Age and career change

[philious]

Hi My name is Phil. I am very interested in training to become an officer however I am 25 and have a degree in Microbiology, completly unrelated. I was wondering if I might me too old to join or if I can is there anyway to train in a period of less than three years?( It would be January when I would start my training at least and I would be 26 )

Thanks

[Squareleg28]

There are plenty of people older than 25 applying and currently training. Start applying and see how you get on. Your degree is unrelated, but the experience will be helpful for stuff to say when applying - think along the lines of 1.) Studying at a high level and passing the course 2.) Living away from home/used to sorting stuff out yourself 3.) Worked/lived with a wide range of different people.

Apply sooner rather than later incase the funding situation (SMarT et al) gets worse.

[size4riggerboots]

I applied at the age of 26, it's not to old by any means!! There is the odd cadet floating around aged 40+ even, and there's a fairly even distribution of ages between 18 and 25, us oldies are fewer, but it's all about quality, not quantity!! What squareleg says above is very true, personally I feel better equipped for this career having lived in the real world for a few years first!

[philious]

Thank you. Also do you know if any companies also pay for accomodation? I ask only because I will be dropping a resonable salary and I have a few financial commitments.

[ETwhat?]

to answer your questions 1)no 2)no
there is no way to train in less time, unless your an engineer with a suitable degree. I think what you need to consider is wether or not you will be happy being told what to do and treated like a school kid for the next few years, ( i've had some shocking phone conversations from rude staff who can probably only get away with it as they are normally speaking to kids).

You will get lots of questions about why do you want to leave the field your working in to enter the maritime one but as long as you have a good answer then its not a problem, I've found it easy enough to move back to being a student after having worked and i tihnk the budget/plan/work comes easier aswell (as size4 says)

[CharlieDelta]

SSTG pay for accomodation, though, depending on which company you're placed with, your "money in the bank" may work out less. Student finance is available, however I assume you've used your entitlement on your first degree.

I'm with Carnival and I manage to pay accomodation, car finance, insurance, tax, MOT, maintenance as well as a few credit card payments, though I'll be taking advantage of student finance for phase 3.

I started at 22 after a few years in the one job, with a good salary but few prospects. I decided to "make the move" only once I was absolutely sure that I wanted to do this, and I'm glad I did. As S4 says, having a little bit of "life" behind you is really beneficial - I could not have done this at 16/18.

As has been said, you'll have people the same age or younger than you in higher-ranking positions and you need to be able to follow instructions, however in my experience the "older" cadet usually has much less of a problem with authority than some younger cadets.

[ETwhat?]

Thank you. Also do you know if any companies also pay for accomodation? I ask only because I will be dropping a resonable salary and I have a few financial commitments.

SSTG pay for accomadation and some companies pay higher than others which helps, if you look at clyde marine ?175pw pay and halls where about ?110 so not much room for beer, car and anything else

[philious]

Thank you every1, I have at least until January so should be able to sort finances. Just checking, Do you think it is relativly easy to balance a small part time job whilst training?

[ETwhat?]

Certianly for the first phase it would have been possible but that may have more to do with how much is new to you, if you go in and find the maths hard work then suddenly your weekend might be needed

[YoungMariner]

I agree that at 25 that you should have absolutely no problems, and if your really keen on this career go for it. I still believe, having trained many cadets, that it's actually harder for an older cadet, but that is nothing that should deter anyone. The reason I think it's easier for the younger guys, is because they join with no confidence and are built up from scratch and institutionalised from the start in the way of thinking. The younger guys are easier to teach, because you start from step one, and go through the motions. With the older guys you have to balance what knowledge and leadership experience they may have, but also make sure you don't skip any of the fundementals. Also have to remind some of the older guys that they are a cadet, but in the end they all seem to come out the same way regardless of age, as long as they have been motivated and worked with good role models.
Post cadet, age doesn't make the slightest bit of difference, experience shines through all the time.

[Lewis]

I am 25 as well(will turn 26 not long after starting in September). From what I've heard around here this makes me only slightly older than the average. "Traditional" cadets straight from school at 17 - 18 seem to be in the minority from the rough sample of people around here. Besides being a bit older has it's advantages I would imagine.

[CharlieDelta]

From my intake, 16-18 year olds are the majority, but there's still a reasonable amount of people in the older age brackets.

[philious]

Lewis, Which company are you with? is the training salary any good and where are you doing your training?

[Lewis]

Clyde don't start till September. Pay is not great especial if your used to working full time, guess just have to bear it till I qualify.

[ETwhat?]

With clyde i found the first few months a bit hard, firstly there was the initial set up costs (rent, deposit, uniform, study stuff) and also getting used to the smaller salary however i found that it was possible to get to the end of a month without having spent everything but a lot of that i think will depend on what you fill your weekends with, so far ive saved a reasonable amount from the sea phase as well as getting some new toys and im in two minds as to wether i use this money to increase my budget next phase or just buy more new nice shiney things

In hind sight i should have been paying all the hall fees from my credit card and getting cash back/points/airmiles as it will add up reasonably quickly just remeber that the money in the bank has been spent