-up regarding tax, whilst this may be an issue in the future, I am just starting out so 70-80% of a day rate would be better than a 100% of nothing. Think I’ll save that one for the interview!

[John TRAV]

In any new start/trainee position, the choice you have is not either construction or drill support but what the company want you to do, whether to fill a seat in their times of "short staff" or time of exceeding business in a sector of growth.

If you are offered the choice then hell yeah go for construction but just remember you will be busy, you will as a new guy be the tea boy, bin emptier, consumable stockist, chipper painter (in both fields anyway), you will be the "gate opener" basically the dogs body and chimp that the boys take the piss out of (regardless of how Alpha or big you may be (or think you are)), if you can handle this then fair doo’s.

But in hindsight if your in drill support it will possibly have its advantages of easier/more relaxed workscope, giving you more stick time (or feeling anyway (certainly not more technical or challenging)) and will lead to bigger things i.e going into construction with a bit of knowledge and preparation rather than just being thrown in as a numpty……

My point is, dont be put off with drill support, it will serve you good sometime or the other…… Look at all the Well intervention going on these days with the majors like Chevron, Shell, Total etc requesting their sub contractors to have suitable "drill support exp" (as with construction), the boasting ROV attitude of "ive never done drill support" from most long term construction guys will catch them out sooner rather than later…. I kid you not and unless theyve got their log book to prove otherwise, this WILL be a showstopper………. no matter how long theyve been in the game!

These big shot O&G companies (not technip or the like construction contactors) are very fine tuning who’s working for them (down to individual level), believe me they are clamping down BIG style in terms of who’s working for them at individual sub contract level and asking for your work/experience histories…..(if the ROV company cant comply, they will terminate that contract and tender the next ROV operator) especially with the amount of cowboys fooling the ROV companies to get employed in the first place – "Big brother is now watching"….. lol

[LukeD]

Well I guess the I-Tech division is the engineering side , Mods’ and intervention. It’s certainly the way to go if you want to know how things tick. If you stuck it out for a couple of years I know you would be very welcome on the Workclass side. I don’t think you will get much flying time but the technical part would assist you on further ambitions plus you would be home more often. There seems to be lack of info to trainees about the amount of time you spend away from home and it hits people badly if they are used to a 9 to 5 job. Good luck with the interview.

[Craig McColgan]

The drill support does sound quite interesting but, if I was lucky enough to be offered the job, I would like to get as much flying time under my belt as possible. Fully accept that I would be the tea-maker/dog’s body but hopefully with a good attitude and a bit of hard work I would be able to prove myself as something slightly above useless! I think I’ll take any opportunities that arise in order to get qualified/gain experience and then take it from there – I assume that it is possible to move from one industry to the other?

I’m used to working away (I have done 6-7 months stints, away 9-10 months of the year, 120+ hour weeks etc. on ships for the last 10 years) so I think I would manage ok on that front; in fact, working away a lot would be an advantage since I imagine I would be taking a substantial pay-cut!

[Andy Shiers]

I think you will find Drill support like a plodding donkey , Exciting the first trip then settling down to mundane. Not much flying ( If you can call it that 😯 ) But tool intervention might be of interest. Dive support can be tedious at times but more flying experience and different types of jobs so If you asked me that question………….. I would say get on a DSV then progress on to Platform inspection after a few years ………… then you will truly know the art of Flying ROV’s 😀
If you want comfort and tedious work …………… Go drill support 🙂
Good luck 😀

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