Company conundrum

[Emma]

Right, hello.

I'm Emma and I am planning on applying for a deck cadetship within the next year.
I have researched all of the companies and scrutinised their websites but was looking for some personal opinions and experience as their sites only tell you what they want you to know.
I have searched this site and posts either do not go into depth or are for specific questions - I wouldn't have posted without prior search or if I had found my answers.

So, if anyone could reply with their views and experience from the likes of Maersk, RFA, Shell, BP, Carnival, CMT, SSTG, James Fisher and Bibby Ship on areas such as support at college to environment on board it would be greatly appreciated. I would be applying for the HND route.

Thank you for your time,

Emma

[size4riggerboots]

This is just the kind of question the anonymous forum is for folks! Log out, post anonymously and BE HONEST!!

[Unregistered]

Hi Emma

I am employed by Maersk at present. They are a very good company to work for due to there vast range of vessel types (Container, tanker, supply, anchor handling etc) They are not the best paid but they are certainly not the worst. On the HND deck route the starting salary is somewhere in the region of ?8000. All uniform and PPE is provided by the company and ordered online so their is no need to try and source your own ( As I believe CMT do)

Life on board a Maersk vessel is also good. You will be given a junior officers cabin ( no sharing!!) which is roughly 12ft by 16ft, has a bed, table, desk fridge and an en suite toilet/shower. All Maersk vessels have a zero tolerance to alcohol. The facilities on the vessel are generally high standard, on my current vessel we have a swimming pool, large gym with 2 tread mills, cross trainer, bike, rowing machine free weights and a multi gym type contraption. In the officers mess we have an xbox and PS2, table football, poker and darts sets etc etc and a DVD locker with over 1000 DVD's in it. During your cadetship you earn a week of leave for every month on board, however due to vessels schedules the leave is sometimes more generous than this.

Hope this has helped.

[MaerskCadet]

If anybody is interested I will place a very large bet that the person who posed the question also answered the question.

Would anybody like to go short on my bet?

It is true that Maersk is the best company to be a cadet with.

Maersk Cadet.

[CharlieDelta]

Just to clarify, the two posts were made from different IP addresses which indicate completely different areas of the country.

On a side note, what do you base you opinion on? Have you tried them all?

[Jonny]

There is a great story and a horror story with every company it seems, as is the case when you qualify it will usually come down to the ship and its crew.

[Where am I?]

Jonny has pretty much got it on the mark. My experience is that it's not the company that makes the trip, it's the crew, and the first trip tends to make or break it for someone.

In answer to the OP's question, each company will have different ship types and there will be a wide variety of crew nationalities. None are really better than the other as each will be suitable for different individuals for different reasons. Now I know we make jokes about certain ones, but that is all those tend to be, just jokes.

Oh and to the fellow who said about Maersk being the best, well, after the debacle with last years cadet class I wouldn't say they are the best.

[MEJG]

I currently work for Maersk as an Engineering Cadet... I've had some issues with them, but they've all been overcome and I've always found the office staff to be exceptionally helpful

To answer the question of which company is best; I honestly couldn't say

Every company has faults and every company has benefits, you need to think about what type of vessel you'd be happy serving on and what company would give you the best chance at ending up on that type. If you're unsure it might be best to "follow the star" as it has a very broad range of vessels and operates in a variety of marine sectors.

[Lewis]

Your best just to apply for everybody then once you get some acceptances start considering who you want to work for. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

[Unregistered]

With regards to SSTG, I can offer nothing but praise for them as a company. They're friendly, helpful, supportive and have not once been a source of frustration or problems for me. However, always best to look around, apply for most, if not all, of the companies listed.

[Unregistered]

Jonny has pretty much got it on the mark. My experience is that it's not the company that makes the trip, it's the crew, and the first trip tends to make or break it for someone.

My first sea phase went really well, but it's the college that's making or breaking it for me.