TLDR: Show up in person. 🦾🔥 I believe it is 30% timing, 20% luck, and 50% showing up. ~16 years ago (the US commercial dive industry has changed quite a bit so that this with a grain of salt). I was told after dive school, pack your shit and move to Louisiana, that is the only was to get a job. So a week after dive school I said goodbye to my friends and family, packed what I could and moved to Louisiana with a buddy from dive school. Both broke, no jobs, no place to live yet. I made a list of my A tier companies, B tier companies, and all of the ones I heard bad things about. We then went out and door knocked like it was a full time job with a paper resumes in hand because we were going to starve if we didn't (I was 18 years old and only had dive school under my belt). Tier A- Oceaneering, Cal Dive Int., and Global. Tier B Pheonix, Aqueous, and some others I don't recall. I walked into Cal Dives main office, handed my resume to the office lady. The HR hiring manager comes out hair on fire because he needed hands offshore in two days and was short on personnel. Asked me if I would be willing to drop everything, do some training the following day, then go out on my first hitch. I said hell yes! Scrambled to get some clothes and gear together and then spend 2 months offshore on my first hitch removing platforms. Anyway, to sum it all up, the guy standing in the shop ready to work is going to get selected 100% of the time before the guy 500 miles or more away sitting behind a phone or computer. Everyone starts at the same level and an entry level commercial diving cert. is the same no matter what school you went to or how good you are at diving. (If you are not good at diving they'll find out when they put you in the water and you will either not dive much or get ran off!) Once you meet people and make connections, that is when the phone calls and emails become fruitful.