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Comment or reach out to @icedcappucino to suggest questions!
Q1: What should I do if I’m nervous about joining ship?
A: Best bet would be to reach out to currently sailing seniors, most relevant if in the same company (try asking your crewing manager). Sailing isn’t suitable for everyone, and it’s natural to be nervous about a vastly different work/lifestyle.
Alternatively, approach your school and SMOU to enquire are there seniors open to chatting with you about your (very valid) concerns!Q2: What if I’m already onboard my first ship, and feel like quitting?
A: Part A) What is the reason(s) behind wanting to quit? Depending on your reason(s), the plan would differ.
Possible reasons:
– Exhausted -> Is the work/rest hours breaking the MLC rules? If yes, this is a serious issue and must be resolved asap.
– Bored -> Is it the assigned jobs monotonous (e.g. 80% cleaning jobs), you’re not being taught, or you’re being actively excluded from engineering jobs? It’s relatively normal (not saying this is best practice!) for new cadets to be treated as a cleaner and admin assistant. This is usually a two-way story.
From the senior officers’ POV, some grew up in that type of “culture” so they refuse to put in time and effort to train the cadets. Or afraid of the new cadets injuring themselves (usually the cadets get the most injuries out of all the other ranks). Or they think the cadets are not ready yet to join the engineering jobs.
In this case, brush up on your theoretical knowledge and improve your safety consciousness + situational awareness. Request for your Second Engineer or Chief Officer to test you at a convenient time/place for him/her, show you’re keen to learn and support the team. If your senior officer still refuses to give you a chance, escalate to the head (e.g. Chief Engineer or Master). If no use, contact your crewing manager.
– Disillusioned -> Sailing might be be hugely different from what was told by your lecturers/seniors? That’s normal too. Think hard about why you even chose sailing, and where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time? There’s many who quit during or after cadet ship and changed careers, some regretted, some don’t. 🙂
– Sad/angry -> Were you bullied or harassed intentionally? There are crew who engage in such behaviour but feel it’s normal due to the culture they come from. Approach your senior officers and arrange for a suitable time/place to share your concerns in a professional way. It’s possible there might be people who will gaslight you or push their responsibility away. Escalate your case as per your company’s policy.Part B) Conflict management!
Part C) Final resort: Request to sign off.
State how you’ve went through Part A and B in the best professional way possible, but it’s in both parties’ best interest to part ways. Kinda like a classy break up.Q3: What if I’m onboard and something bad happened at home, how do I request to sign off?
A: Approach your direct superior (either Second Engineer or Chief Officer) to arrange for a suitable time/place to share your concerns in a professional way.
E.g. Immediate family in danger or death. An example of a situation not usually classified as “need sign off” is your other half breaking up with you or threatening to do so. More on seafarers and their relationships hereUsually the sign off request would be signed by you, head of your department, and the Master. He/she would send your sign off request to the company’s crew department to arrange your repatriation as soon as possible, without financial or career penalty to you.
If you’re requesting to sign off for reasons that are deemed not serious by the company, you may risk being blacklisted or not be called for re-employment.
Q4: What should I do to get faster promotions?
A: This is a question that has a wide variety of factors which may differ hugely from person to person even in the same company!
Generally dry fleet (container/bulk/car carrier etc) companies promote faster than tanker companies. Tankers require much more experience to handle, so the companies strictly require each officer to follow their guidelines for minimum sea time before they’re allowed to be promoted. Whereas dry fleet companies don’t have as strict rules, thus higher chance of promoting faster.
Other factors, not necessarily within your control:
A) Type of crew, especially senior officers who would be writing your performance appraisal. Sometimes one gets lucky enough to sail with an experienced crew and supportive senior officers who write good appraisals. There’s also cases where the seafarer works very hard and well, but others intentionally sabotage by writing bad appraisals because they felt threatened. That’s more on HR management.
B) Your experience on a certain type of vessel (analogy: If you always drove Toyota Corolla, you’re more likely to get promoted to senior driver on Corolla VS getting promoted on your first time driving Mercedes-Benz S Class?)
C) Your company’s promotion guideline: E.g. some companies require 12 months as Fourth Engineer/Third Officer before promotion, and another company with same type of vessel requires just 6 months. (Probably pays lesser too.)
D) Controversial but can’t be ignored, how close are you to the office management?Q5: How to earn and save lots of money fast in this industry?
A) The SAILMAP money would help quite a bit to save up, as courses and studies aren’t cheap! Alternatively scholarship.
B) Work often and steadily. For companies that doesn’t have a fixed rotation (e.g. 3 months on/2 months off), request your company to assign you to work quickly, rest 1 or 2 months, go back to work again, repeat. Saves up money fast and not much time to use savings if just resting 1 or 2 months.
C) After saving 10k, make a proper financial plan! So many seafarers see their savings disappear easily.
D) Honestly junior ranks don’t earn much. Earning and saving alot of money fast, mainly starts when you get to senior rank.
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