Disappointment?

[Unregistered]

has anyone else found that this is a completly unfullfilling career? having spent my first merchant sea time recently and frankly very easilly passed the academic phase i found that the challenge and great variation the advertiseing promises is far from the truth. the job is monotonous at best and in no way challenging with very little variation. maybe coming from a privously military background i expected too much? has anyone also found that this is frankly potentially a bad trap and the only reason for FDsc and not BSc is because it stops you leaving for a gradute job. indeed my best watch was when we where being chased by pirates.

I'm just curious if anyone feels utterly unfulfilled and betrayed by this career or if i just got a particully bad ship and i know container ships are frankly far inferior in variation to other vessel types.]Thoughts?

[size4riggerboots]

Sounds like you had a bad 1st trip mate. Yes of course there are periods of mind numbing monotony, but there are (believe me) very few jobs that don't have a certain amount of mind numbing monotony. The academic work in the first college phase isn't that taxing. (Though be careful about saying that to your coursemates, you could end up sounding like an arrogant tw@t, some of them I guarantee, will have struggled.) But the later college work will require more application and thought.

From what I've heard from various sources, container ships really are dull. I hope you get to experience some other vessel types, before you write the whole thing off completely. I'm intrigued by your choice of words, "Betrayed" seems a little harsh merhaps, how much research did you do before you signed up? Or did you just see the MNTB ads and think "Oh action and adventure I'll have some of that"? I'm not having a go, I'm trying to understand your reasons for coming into this career.

Chin up, go back to college and compare stories with your coursemates and see how the next round of academia works out for you before you jack it in completely.
S4 xx

[YoungMariner]

You're in a good place to train, but once you complete there are plenty of different ship types out there where you can be very challenged. I'd imagine that some of the Offshore Jackup/Drill ships are pretty busy, Cruise Ships have a lot of variety in terms of additional duties and regularly in and out of port and the list can go on.

[ETwhat?]

Academically the course is a bit backward, it doesnt matter if you scrape through on an HNC or get top marks in the FD it gives you the same ticket to go onto a ship with but there is still a benefit in doing well.
As for ships, the main thing you have to remember is as a cadet you are effectively watching someon else doing the job, and while they can be teaching and showing you things the main part of a watch is watching, and when its your responsibility it will take a bit more effort than when your trying to mimic someone else.

However to judge a whole career on a single trip, ship and crew is probably not a good idea

[penfold]

What they said mostly. The FD shouldn't be a trap; as I understand it, it should be straightforward to do an add-on to bring it up to a BSc. It doesn't make much sense as a qualification if that isn't the case.

[ramfeild66]

I'm a university graduate with a degree in English, aside from a brief stint working as a TEFL teacher in Asia I have worked as a binman (good pay) a warehouse operative, a baker, a fork lift truck driver and a night porter. What can I tell you about those jobs? Really, really boring(except for racing fork lifts... H&S didn't like it mind). You have to be very fortunate to be in a job where you genuinely do something fun, exciting and challenging and get paid well for it and the reality of those jobs are if your doing the same or similar thing day in day out, they'll eventually loose their shine. There are a lot of people out there that would jump at the chance to do what your doing and I can't say that for any of my previous jobs.

[K202]

im makeing my decision wether to stay over this week, was sort of hoping david cameron would notice that his shafting of the armed forces was a mistake and i could go into the navy but ahh well lol. i never thought id have to stick it out this long sadly i did.

[penfold]

Not sure what you mean; the forces maintain manning levels by recruiting continuously, the fact redundancies are happening further up the ladder does not change that(except maybe altering the mix of recruitment; more or less in each branch but the same overall). If you want in the grey funnel line it's no more or less attractive than it was last year, if anything the shiny toys on order should make it more so.

[Unregistered]

im makeing my decision wether to stay over this week, was sort of hoping david cameron would notice that his shafting of the armed forces was a mistake and i could go into the navy but ahh well lol. i never thought id have to stick it out this long sadly i did.

The maritime reserve is on a MAJOR recruitment drive currently (aimed increase of 50% by 2018). With a Merchant Navy background you would be one of the most sought after groups. Get involved.

[GuinnessMan]

im makeing my decision wether to stay over this week, was sort of hoping david cameron would notice that his shafting of the armed forces was a mistake and i could go into the navy but ahh well lol. i never thought id have to stick it out this long sadly i did.

I'm not sure I'm reading this right, you don't like the MN so you'll head off and join the RN?

[size4riggerboots]

Jeezus, if you think the MN is dull, wait until you're sat alongside for months at a time in the RN!!

[perksy121]

The forces can be a lot like the MN in that respect, I come from a very military family and the phrase '90% boredom 10% action' is used a lot. I understand where your coming from sometimes I get the little voice in the back of my head saying 'maybe you should have joined the Royal' especially this morning when I spent the whole watch sorting through every chart on the bridge cross referencing the edition date with the date on the computer folio! But the way I see it, I'm still young, by the time I've got my degree and done my required service time to the company I'll still only be 23 and then maybe if that little voice just doesn't go away I'll join the RN, I bet the fact that I'll have done 2 years as a qualified Deck Officer will help a lot when it comes to officer selection and training! There's no rush plus I'm finding college great fun so why not make the most of another couple of years (reasonably) responsibility free! :-)

[Unregistered]

The forces can be a lot like the MN in that respect, I come from a very military family and the phrase '90% boredom 10% action' is used a lot. I understand where your coming from sometimes I get the little voice in the back of my head saying 'maybe you should have joined the Royal' especially this morning when I spent the whole watch sorting through every chart on the bridge cross referencing the edition date with the date on the computer folio! But the way I see it, I'm still young, by the time I've got my degree and done my required service time to the company I'll still only be 23 and then maybe if that little voice just doesn't go away I'll join the RN, I bet the fact that I'll have done 2 years as a qualified Deck Officer will help a lot when it comes to officer selection and training! There's no rush plus I'm finding college great fun so why not make the most of another couple of years (reasonably) responsibility free! :-)

That assumes that the waiting list to enter the Warfare Branch is no longer than 2 years? (assuming you apply on your 23rd Birthday). You will also lose your tickets for re-validation. You find many go from RN to MN but not many the other way around. Figure out the reasons for and against and decide on them, not just because you think you might like it... don't waste too much time in deciding though.

[Ducki52]

I'd leave thoughts of joining the RN well alone if I were you, they aren't quite the proud, professional example-to-the-world's-navies they once were, and as S4 has already said, its expensive for them to put to sea, so expect to see a lot of Pompey, Plymouth or Rosyth. Plus you get paid less, get less leave and you're liable to be dicked to go and direct cars at the Olympics if you're in the RN.

[Aleorea]

Deep sea jobs like on tankers and container ships are to most sane people boring as hell... Get your self onto offshore boats or cruise ships for a bit of excitement....