Hello there, I've been doing the underwater welding thing for just over 7 years now. Depending on the job at hand dictates what you will be asked to do, i.e. fit-up topside or underwater, measurements for rough or final fit-up, basically all the things that you would have to do topside. I usually average 4 to 10 underwater welding jobs a year, and many more topside. As far as the starting pay, that depends on what class welder you are. You would have to go to dive school first, and just about all of the dive touch on the subject, some are better than others. The dive school that I went to was College of Oceaneering, their welding program is 5 months, and a very good one at that. The next thing would be to find a company that does underwater welding and has in house training. In the Gulf of Mexico three major dive companies do underwater welding, Global Divers, Oceaneering, and Phoneix Divers. If you would like some more info feel free to e-mail me, cwelch5215@aol.com .

Best of luck,
Charles Welch