Aspiring Irish Deck Cadet

[IrishSailer]

Hey,

My name is Eoghan, I am new here and have been looking through the forum for a while but have never posted.

Basically I am in my final year of a mechanical engineering degree in Dublin, Ireland and ideally want to end up as a deck officer on a cruise ship. (Well at least start out on cruise ships)

Looking at all the major shipping companies that offer cadetships it seems they all require that you have been resident in the UK for the last 12 months. So my vague plan at the moment is to apply for graduate positions for normal shore based jobs in the UK to get some shore based work experience and after 12 months I will then be able to start applying to carnival and viking and so on.

So I guess my question is does anyone know of any other options to get into the industry available for non UK residents aspiring to be a deck cadet??

I know BP Singapore offer sponsorship to Irish students in the maritime college in cork, but only after the completion of the first year which I would have to fund. Which is not really an option at the moment, sense I have no savings to pay for full college fees and accommodation for a year.

Well thank you for reading this far if you have!

[thebrookster]

Can I ask, why Deck??

Just that with a degree in Mech Eng, you would get in as an engineer with fewer difficulties, particularly if you dropped the cruise ship requirement! I am not certain exactly how it all works, but I would have thought your degree would exempt you from parts of the normal cadetship (there would be little point in you sitting an HNC/D when you have the full blown degree!!), meaning a faster entry.

Deck side however, you would have to sit the entire course.

Another point worth noting is that in comparison to Engineering, Deck positions are much harder come by.

However, on the issue of you looking for work in the UK for 12 months or so, have a wee look at the Offshore industry. With an Engineering degree you'll likely find work quite easily there (in fact, you should be able to find Engineering positions easily in any area, unless you are a complete dork!!) There is a large shortage of decent engineers at the moment, this is one of the few recruitment sectors that is actively recruiting and growing.

[Clanky]

It always used to be the case that RoI residency was fine for cadetships, I would contact a few of the companies and ask them for clarification on that.

?dh m?r ort.

[Bulman]

I think carnival took on 5 Irish cadets this year, it seems they do their collage for one-two years, then get sponsoring companies but they are still able to get sponsoring companies without actually being in the UK. Their must be a marine college near you that you can enquire about and how the system works?

[IrishSailer]

Thank you for the replies,

Well brookster I think I have been tending towards deck because if I was to make a career in the industry I think in the long term I would be more interested in the navigation and day to day running side of things. I have been lucky enough to spend a lot of summers growing up on boats cruising and the part I enjoyed most was the actual sailing and navigation side. But I see where your coming from, it seems a bit crazy going straight to the deck side after studying engineering for the last 4 years. It is something I will have to think more about!
As far as I know your right that companies also offer graduate entries to cadetships which speeds up the whole process. I contacted viking and they would of a graduate entry if the 12 months residency requirement was met.

Thanks Clancy, I have only contacted one company so far and just searched other websites. I will contact more directly to clarify as you said!

Thanks Bulman, Well the only marine college in ROI is down in Cork and I see carnival take some deck and engineering cadets from there which must be the 5 you were talking about. Good advice, I will get in contact them as they would have a good idea of opportunities over here in Ireland!