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Hey! I'm fairly new to this forum, joined yesterday! Would you recommend training to be a deck officer? Is it a good job? What are the pros and cons? I'm also female, how many other females would be on the same course as me? Last question, is Liverpool John Moores a good college/university to study at?
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Hi meg and welcome,
its very hard to recommend if someone should train as a deck officer as everyone is different and this job does require you to be a certain type of person. you do have to be good at being on your own for long periods of time, being stuck on a ship for maybe 4 months with the same 13 people that you may not like. but then the job is also like no other, you do get to see bits of the world but only for maybe 12 hours at a time if your on a container ship if you';re on a crusie ship then maybe longer. you may alo find yourself in dry dock somewhere like las palmas for a month.
there was a post on here about women at sea the other day which may be useful too you. i have sailed with 4 different female officers. as far as i could see and tell they integrated fine, 2 of them joined the ship expecting to be outcast or mocked and so had a defensive attitude which you cant blame them far but to be honest on them ships no one cared, we all just wanted to get the 3 months done and go home, we couldn't of cared less if a female officer was on board, doesn't matter if you're an alien as long as you can do the job. i wouldn't get my hopes up to be on many ships with other females onboard unless you're joining a cruise ship though.
there are lots of old school men at sea though that still have that stupid caveman attitude of women having no place at sea but then you get these everywhere, you may get a few remarks or comments but so does everybody and you just deal with it, theres lots of banter on ships and i imagine a bit more for women. but the majoirty of men at sea couldn't care less and actually quite like the idea of having female officers, it cheers the place up a bit.
and lastly, i also studied at LJMU, i did the BSc route. i would personally recommend it, there was only 12 people on my course and by the 4th year only 3 left, so it was more like personnel tuition. and it was far less formal than the colleges from what i have heard none of this roll call nonsense or uniform. the lecturers are more like friends than teachers. just lots of learning and lots and lots of drinking =] you may not get a choice though, some sponsorship companies tell you which college you are going too. i notice you posted another question about pay, i'll send you a private message about that as most of that stuff is not allowed to be discussed, god knows why as im sure all the companies know exactly what other companies are paying there staff but still.
i hope my ramblings have helped and if there are any more questions, just ask, im more than happy to help others through what iv already been through, i wish i could have had some helpful advice at times. -
Thanks for your help on here and on private message! How come there was only 3 left at the of the course? Is it quite a difficult course?Comment
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no the course wasn't that difficult, the first 3 years is not much different from the college route just a few extra stupid compulsory uni modules you have to do but thats alright because you get to 'integrate' a bit more with other people
i don't think many companies will sponsor the BSc route anymore, only the foundation thanks to our marvellous government increasing uni fees to extortionate rates.
most of the people left because of other factors nothing to do with the course or job. one left because he just didn't like it he never went to sea he just new it wasn't for him. one lad had his 3rd child so needed to get a job quickly in order to pay for it, he now has 5 lads, the lucky bas*ard! lol one lad had some gambling debts he had to pay so he left, one lad was mega posh and he didn't turn up to his first ship which was probably good, daddy paid for his yacht masters and now hes swanning about getting in my way more than likely in daddy's yacht. ermmm one lad went on a cruise ship for 4 months and thought he'd be hosting dinners and getting of kate winslet and all that, but instead he was cleaning out the chain locker for the anchor for most of it. oh and one fella was 50 something, his wife's business fell through so had to go back to his day job.
as always i hope this has helped if it hasn't just tell me to shut up and stop clogging the feed!Comment
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Thanks, it's helped a lot! You've not put me off yet aha
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