Oceaneering International Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Oceaneering International

Pros – This review only pertains to the Diving Division.
A lot interesting work, I ve seen some incredible things offshore with this company.
Very Safety Oriented and the company is large enough that they can get the proper equipment for the job
Exposure to a wide variety of jobs, machines, tools and situations

Cons – This review only pertains to the Diving Division.
We just got a 15% pay cut last October
Dealing with the front office and operations is a carnival game of smoke and mirrors, they tell you whatever you want to hear to pacify you.
There is only a few hours notice to go offshore for indeterminate amounts of time(weeks to months)
58 people quit in the last 6 months so the division is down to a skeleton crew
There is a huge gap between the highly experience hands and new hires with no relief plan from ops.
Transportation from the job is constantly late.
Promotions happen irregularly, there is no incentive to do a good job because no one is ever fired for lack of performance
Ops is made of ex divers with no formal management training. A degree would do wonders for the front office
Basically we are underpaid and overworked while management runs the division like a frat house

Advice to Senior Management – Quit.
Do diving a favor and get out of the way so those that care about whats left of this division can resurrect it to its former glory.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Oceaneering International full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – They were the only "ROV gig in town", so you had no choice. Pay is not bad $700 a day for Supervisor and Medical, Retirement plan and bonuses.

Cons – Personnel are leaving - approximately 30 this year alone- why, not for money because many have moved to other for the same and in many cases less money.

Advice to Senior Management – Senior management of Oceaneering International, take a closer look at Canada - There are reasons why people are leaving, it is not the pay or conditions. Ask to speak to some of the employees who have already left over the past couple of years, i am sure they will tell you now they are free - pick the names yourself!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Oceaneering International full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – The only ROV company on the East Coast of Canda so if ROVing from a homebase is what you want then you dont have much choice.
The rates are between $300 and $800 CAD offshore rate plus benifits, good compared to the GOM pay, but not as good as elsewhere in the world.
The offshore guys and the office staff are really good to deal with and work with.
There are a few good companies to work for that provide training Fugro, Subsea 7 to name a couple, Oceaneering is also pretty good with the training, they do need to catch up with their own technology a bit - much of the new systems are not covered that well in the training - but it is still good.
A good choice of company if you want to work local to Canada, and use it as a stepping stone to get to another company or work internationally.

Cons – Oceaneering Canada Limited is not a Canadian company does not pay any Canadian taxes, your decision depends on whether you are a patriotic Canadian or not?
No one seems to be sent on the ROV courses in Morgan city from Canada, no wonder there is always a big learning curve trying to learn everything on the job. Most companies will send you on a manufactures course - ask when applying.
You are classed as an employee but you are actually more like a contractor because you only get paid for what you do, unlike other ROV companies (including the one i work for now) as an employee, you get a salary and offshore uplift. So no work = no pay, so you have to leave the company to go and work for someone else.
Time off between jobs in not respected, when you are on your time off and the phone rings there is always that sinking heart feeling, this is because they do not have enough employees to cover all the work all the time. They can be pretty pushy and threatening when you say no to extra work.
They do not pay double day rate after 180 days like most other companies, but do pay $150 a day on top after anything more than 100 days in each 6 month period - I.E they only give uplift after an average of 200 days a year and it is only $150. So you will have to put in the extra 20 days before any uplift at all.
Only senior management gets given shares every year, not open to lower employees.
Many offshore employees don’t like working for OCL it is just they are the only company in town and they want to work locally, if another company moved in and won contracts then the vast majority would move over - they see it as a change of overalls with a probable pay rise. Most offshore employees have their resumes out with other companies waiting for this opportunity.

Advice to Senior Management – Oceaneering is a large international company, stop thinking and working like a Mom and pop company. Allow HR to do their job and not have to report everything to operations, no one is going to come forward with complaints if that happens - why because operations never do anything about a complaint, just talk around in circles, the only thing that happens is the complainer get ostracized by the people they complained about, When personnel do leave the company, management should not conduct the exit interviews you will never hear the truth, if Oceaneering parent company is concerned why people are leaving then hold some anonymous interviews with HR, you will probably stand a better chance of hearing the truth. I am sure peopel who have left over the past year would be prepared to talk to HR, but not managment - Newfoundland is a small community. The Parent company should monitor local management more, and talk to the employees and not on leap courses - last time someone complained about management on a leap course there was a hunt on to find out who complained within 24 hours - hence no one has spoken their mind since.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Oceaneering International full-time for more than a year

Pros – Good pay - some good people that work there

Cons – Didnt get chances to excel at job

Advice to Senior Management – Pay more attention to what is going on in IT

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company