Anyone still not managed to find work?

[Unregistered]

Ok so it's month 6 after qualifying and still no closer to getting a job. Applied to many many companies, phoned, chased up and they are coming back with either you need experience as a qualified officer or we are not hiring at the moment. Speaking to a few companies they blame the downturn in oil prices, laying people off and others coming over to the marine sector taking up the jobs. Before anyone says anything I've had my CV reviewed by multiple people in the industry who all say it's good, as well as applying in every sector (so I'm not being picky) and always constantly chasing up agencies. Seriously considering leaving the industry all together at this point as my personal morale is so low, and if this is what is happening generally British officers are going to die out.

So, has anybody else had this problem?

[Clanky]

Sadly an all too familiar story. It seems that things are generally worse for deck officers than engineers at the moment.

If you haven't done so already then contact Careers at Sea who have offered to help people find a first job once qualified.

Good luck, I hope something comes along soon.

[Midge]

Not sure how old this is , might be worth a call anyway if you haven't seen it. http://www.faststream.com/master_mar...deck_officers/

[Midge]

Link to an application form usual we are recruiting for etc but always good to get your name in the list.

http://www.northlinkferries.co.uk/other/employment-opportunities/

Another site no vacancies fir junior deck but no harm in giving them a call.

http://www.craig-group.com/careers/crew

Seems our sister island has lots of recruiting companies for ferries and ships calmac also based there.

[Unregistered]

Who did you do your cadetship with Mr/Ms Anonymous?

[Unregistered]

Hello Midge, I've tried all those links in the past and the same issues as my original question were brought up. I have also been in touch with the MNTB and they are helpful, however they can only guide to the jobs that are currently advertised. I did my cadetship with a tonnage tax company through a certain training agency, but I'm not too sure why that makes a difference?

[Midge]

Hello Midge, I've tried all those links in the past and the same issues as my original question were brought up. I have also been in touch with the MNTB and they are helpful, however they can only guide to the jobs that are currently advertised. I did my cadetship with a tonnage tax company through a certain training agency, but I'm not too sure why that makes a difference?

If I see anything come up that's new I'll post it. All I can think of is to keep contacting the agencies and companies, hopefully eventually something will come up.
There is the RFA as another option? Not sure if they are recruiting or not.
As a parent of someone who will soon qualify (hopefully) I'm not impressed with the lack of jobs for the newly qualified and the catch 22 situation.
The system needs a rethink and tonnage tax comps to give cadets a first job for a min period would be helpful.

[ETwhat?]

It shouldn't make a difference,
but some ships/companies that cadets get sent with give poorer training than others and its hard for the training company to do much about it, I know as a cadets some of my ships were excellent and some were adequate even within the same company.
Also how well did you do as a cadet, yes you got the ticket but how about the college time FD or HND etc. sadly when people say its all about the ticket its not true, as everyone applying for the job will have one, so its the other bits that makes you standout.
have you tried the crewing agency for the training company you did your time with, if they have one, ideally for temp work as it tends to be less critical than a placement for a full time job and if they have no places available right then have you actually put them on the spot and asked will they actually consider you, (most people need pushed to tell you something harsh if they are going to).

[TAL]

Try Arklow shipping http://www.asl.ie/crewing/ or carries broke shipping... I know Arklow are a decent company and sometimes take on newly qualified OOW's.

[Unregistered]

Hello Tal I've tried Arklow but their Ireland number is not in use anymore, I have emailed their office on the continent about jobs several times and had no reply. I did get generally good training and I did well as a cadet. The problem is it is not even getting to the stage where companies check references for that sort of thing, I'm just getting hit with 'no experience as a qualified officer, sorry no job' response. I have tried the crewing agency of my training company and even they want either experience or additional certificates for all the jobs applied for (such as crisis management etc), and yes I've put them on the spot with every application I send off. I wish they'd give preference to their ex-cadets, maybe send them the job links a day before they go live? As I've received exactly zero help from them after qualifying.

[YoungMariner]

I think that the increase in cadetships over the last 10 year hasn't been followed up with encouraging employment for British residents post cadetship. When I qualified in 2006 I had the pick of jobs, now a few years later it seems like far too many qualifying cadets and too few jobs. With a Chief Mates or Master ticket the work becomes easier to find again...

Perhaps time to scale back the SMART funding ?

[Midge]

I think that the increase in cadetships over the last 10 year hasn't been followed up with encouraging employment for British residents post cadetship. When I qualified in 2006 I had the pick of jobs, now a few years later it seems like far too many qualifying cadets and too few jobs. With a Chief Mates or Master ticket the work becomes easier to find again...

Perhaps time to scale back the SMART funding ?

All the stuff that gets spouted out keeps on about seafarer shortages and the need for smart, Nautilus had something in it about jobs for NQ cadets and I think I saw something in nautical institute mag too ( might be wrong) definately seems to come up fairly often that they need more seafarers. I suppose if you don't have new to replace retiring masters and Chiefs there will be shortages, perhaps the problem was smart was too late being implemented. Now other countries have and are filling in the shortages because they existed, companies found a cheaper source so have kept recruiting them?
A tweak to the system to get sponsors to employ for three six months would be hugely beneficial. Cadets could have the option not to take that up of course, only problem I see is that the existing working newly qualified could find it hard to stay employed. Companies could have the benfit of extra manning at maybe a cheaper rate a NQT one?
The figures recently said the numbers of new cadets is at the highest it's been and were congratuling themselves on their success.
The wheels seem to turn very slowly in reacting to problems that arise in shipping.

[Clanky]

I think you have partly hit the nail on the head with regards to the fact that a shortage of British officers has forced companies to recruit elsewhere and they ahve realised how much they are saving.

The other issue is that with so many cadets being trained on vessels where standards are not high, the average skill levels of newly qualified British officers has dropped significantly while at the same time STCW 95 has raised the average skill levels of officers from countries which have been traditionally cheaper, but with poorer standards. I hate to say it, but I have sailed with quite a few Filipino officers recently who could run rings round many British officers so there is less and less incentive for companies to pay the extra for British officers.

[ETwhat?]

Is there actually a limit on the numbers of each type of cadet? I know the requirement for how many cadets (for tonnage tax) is based on the number of officers but is it broken down to prevent an excess of one discipline.

While I like the idea that the cadetship would contain some training after the ticket to get that all important experience, I think that if you did it at a low salary it would just get abused as cheap labour and wouldnt end in long term employment with that company,

[Clanky]

Is there actually a limit on the numbers of each type of cadet? I know the requirement for how many cadets (for tonnage tax) is based on the number of officers but is it broken down to prevent an excess of one discipline.

While I like the idea that the cadetship would contain some training after the ticket to get that all important experience, I think that if you did it at a low salary it would just get abused as cheap labour and wouldn't end in long term employment with that company,

While it may not end in long term employment with that company it may well end in improved chances of employment with another company, so many jobs are advertised with a minimum requirement of 6 months in rank that it may be worth taking a hit for six months just to get that time in and give people the opportunity to apply for other positions.

The problem with this would be that if companies had a steady supply of cadets coming through who they could employ at reduced rates then they may reduce the numbers of officers onboard who they employ at full rate and thus make the market more challenging for those with experience, but many of the companies who train cadets simply don't employ British officers at all so I don't see this being too great a problem. The other issue is that if companies see that people are prepared to work for that sort of salary then it may force salaries down in general.

When I first qualified we had junior engineers and third mates who were carried as extras to top up there cadet training after qualifying, sadly with companies cutting costs more and more it is rare to see this, my present employers are one of the few who still send their ex cadets as extra for their first trip or two.