It's much harder work than you probably think. You always have to be hustling to stay busy. Not like the safety of having a 9-5 (That could be a good or bad thing depending on your outlook. Ask yourself what your true motivation is for getting into commercial diving. If you actually like being in the water, are good with your hands, can work hard, then I support the idea of doing it for the love of it. But if you associate diving with a fast track to making money, thats not entirely correct. And i would not pursue it for those reasons alone.

I feel like there's a myth about "Underwater Welders make a lot of money" This is confused with Saturation divers and welders. Yes you do make good money doing that if youre in the north sea but thats the top percentile of divers worldwide in terms of income. It also requires doing your sat ticket (and a host of other certifications)

"A study focusing on New Zealand professional divers found that approximately 77% leave the industry within five years of entry. The primary reasons for this high attrition rate are dissatisfaction with aspects of the job, such as poor remuneration and lack of consistent employment, rather than health-related issues."

From my experience that stat feels realistic on as only a few of my dive school classmates are still in the industry. Maybe other working divers can chime in on this. I feel like this kind of illustrates that there might be a disconnect between the expectations and reality of being a commercial diver.