Appreciating effort

[Lewisscott22]

As a cadet on board a merchant vessel, you take up a lot of your DSTO?s time ? especially if it?s the Chief Officer!

To show that I valued the time my DSTO gave me, I made his coffee, picked up the things he wanted when we were alongside and of course used my manners.

What would YOU like/want/advise a cadet to do in order to show his/her appreciation?

[size4riggerboots]

Bring me a couple of well written, properly researched reports each week and mark which items in their TRB they felt merited a signature on the basis of those reports. Rather than a heap of reports a week before they sign off and a request to sign all the things in the TRB.

Oh and I like my coffee milky, one big sugar

[YoungMariner]

I just want a keen motivated cadet, proactive, wants to try everything and being told no/not this time doesn't put him/her off asking again. And all of the points s4r mentioned.

[Lewis]

On my first ship both crew and officers went above and beyond the call to help with our training. Me and other cadet went to Tesco bought 2 case of beer on last day gave one to C/O and Bosun to share out with officers and crew.

Don't do this if your on a dry ship :P

[HarmlessWeasel]

I just want a keen motivated cadet, proactive, wants to try everything and being told no/not this time doesn't put him/her off asking again. And all of the points s4r mentioned.

just out of curiosity, where do you get your cadets from?

[Lewisscott22]

Thanks for the responses.

A reason why I ask is because some officers did not appear that interested in my training after asking to participate in tasks on numerous occasions. I thought if I helped them, they would help me - makes sense I think.

Hopefully, it was a one off occasion and wont happen again.

[Clanky]

The only thanks that most of us want is to see that you are making as much of an effort as you can with your training. As S4 said it also helps if you can make it as easy as possible for people to sign off your tasks rather than expecting the officers onboard to figure out what they need to sign off and what training you need to do, go to your DSTO with a list of things that you need to be involved in and ask him / her to bear it in mind when these jobs come up rather than saying "Oh, I needed to get that signed off" after the job is done.

That, and coffee!

[YoungMariner]

just out of curiosity, where do you get your cadets from?

In my current outfit, we have 'local' cadets, who are sent through the UK system at South Shields. Quite a few Middle Eastern cadets go through the UK system including Dubai Ports, Saudi Aramco and Oman Shipping.

[chrisclapperford]

Using manners should be enough to show appreciation. There's no need to go over the top with the "sucking up". Back when I was on ship as a cadet the other cadets seemed to spend more of their time making the chief's coffee and washing his clothes then actually getting stuff in their trb signed and reports done. As a chief officer all I'd expect is a thank you; it is my job to train cadets on board.

Recently had one of my cadets try and spend his time sucking up to me as he wasn't the most competent cadet we've ever had and I saw right through it.

[Pilot Chris]

If I was doing my job properly the cadets didn't have time to say thank you or suck up!