Stuck on ferries...

[Unregistered]

Hi,

I'm wishing to stay anonymous because I know colleagues who trawl this website. Friends will probably identify me but nobody can prove anything!

I'm now roughly on 4 months sea time as a 4th Engineer on a British ferry. The job is really disheartening as it's terribly boring, it's 12/12 hour shifts and the crew are in agreement that it's an eat sleep work ship, absolutely no social life (as is the case on most ferries I've been on). The work itself is hard as 12 hours in the engine room (we're not allowed breaks out of the engine room, meals are eaten in the ECR...) gets you down. If you have a big crappy job in the morning you know you've still got 10 hours left of being stuck down there...

At first I liked all the 2 weeks on 2 weeks off as I was in a relationship and it worked fine. But now I'm single and either want to go ashore and get a 9-5 (and actually have a life) or go deep sea and enjoy myself. The problem is... nobody seems to want a lightly experienced engineer who has only worked with relatively small medium speed engines...

Has anyone got experience of escaping the ferries? Has anyone got a clue on what kind of shoreside jobs junior engineers could get into?

Thanks

[chris]

Im sure the cruise ships would jump at the chance to take you.

[jcwilson91]

Im sure the cruise ships would jump at the chance to take you.

That's the girlfriend and 'deep' sea problem sorted

[EH75]

Yeah the officer turnover on cruise is quite high so there are regularly vacancies, especially for engineers. If you want to go deep sea and have a good time then its probably a good place to start.

[The Kraken]

To be honest you've got to look at the positives. At least you've got a job aboard qualified, there's enough of us (deck and engine) who seem to be getting nowhere as even though you say "nobody seems to want a lightly experienced engineer" it is ten times worse for officers with only cadetship sailing experience. I'd play the long game and stick it out for another few trips so you've at least got 6 months experience and then see about moving on.

[YoungMariner]

I disagree with Kraken, if you want to get some wider experience, apply and get out there.

[EH75]

Yeah its different when you are unemployed and its a case of take whatever you can get but since you are already employed then just keep applying for stuff. Someone will take you eventually and at least in the meantime you are still earning.

[condeh]

Cruise Ships & RFA are always, always, looking for experienced engineers. Depending how much you have 'to lose' then you can take a risk on any old deep sea job, get out there and all that jazz

[The Kraken]

I disagree with Kraken, if you want to get some wider experience, apply and get out there.

I say 6 month as this seems to be the standard preferred licensed officer sailing time for a lot of junior positions across the board (deck and engine). I do believe they use this as a starting point so 0 months to 5 months etc will both be in the rejected pile, regardless of anything else.

[GuinnessMan]

Keep an eye on the likes of Shell, Chevron and BP. They do sometimes recruit junior officers with no or limited tanker experience and develop them...

[Midge]

Well this might suit you.

http://www.clyderecruit.com/index.php/seagoing-jobs/view/-16

or this

http://www.seamariner.com/vacancies/4th-engineer-870/

or possibly but looks like they want 2 years experience which is odd for a junior position ! But maybe not!

http://jobs.nautilusint.org/job/1872/deck-engineer-and-electrical-officers-/

[chris]

Has the low oil price affected tanker recruitment?

[GuinnessMan]

Has the low oil price affected tanker recruitment?

Probably, but I can't see it having too much of an effect. There are a lot of folks trying to get as much of the stuff stored away as they possibly can...

[Steve]

Has the low oil price affected tanker recruitment?

More likely to affect aspects of exploration and oilfield development. Production (and therefore shipping) isn't being cut.