mechanical engineer

project manager

senior mechanical engineer

electrical engineer

project engineer

Oceaneering

My typical day at Oceaneering International was to review documentations (Purchase Orders, MTR’s, NDE’s, Certs and PMI’s) to verify that they met the specifications and drawing of the fabrication shop for the Document Control Department. If there was a discrepancy in the documents I was responsible for taking the necessary steps for correction actions including processing NCR’s. I attended project meetings where I informed the Project Manager’s regarding any problems that could affect the project schedule time frame for completion.

I learned how to use the quality manual to properly execute the fabrication procedures, how to properly use the flow chart on corrective action plan to ensure that the correct steps were being followed. Through PLM computer system I learned how to retrieve Cert, PO, NTE and MTR for review, to execute NCR /Corrective Action plans and assisted with preparing procedures for various weldmap procedures.

Management; I was contracted as a Welder Documentation Analyst in the SSFD Continual Improvement Department where I graded management on a levels of 1-4 as a 3.5 grade. They provided the information, training and material need to perform various task assigned to me. I was later placed in the Quality Assurance Department assigned to ensure that all documentation and NTE reports were corrected before being used in the datebook. I received assistance from the quality engineering management the grading of 3.

Co-Worker; once I completed the welder documentation analyst task I was assigned to work on documentation with the fabrication shop for the Document Control Department. Co-workers in the fabrication shop treated me as a team member and assisted me with the corrective action plan need for me to complete my function and to ensure that all documentation was corrected. I enjoyed working with them and I would grade them as a 3.5.

The hardest part of the job was getting the Document Control Department to understand the value of my job. Which was to make sure that all the documentation related to the fabrication shop had been reviewed and approved by a qualified person, so that when they pulled the documents for the datebook they didn’t have to review the documents making their jobs efficient and convenient?

The most enjoyable part of the job was going to production meeting present valuable information to the management on the progress of the process of the datebook documentation. Any projects that I was requested on, by the Project Managers’ the books were ready to be shipped within the 14 days requirement the client had received shipment of the product. I was enjoying learning quality procedures and executing them for correctly. I was hoped to further my career with Oceaneering International.

My typical day is pretty easy since I know what to do based on my time at the company.  Sometimes stressful, more so frustrating.

I learned multiple welding processes.  I learned how to use various types of metal working machines.  

Management for the most part is horribly disconnected from the shop floor.  They seem to be more concerned about themselves than just doing their job, learning their people, learning their people's jobs, and standing up for the shops in general.

I've seen this company lay people off while they are on vacation or on maternity leave with nothing more than a phone call.  How hard is it to let people finish their vacation, or wait for them to enjoy their newborn for a couple weeks before telling them preferably face to face that their services are no longer needed?  When the industry

One of the hardest parts of this job is dealing with the lack of accountability.  "It's not our fault, but it's our problem now."  I don't care if people make honest mistakes, what I can't stand is when management gets upset at the shop for a delay in production due to a mistake made by someone or something that came before us in the process.  And then we're expected to make up for lost time (which is expected), but then they want to get mad at us or want explanations why we didn't deliver on time.  If they want to meet deadlines then maybe we should get the parts before they're already late.  And don't call everything "hot", because if all the work is "hot", then nothing is "hot".

The shop employees get along great together.  We make the best of the situation.  Hopefully the leadership will improve someday.  This company still has potential to dominate certain aspects of the O&G services industry.  But they need to break free of the American corporate mentality of looking at people as mere "cost" to the company.  Instead look at people as potential to make increased profit by gathering highly skilled individuals that work well together.  If they're not highly skilled but have the motivation and desire to be, then train them and invest time and money in them so they become trained professionals.  Part of a company's responsibility to its employees, the industry, and the nation is to help empower the people with knowledge and skills that will better the individuals and society as a whole.

If you want to be married to your job or live at work (literally) then this is the place to go!  As an ROV Tech you will spend the first 6 weeks in training at Morgan City, LA.  Anytime you are working/staying in Morgan City, you are living in a run down dirty Days Inn that at least has a decent breakfast.  You will be sharing your room with a roommate, and expect people coming and going at all hours.  This is the offshore life, and if you are used to it then it is nothing new.  After training you may go to your first assignment immediately, and you may be waiting for months, working in the shop for chicken feed, if that.  If you are lucky enough to go right to work, you will likely go to a rig, drill ship, or an intervention vessel.  

Oceaneering for the most part has a really good program going which is why they are the main ROV company in the Gulf and have extensive operations around the world.  As with many rapidly growing companies though, the growth is asymmetrical and uncoordinated at times.  The training is good, but left many unanswered questions and did not paint a good picture of what the job would be like.  But, training continues throughout your career and is better than many other companies.  

I worked with some great guys, but also some on major power trips.  One thing about it is that if you don't like where you are, you can ask to be reassigned.  I recommend that you do this and not feel like you are stuck with a group you don't get along with.  

I started with Oceaneering as they have the best training program for someone new to working on ROV's or offshore in general.  I planned on either moving up in the company, or moving on to another company but found that working offshore just wasn't something I wanted to do long term.  It was a good experience overall and I learned a lot.  Last year Oceaneering started making new ROV techs sign 2 year contracts so you will have to pay your training costs back if you leave in that time.

I was expecting to make a certain amount per year to start and I did, but I had to work 6-8 weeks at a time, 7 days a week 12 hours a day, with 2 weeks at home to get there.  I was expecting to work 3/3.  Don't believe all the promises about bonuses, etc., I didn't see one during the year I was there.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Trying to solve problems to help build unmanned underwater vehicles for the Navy.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
All big companies tend to have a bit of a dysfunctional culture, but some are worse than others. This company has a pervasive culture of "every man for himself" and "passing the buck"--this is, trying to avoid accountability for when things  don't go right instead of taking it upon themselves to fix the problem. There is no teamwork there except when trying to blame other teams. This leads to situations where you're asked to "tow the party line" and create a unified story blaming some other group to explain why your group didn't get work done. And by "unified story" I mean "lie".

I've been in companies with this kind of culture before, and it never ends well. It devolves into a vicious circle where people form into cabals and spend more and more time and  effort crafting more complex lies that match all the other lies they told previously. Since more and more effort needs to be spent maintaining this web, you fall even further and further behind. It devolves into the lies spreading internally as well and then no group knows for sure the status of any other group.

This kind of culture also drives away the employees that you very much need to keep. I'm talking about the few hyper-competent people who quietly get 80% of the work done. They have nothing to gain and everything to lose in this type of system.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The culture is not conducive to teamwork or getting complex tasks done efficiently. There is very little sense of ownership or accountability.

Coming in early at 6:30am could be hard but the fact you gotta love what you do to make the day go smoothly. Those whom come in early start to work as soon as we had that first cup of coffee. Then again as soon as it was made we stop for a minute and take off to work. After the cycle count is completed then the pullers whom some also does they cycle count start pulling parts for customers.  I help in anyway I can to find along with a couple of other co-workers to find the part in question. Sometimes it is just simple and was put into the wrong location or an older location.  Help do bin to bin locations for the part being moved and also making new locations on the computer system.  My boss/Manager is easy going but tough when needs to be. It seems like one of the coffee pots is always empty when I am near it and he wants his coffee. He looks at me and ask did i get the the last cup. LOL  The warehouse/inventory leads is the same way. Fun and also when need to be all business. The leadership in inventory along with the folks I work with are like family. The best part that is not work is when we eat on our own time. We love the cajun culture of eating Boudin the first Thursday of the month and having lunch/breaks together. I do miss everyone there but hope that one day.
 Now the end of day for me was at either 3:30 pm and with little over time.  
 Since I am the health care provider for my wife who has lots of doctor appointments that in some cases have to take the whole day of I was supported by my lead and manager. Also another reason as I needed to leaver either at 3:30 or 4pm each day so i could give my wife support in things she cannot do.

Promotions used to happen often, sometimes biannually if you kept up with your competency program, but with the oilfield downturn all ROV promotions and pay raises have been put on hold until further notice. 
Other ROV companies pay much better and it's no secret. This is probably why there is a running joke that states Oceaneering trains everyone else's ROV techs. People would hire on with Oceaneering, go through the training program, work offshore for a few months to a year and go hire on with the competition. I can't say that I blame them. I've worked here over 4 years and in that time I've received two promotions, one pay raise, and then one pay cut. Safety bonuses and travel expense reimbursement were also cut. 
Right now, no one is really hiring ROV techs, so we don't have the option of jumping ship for more money, yet. Management knows this and won't raise anyone's pay until there is a risk of losing experienced technicians and supervisors.
I used to want to be loyal to Oceaneering. They took a risk hiring me with no offshore or ROV experience. But after this downturn, when other companies start hiring again, I'll be one of the first to leave.
Currently, it seems that the new executive management is doing all they can to spend the remainder of Oceaneering's money on ridiculous projects and to buy other failing companies. God forbid they consider upgrading the equipment or paying the people who make them their millions. I'm not the only one ready to leave Oceaneering in the dust.

Monday - Friday 10 hour shifts (50 hrs) mandatory, they want you to work 2 (8hr) Saturday's a month (58 hrs those weeks) although we just started trying out 2 weeks of 50 hrs, then 1 week of 40 hrs type of schedule, better than nothing!!
Great coworkers, that all seem to be very willing to help you out when needed machines, facility, and equipment are fairly up-to-date and very clean considering what type of work is done. I feel like I have learned a little more on “at machine”programming, and have gained more skill on Haas CNC machines, which is primarily what they have.
Management; on the dayshift they are often very busy, often too busy to help or navigate you properly, the current shop foreman can be a little combative when ideas are suggested, but he has been machining for 40 + years (his words)
The culture is pretty on par with most places lots of different faces and different personalities.
The hardest part about the job is all of the actual writing of information on paper that you will be required to do (OQE) is all manually filled out!!
Most enjoyable part of the job is the decent paycheck after a 10/18 hour overtime week!! 


The engineering department is good; there are some smart people and most everyone gets along.  There is much better leadership in place within recent years and they actually have common sense.  There are opportunities to work on interesting projects.  

However, the management 
elsewhere generally (from supervisor through general manager) has no idea what they are doing or any real skills with effectively managing projects or personell. Many project managers have no idea how to even create a basic budget or schedule, which puts tons of pressure on the folks underneath them and creates an environment of chaos.  Because a project has no real schedule, dates are promised to customers based off no data just or bad intuition.  The management positions are usually musical chairs, with even the most senior of leadership leaving with a year or two on the job. Surprisingly, the poor leadership stems from ex-Navy captains and admirals trying to run the company like the military, lacking any real business savviness or even common sense sadly in some instances.  Engineers have to basically do everyone's job (production, project management, purchasing, planning, contracts) because they are an "engineer."  Overall, the job could be much better if the management knew how to really motivate and inspire their people instead of trying to bully them or pull "rank."

I worked at this company for 7 years.  When I first hired in the culture was great.  It had a "family oriented feel" where we all communicated and looked out for one another.   Everyone worked to achieve a common goal and it was low stress.   As time passed on the culture changed into this toxic, PC environment where people would just run to HR over the littlest nothing, mislead truths and embellish information for whatever reason they wanted and put others jobs in jeopardy.  You have a VP/GM that doesn't know anything about submarines and a Director who use to run a production vacuum cleaner part shop.  The hardest part of the job was taking direction from individuals who knew less than you did.  A common feeling of "training your boss" occured on many occasions.  The accountability for floor workers is non-existent and the failure falls on supervision no matter the scenario.  This type of management accountability where the supervisors take 100 percent responsibility no matter what, perpetuates contention between supervisor and worker.  Politics play a factor in how your career advances here as well...if they don't like you  I wouldn't plan on moving forward very fast and if your skills are multifaceted I wouldn't expect getting any other opportunities as well.  They just throw you, your knowledge of their processes and your tenure  in the dumpster like garbage.  I would advise against anyone accepting a position at this company     

There's a lot of nepotism and snakes at the Lafayette location.  Too many jealous and back stabbing people jockeying for position. Always feel like you are walking on eggshells and upper management were the biggest brown nosing, butt-kissing  clowns when corporate management showed up from Houston.

It's sad to see what the Lafayette location turned into. I thought there were a lot of good people there at one time but they will turn on you to save their position. If you get recognition, they will talk about you. 

Oceaneering will have lay-offs when the market slows down. Not a stable or healthy environment.  They laid off all the great managers and people that had 20 years of experience with the company.  Some of those people helped develop certain divisions. That was a lot of knowledge that was let go. 

They paint a good picture about the benefits but the medical is very expensive.  I don't know why they let you accrue 3 - 4 weeks of vacation time because if you try to use try to use more than one week , they will belittle you or deny the request. You will be required to take the on going tests about the company's culture, your job field, safety measures. It seemed like they kept adding new tests every month. It really  interfered with your daily productivity. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Mechanical engineer 17 salaries reported	$114,765 per year
Project manager 3 salaries reported	$100,000 per year
Senior mechanical engineer 16 salaries reported	$106,703 per year
Electrical engineer 13 salaries reported	$148,693 per year
Project engineer 11 salaries reported	$120,950 per year

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