Been looking for 4 months and no luck. What am I doing wrong?

[Outofwork12]

Hi guys,

I finished my cadetship last year and received my CoC in October. I've been looking for work ever since but I don't seem to be getting anywhere. I use many websites like shiptalkjobs, job2sea, marine resources etc and have applied for a few 4th Engineer positions but am having no luck. I've rewrote my CV a few times to try a different style but this hasn't seemed to help.

I passed all classes successfully but I dont have a tanker/LPG/chemical familiarisation certification. Will that greatly hurt my chances?

Any advice for someone looking to get his first posting in the industy? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

[alistairuk]

Have you tried registering with / applying to the various agencies? Eg. Clyde Marine, V. Ships, Sea Mariner? Look in the Telegraph there is 3-5 pages worth of agencies / job vacancies every month.

[ETwhat?]

An advantage of the angency route is that they will be able to tell you what is worth while to broaden your appeal. And make you the person they have a need for (thats assuming they dont have a surplus )

[size4riggerboots]

Who did you do your cadetship with? And do you have any contacts on the ships you sailed on? Sadly these days it seems to be not what you know, but also who you know. Call your sponsor and ask if they might be willing to put you on a tanker fam course, and above all, keep calling the agencies, an online application probably won't grab their attention, so see if you can find a name and phone number and keep on at them!

[Lewis]

why are people always saying there is a shortage of qualified officers?

[alistairuk]

why are people always saying there is a shortage of qualified officers?

There isn't a shortage - what they mean to say is "there is a lack of UK / European officers at sea" - but this is mainly due to the fact that most companies want people who will be willing to work for much less than we are - and there's certainly no shortage of them.

[tlloyd1983]

Because training companies get money for you being there. Colleges also get money for you being there. Longer you're there, the more they make. Why would they want you to know that it's going to be hard to get a job at the end of it? Bad business.

[GuinnessMan]

There isn't a shortage - what they mean to say is "there is a lack of UK / European officers at sea" - but this is mainly due to the fact that most companies want people who will be willing to work for much less than we are - and there's certainly no shortage of them.

That trend is slowly but surely ending now as owners (and managers) are simply getting fed up with all the stupid incidents/accidents (note the difference) occurring that are being attributed to complacency, poor skills, etc. The old adage of "pay peanuts, get monkeys is true and they are now, slowly, waking up to this.

[tlloyd1983]

Careful this doesn't descend into a xenophobic rant.... Assuming that one person has 'poorer skills' and is more 'complacent' than the other because of where they come from is simple minded and quite frankly, plain not true.

[Chiefy]

It is however true and proven that some issuing authorities quality control isnt very good, shall we say. Similarly some agencies are a little less than honest about their talent pools etc, which all adds to the mix. And yes lets avoid Xenophobia, there are good, moderate and shocking watch keeps of all nationalities.

In truth there arent enough Seafarers to go around, period. When you have the likes of the big box carriers all building new ships wihtout actually scrapping anything then the numbers required are quite huge, saw a piece of paper for last year stating that the 7 Pointy Star people took on OVER 800 souls last year of ALL nationalities, there just isnt a single supplier (nation) that can supply and sustain that sort of level of supply (or I would guess guarantee the quality control). That's just one company, the French Lego Co Ltd are similarly building more new ships and Mafia Ship Co ditto, thats all in one sector all building and manning.

As for why the OP cant get a job, seems odd given a certain Moderator here, only started looking in earnest a few weeks ago and today is joining a ship.

The agencies will be able to help, personally Faststream seem quite on the ball, when things where rough here a couple of years ago I got them to pimp me out, and got some good interesting offers, they occasionally still mail and phone to see if I am interested in a move and if they have interesting things on their books. I didnt go to too many other Agencies, but I assume they are all much of a muchness, it's in their interests to place you cos thats how they get paid

Maybe time to refresh the CV, if interested get in touch with Jubilee see if they have any volunteer / paid spots available which will at least get you working / some experience / Discharge Book stamps.

[Clanky]

Yeah, I would echo the agencies route, if for no other reason that if they can get you some temporary work and you get that first stamp as 3rd mate / 4th engineer other companies will be much more interested.

[GuinnessMan]

Careful this doesn't descend into a xenophobic rant.... Assuming that one person has 'poorer skills' and is more 'complacent' than the other because of where they come from is simple minded and quite frankly, plain not true.

I'm the last person anyone can describe as racist, and I hope that's not what your implying. As to my comment, it is backed up by supportable facts. One or two of the maritime colleges in the Phillipines are looking at loosing their STCW status for shoddy training, how many cadets have they churned out with poor skills? The fact that in certain parts of eastern Europe and the sub-continent you can buy a CoC from government officials without any training whatsoever. If you get shoddy training or no training at all then accidents and incidents are inevitable as you won't have the experience or the knowledge to do your job safely. I'm not saying European Officers don't make mistakes (Concordia? Bow Mariner?) it's just our training tends to be at a higher and more stringent standard and that can't be bad.

[tlloyd1983]

I'm the last person anyone can describe as racist, and I hope that's not what your implying. As to my comment, it is backed up by supportable facts. One or two of the maritime colleges in the Phillipines are looking at loosing their STCW status for shoddy training, how many cadets have they churned out with poor skills? The fact that in certain parts of eastern Europe and the sub-continent you can buy a CoC from government officials without any training whatsoever. If you get shoddy training or no training at all then accidents and incidents are inevitable as you won't have the experience or the knowledge to do your job safely. I'm not saying European Officers don't make mistakes (Concordia? Bow Mariner?) it's just our training tends to be at a higher and more stringent standard and that can't be bad.

I wasn't suggesting that. Just to be careful that what you say isn't misunderstood by anyone is all. But I will agree that some levels of training are frankly shocking. And it isn't just the non-Europeans. With the tonnage tax companies churning through cadets, taking no time with them whatsoever, or no interest in their training, is it any wonder that sub-standard training levels exist? You can't learn it all from a book.

[Lewis]

Some companys are just slow got offered an interview last week with SSTG have been a cadet with clyde since september.

[size4riggerboots]

As for why the OP cant get a job, seems odd given a certain Moderator here, only started looking in earnest a few weeks ago and today is joining a ship.

Yeah but I am a jammy little git (and used my contacts wisely). There was a HUGE amount of luck involved in me getting this job. Heard bugger all from all but one agency I put applications in to. Did have one email just over a week ago asking if I was interested in applying for a workboat job in Lowestoft, said yes initially but have since asked them to withdraw that one!