Second Chance

[snowman]

Hello all,

I'm new here so a quick history - I was on the FdSc deck cadetship, I got through to Phase 4 (second sea phase) and got dismissed from my TP for being discharged from my ship 2 days early... (in pax area, no uniform and argued with dep. cruise director).

So basically my cadetship ended then and there. It's been over a year now, and after landlubbing for all that time I have matured and i can see that being a deckie is what I want to do as a career, which has made me very determined to get my CoC and work damn hard to get there, also my training manager was fairly positive that he would give me a decent reference and explain that company policy is the way it is.

So I'm just really wanting to know if anyone else has been in a similar situation and if they've managed to get back into a cadetship to complete it, or even re-start a cadetship. I've spoken to SMarT and they don't think that much can be done about that side of things, so another question is if a student loan could be taken out to cover the college fees!? I'm not sure if SMarT and the SL people are 'related'??

I've applied to BP and SSTG so far (Which have tick-boxes about if you've been on a cadetship or received smart funding!) and looking at the RFA and a couple of others also.

Thanks in advance for any helpful replies!

[Clanky]

Snowman, first of all welcome to the forum.

In terms of your situation I'm afraid I don't know the answer, but my advice would be to apply to as many companies as possible. Hopefully someone else will have a bit more info.

The real point I want to make here is to everyone else, while you are a cadet, knuckle down, get on with it, accept the bull****, and get your ticket at the end of it, once you have that piece of paper, THEN, you can tell all the assholes to shove it where the sun don't shine.

[YoungMariner]

+1 to Clanky's post!

[size4riggerboots]

Snowman, it might be worth seeing if you can get in touch with the chap who started this thread http://www.officercadet.com/showthre...cked+cadetship and find out if he had any luck. He posted anonymously mind so it might not be possible.

[snowman]

Cheers for the responses, hopefully the lad who posted that anonymous thread will see this one and drop a post to see how he got on!

I was thinking about the SL and SMarT, and when they were discussing the future of SMarT funding, i'm sure i read somewhere they were thinking of a cadet funding half the training, which I would imagine would be through student loans, so it may be doable, if not i'll just speak to the old bank and see if i can get a career development loan... I'll let you know once I know for sure.

I also second Clanky's post!!

[size4riggerboots]

If you've got as far as phase 4, (and I'm assuming here you passed all your exams) there's not much more of the cadetship to do... were you doing HND or FD? Would it be possible for you to re-join where you left off?? Might be worth asking about, as then you *might* be able to convince someone to sponsor you as it would only need the bit of SMarT funding cash that you didn't have spent on you in the first place...???

[snowman]

I was on the FdSc route at warsash, I passed all my exams apart from a couple of assignments which were deferred due to extenuating circumstances, and I also gained my PSC&RB with my TP, so yes, in theory 'if' I can pick up where i left off then a company could hopefully use up the remainder of any SMarT funds left for me, which there should be some as my original TP wouldn't, or shouldn't, have claimed any more and wouldn't of got the bonus at the end of the cadetship.

I will wait to speak to a couple of companies once they've initially seen my application to them, as if i go tanker or cargo, personally i'd want to potentially redo the sea phase at least to experience single watch keeping, cargo loads etc... to be honest on the cruise ships i learnt what i needed specifically for them, including how to host many bridge visits!!

Which on that note, if anyone considering cruise ships as a cadet, bear it in mind that some of the course will be purely theoretical to you!!

[size4riggerboots]

Might be worth popping into college and having a chat with your tutors as well then. Do you have 12 months sea time?

[snowman]

When I was dismissed I went into the college a couple of times, and it was more down to finding a sponsor initially, and then dealing with that side of things further down the pipeline!

I only managed to get 8 months sea time, with 4 of those months watch keeping, so I'd need to do a 4-month contract at sea anyways, with at least 2 of those months watch keeping.

[size4riggerboots]

Would it be worth going and GROVELLING to your original sponsor?!

[snowman]

haha... i think they truly hate me!! not so much the training manager, but his boss!

[size4riggerboots]

Burnt your bridges well and proper did you? Well, let that be a lesson to everyone else! I guess you're just going to have to go round all the other companies, explain your situation and show them that you are now a dedicated and humble applicant. Best of luck mate.

[snowman]

Cheers. Well interestingly one of the 'reasons' for my dismissal was because I was due to go to a nautilus meeting in florida with some big-wigs from the TP head office, however being discharged 2 days before this, I obviously didn't go to the meeting as I was back in the UK by that time - hence all the bigwigs had to find out as to why i wasn't there.

So another lesson, if you agree to represent the cadets from your phase at a meeting of that scale, don't mess up just beforehand!

[GuinnessMan]

including how to host many bridge visits!!

A useful skill for a young officer left with multi-million dollars worth of ship and a few thousand lives....

Cheers. Well interestingly one of the 'reasons' for my dismissal was because I was due to go to a nautilus meeting in florida with some big-wigs from the TP head office, however being discharged 2 days before this, I obviously didn't go to the meeting as I was back in the UK by that time - hence all the bigwigs had to find out as to why i wasn't there.

So another lesson, if you agree to represent the cadets from your phase at a meeting of that scale, don't mess up just beforehand!

Urm, I don't think thats the lesson one should be passing on. The lesson here is to follow the rules that were set down. You bollocked up, I imagine you were getting a bollocking for it and instead of going "ok" and slinking off to your cabin you started a shouting match. Not the smartest thing in the world was it now? Lesson: If you want to stay out of trouble, follow the rules. They are there, normally, for a reason.

[snowman]

GuinessMan, don't get me wrong, I know I did bad, I accepted that I was dismissed for it... I was only stating about the meeting being one of the reasons due to it affecting my 'groveling' with my original TP, and the lack of good it would do.