Hi :-d

[Lloyd]

Hi everyone, I've been lurking the forum for the last week and I've got to say what a brilliant forum it is, I've already learned so much. I will, however, be hounding/harassing you with a number of questions these coming days so be prepared .

So a bit about myself. Well I'm a Pisces so I belong at sea (perhaps I wont even need to have an interview due to this fact haha). When I was younger I was in the Sea Cadets and I planned on joining the navy once I'd finish school, though things didn't quite plan out that way. Firstly I went to college and did a BTEC National Diploma in Manufacturing Engineering which were the best days of my life, an amazing group of friends combined with an astonishingly easy course meant everyday was hilarious (plus I got EMA which was like winning the lotto back then). After this I decided to follow my friends to uni, where we all studied a BEng in Materials Science and Engineering. The course was one hell of a wake up call to 6 guys that had basically copied and pasted their way through college and I ended up being the only one left at the end of year one which sucked. Anyway, fast forward two years and I miraculously graduated with a 2.1 Honors which I'm obviously chuffed with.

Then the hard part. Time to get a job. The major graduate schemes were simply out of the question. They all appeared to want someone that had completely dedicated their lives to working for them, preferably since birth. I was actually one of the lucky few and managed to get a job six months after graduating as a Graduate Materials Science Consultant. Yes I was ECSTATIC. The perfect job for a Materials Scientist.

The company was predominantly a Marine Consultancy full of ex-mariners. It didn't take long for them to regale story after story of how much they enjoyed working in the merchant navy and soon enough they started telling me I should have done that. Initially I wasn't interested if I'm honest, I was still on a high from getting such a good job. However, once that subsided and a few others issues occurred, I knew that I wanted to join the Merchant Navy .

So with the advice on this forum I'm hoping that I'll be starting my training in January.

[GuinnessMan]

Hello and welcome...

Small hint. Don't put your star sign in your CV!

[size4riggerboots]

I second GM's advice Welcome Lloyd to this madhouse of a forum Have you got your applications in yet?

[Clanky]

Welcome and good luck. I would hope with your qualifications that you will somehow be able to be fast tracked through the cadetship, but the rules on that seem to be applied on a case by case basis, with little consistency so don't hold your breath!

If you are any good at breathing new life into disposable fuel filters I am pretty sure we could find a job for you on here tomorrow (or earlier depending on how fast you can get here)

[Chiefy]

I dunno Star Sign in the CV WILL make it stand out from the crowd....

As for a January start, you may be running a little late, the favoured and biggest in take is the September one, for that you are running quite late but not impossible, however next years is just about starting to load up so that should be do-able.

With that CV "some one" will want you almost for sure, so you just need to think about what sector you fancy or just bang in all the applications you can and see what pops out the other end

Anyways welcome and good luck, and dont be a stranger

[Lloyd]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys. I think my CV will really stand out when I put my star sign and the horoscope that guided me to a career in the Merchant Navy on it lol .

I haven't sent off any applications yet but from what (little) research I've done so far I'm mostly interested in the offshore sector. A large part of my current job is actually condition assessments of FPSO pipelines (risers, jumpers, flexibles) from the major oil companies so I've got a good understanding of how FPSOs operate. Are there any companies which offer the opportunity to work on risers? I'd assume they would be manned by MN personnel seeing as most of them are converted tankers.

With regards to training I'm hoping to get with BP/Shell/Chevron as they appear to be the best, but I do understand how competitive these will be and if an opportunity came to start my training in the Offshore sector then that would be perfect. I'm not to bothered about being fast tracked. Its something I would like but tbh I understand how big an opportunity this is so another three years training is nothing to me (I'm guessing the retirement age will be about 150 soon enough anyway haha).

Anyway thanks again guys. I'm going to do a bit more research now so when I've got some (previously answered) questions I'll fire away.

[size4riggerboots]

Maersk have a large offshore sector too.

[bridgemonkey]

Maersk have a large offshore sector too.

Maersk have everything...including a game

[CharlieDelta]

I really need to trim down that smilie library...

[Lloyd]

Maersk are another company I'd looked at but it seems they don't take on in January. I'm still going to apply to them but I really want to get going with my training now haha, like a dog chasing a stick. I've actually spoken to clyde who told me to apply for the January intake in October.

Is it worth me contacting offshore companies to ask whether they will be sponsoring any cadets for the January intake?

[HarmlessWeasel]

You won't hear back from Maersk til at least January, but still worth applying in case you don't find anything suitable for a jan start

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