Choose a job that you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. Indeed, getting paid for doing something that you genuinely enjoy sounds incredible; therefore, why not search for a diving job?
Recreational Diving Opportunities
1. Dive Instructor
Salary: $31,000 – $58,000
A dive instructor is considered to be the most alluring of all scuba diving jobs. However, being an instructor is often physically and mentally demanding. You can be asked to lead a minimum of four dives per day, teach classes, as well as perform other tasks, such as repairing/maintaining scuba equipment, etc. Most importantly, though, you are also responsible for the safety of those diving with you.
2. Underwater Photographer/Videographer
Salary: $28,000 – $52,000
These professional divers can take underwater pictures, film, or perform stunts. In addition to being good divers and having great photography skills, underwater photographers need to perceive the behavior of their subjects and be able to work with different weather.
3. Dive Operator
If you are more of a manager but still want diving to be a part of your career, you can become a dive operator. You may be assigned tasks such as renting equipment, helping choose the right one, such as a dive computer, a mask, fins, etc., filling tanks, and repairing gear.
Commercial Diving Opportunities
4. HAZMAT Diving
Salary: $54,750 – $93,910
Typical work involves diving into raw sewage or dangerous chemicals, like paper pulp, liquid cement, or oil sludge. All HAZMAT divers must undergo intensive training, learning about specialized commercial dive gear, additional safety and decontamination procedures, etc.
5. Public Safety Diver
Salary: $39,000
Public safety divers provide emergency, rescue, and investigative services, such as collecting evidence or performing recovery missions. They can be members of police departments (full-time divers or general water police officers), sheriff’s offices, fire rescue agencies, or search and rescue teams.
6. Marine Exploration and Engineering
Marine Construction and Deep Sea Research. This kind of job involves exploration duties to collect data for research purposes.
Offshore Oil Exploration. The duties usually include general and specialized surveying, building, maintaining, and repairing platforms, underwater structures, and equipment used in offshore oil and gas production, as well as testing for different structural faults in underwater systems.
Underwater Engineering. Engineer divers perform inspection and maintenance projects on different underwater structures, plan demolitions, construct models, or even participate in offshore drilling operations.
7. Marine Archeologist
Salary: $39,000 – $72,000
Marine archeologists aim to preserve underwater relics and keep the local wildlife safe. Their duties include studying the ocean floor and looking for shipwrecks and sites that might retain valuables. They may also be responsible for inspecting the ocean floor before any disruptive construction.
8. Military Diving
This job is for military personnel. The duties of military divers include combat and demolition missions, underwater surveillance, ordnance disposal, construction, ship maintenance, search and rescue, salvage operations, saturation diving, and underwater engineering.
9. Inland Diving
You may work in local pools or aquariums at zoos or theme parks. Your duties include cleaning and looking after underwater animals. There is an option to work as an underwater engineer, researcher, or public safety diver in rivers and lakes. Inland diving usually provides a more regular schedule and fewer risks than off-shore diving.
