Looking for some career advice

[King Confused]

As the subject title subtlety suggested, I'm looking for some help with what I should do next in my maritime career.

I've just come out of studying at Warsash Maritime Academy for three years, and I was lucky enough to walk away with a HND in Marine Engineering, as well as take part in a number of short courses involving fire fighting and so on.

I've spent over seven months at sea as a cadet...the thing is I haven't been able to complete my oral assessments at the academy due to freezing up when doing the one-to-one assessments. So I haven't finished those and I haven't gone to the MCA to get my 3rd Engineers certificate as of yet (and now I won't be able to since I've been advised to have 3 months more seatime before attempting the oral assessments again).

Someone has suggested to me to go and get 12 months seatime (since most companies won't just take on someone for 3 months) as a possible junior/graduate engineer somewhere in the marine industry. After which I should try do a 'top-up' course to get my HND to a Degree.

If anyone can help me out and offer some practical advice on what I can do next, I would GREATLY appreciate it as I've just recently found out that the career advisors at the local university couldn't organise a fart in a curry eating contest!!

[Randomist]

Hi King Confused! Welcome to the forum.

If I may ask, if you got a degree, what career path would you be wishing to take?

Have you ever considered any kind of coaching to try and get you through the MCA orals?

[GuinnessMan]

Have you actually sat the assessment yet? If not, then try to get as much practice as you can. Remember, they are not there to make you fail, they are there just to check you have a bit of an idea as to what you're doing.

However, if you have sat the exam and been told to come back in Three Months, then you're going to need to get some more sea-time before you can back. I'll send you a PM on this in a min.

About the degree, it's neither here nor there to be honest, unless you intend to go Shoreside early (as in, not when you're a 2nd Eng) and even then it's not essential. I'm shoreside and I don't have a degree (yet..).