Career as a diver

Recently I looked into a diving school in north Seattle. I’ve always enjoyed the ocean. So I was thinking this may be a good way to make a living. It would be hard work, a little tedious I have to say, since the job that the school seems to be able to guarantee me is working directly supporting oil platforms. Whether it be repairing, inspecting, or building. Now I know this is not the only kind of job available to a diver, but for the moment and the foreseeable future, is the one in most demand. Hence, pays the most money. Now this is the draw for me, the money. I’ve been working in the service industry for eight of my ten years on the work force. I have an easy going personality and don’t tend to let things get to me. I have been working in restaurants for most of that time, with a small stint in a hotel. Of the two sides I have to say I enjoyed the hospitality side better. The pay was better, but I found I enjoyed the environment better. Restaurants just have too much drama. It’s also almost a dead end job, the fact that you can control your income is what keeps my in it. I am ready for more of a challenge. Some people enjoy doing jobs that won’t challenge them, or should I say blue collar labor; but not I. I don’t want to become less intelligent as I get older. As long as I have to go to work to pay bills I want to be challenged by my job, or what’s the point. In hospitality it had the potential, as move up through the ranks, of course. Now to the reason for this thought. I was reading the jobs section of the Sunday paper and it said that jobs that will be in demand three to five years down the road will be computer jobs, due to the graying baby boomer population. And of course health care to help to take care of this segment of our population.

Since I was fifteen I’ve been into computers. Friends and I would setup token ring networks to play video games (at the time cat5 network equipment was out of our reach). I currently and running a Win 2003 server box in my apartment, with the intention of setting up a way of accessing all the information on my storage drive, across the internet from anywhere, as easily as possible. Mainly through the web with the normal other means that come with that ftp and RDP. I’ve also got a domain setup but my lack of experience in this part is hindering me from fully integrating it into my laptop. I just end up with two profiles. Both my sister and my dad have said why don’t you back into the computer field? We’ll my response to them is that; there are too many people in that field. It is really saturated. Everybody and they’re father has an MCSE. I believe DeVry is way overpriced in what they offer. I don’t want to spend $30,000, on something and find out that it’s not what I paid for. In 2001 I got out of the computer field because of the dot.com bust. Fell back on my experience in the service industry. Then I tried to join the navy, that didn’t work out. Hence because of that I got really depressed and it was a downward spiral, I lost my car, totally fucked up my credit. Which I am paying dearly for now…

Something just occurred to me! I hadn’t realized or rather noticed this about myself before, I’m playing victim! I’m trying to find reasons as to why I’m not responsible. Ah-ha! This is why I moved to Seattle in the first place to grow personally and professionally.

Anyhow, back to the point of this post, ultimately I’m worried that by becoming a diver in that I just simply, won’t be challenged to the degree that I want to be. Now a challenge doesn’t have to be just mental, but I want to be able to exercise my brain. Doing the same thing over and over is no challenge. It’s repition.  However I think I know enough of what the computer industry will entail, and I enjoy that work a lot.

 

Pros of diving:

• Travel
• Not stuck in an office day in, day out
• No rush hour traffic to have to deal with
• The money
• Excitement
• Opportunity to work in varying locales
• Working with my hands

 

Cons of diving:

• Out of touch with the world for weeks at a time
• Difficult on personal relationships
• Possibility of mundane tedious manual labor (non-challenging)
• Working with hicks

 

Pros of computer work:

·         Having to fix finicky technology (Hence the challenge half)

·         Money

·         Ability to have a personal life

·         Weekends off (most)

·         Stability

·         Playing with new technologies trying to integrate them into the buisness

·         Working with intelligent people

·         Corporate America (if you find a company you can mesh well with. Very difficult)

 

Cons of computer work:

• Corporate politics
• Call center work
• Corporate America (this and politics could be the same)
• Working with idiots

 

 

I guess ultimately I just need to make a decision. I’m just worried that this diving thing won’t pan out the way I am picturing it. Now don’t get me wrong I am not disillusioning myself here, I know it’s not going to be some walk in the park. But this is something I’m going to be doing for a while, not necessarily my whole life but, five to ten years at the minimum. However it is really exciting in its own right. My uncertainty stems from my past at making bad decisions, and not following through with things. But once again that is why I moved to seattle. To clear my head, and to grow, I should’ve done this long ago.