For my first post I thought I might post a career idea and give something small back to the forum to offset the huge wealth of knowledge I've taken on-board whilst lurking here. I did have a much longer and more detailed post to provide but I lost that and I've realised that career topics can be so lengthy and full of holes that it's just better to throw some resources out there and people can feel free to look into anything that interests them.
My career idea was joining the merchant navy. I'm currently employed as a chemist but looked at joining (and was offered a position as a cadet) with the British Merchant Navy.
I turned it down due to its low training wage (its a position that doesn't pay well for its significant training period and makes more sense for a guy straight out of school not someone just finished with university).
When I say joining the Merchant Navy I am referring to undertaking a cadet-ship as opposed to joining in another entry level position (think joining the military as a commissioned officer as opposed to as a private).
The cadet-ship consists of 3-3.5 years of combined work experience and classroom learning.
The positives of the career that I thought might appeal to the people who frequent RooshV:
- Well paid (after training and with experience as it is with many careers).
- Ability to gain qualifications (paid for as part of training).
- International travel (also paid for).
- Time off (most merchant navy positions operate on a 1 day on/1 day off after the training period) (so as an officer you should only work 6 months of the year but get paid over 12)
- Masculine Career (Free from office politics with a career ladder that rewards effort, experience and capability.)
- Low lifestyle costs (you will be unlikely to save on rent unless you live a very nomadic lifestyle, but for large parts of the year your expenses will be minimal).
There are of course negatives:
- Low initial pay (you will most likely be receiving pay that totals a few hundred a month, to the extent that many people take on loans and other ways of making money during their cadet-ship)
- Your travel is dictated
- Large periods of time away from home and away from civilisation itself.
- Long and hard days
- More dangerous than many other jobs (although not particularly dangerous) .
- Basic medical, eyesight, age and nationality requirements.
- Significant training period (3 to 3.5 years of which approx. 18 months is spent at sea (the 18 months are not consecutive)
Now I thought I would give a brief overview of the three types of cadet-ship, the merchant navy itself and finally some resources.
1. Deck Officer
In charge of navigation and controlling the ship. Also often responsible for other member of crew and liaising with ports and authorities. The Captain/Master of the ship is an experienced Deck Officer.
(http://www.sstg.org/cms/show/your-opport...ck-officer)
2. Engine Officer
Responsible for monitoring, maintaining and repairing the engine and other mechanical elements of the ship.
(http://www.sstg.org/cms/show/your-opport...er-officer)
3. Electro-technical Officer
Responsible for monitoring, maintaining and repairing the electrical elements of the ship. This is considered the least important officer class and is often just included in the ships engineering department.
(http://www.sstg.org/cms/show/your-opport...al-officer)
Bear in mind that the top engineers and technicians report to the top deck officer (the Captain) and this is often reflected in pay. But also bear in mind that finding a engine officer/cadet-ship position is much easier and there is a current perceived shortage of young men becoming marine engineers.
The term Merchant Navy simply refers to the commercial shipping industry. It is private sector not public sector and merely refers to the place of business (in this case the fact that the ships are registered/connected to Britain but are not property of the British government for the most part: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Fleet_Auxiliary).
There are both national and international governing bodies that dictate both the national (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritime_an...ard_Agency) and international(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internation...ganisation) laws of commercial shipping/maritime operations. This is of course due to the huge amount of tonnage, investment and potential earnings of a merchant fleet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HM_Revenue_and_Customs).
The British Merchant Navy currently comprises of many hundred ships (and was once in the thousands, but as ships have gotten larger; their number decreases) which carry out operations across the globe throughout countless industries and carry millions of DWT (deadweight tonnage which is the safe capacity of a ship). So there is potential for a very interesting and varied career also. Here is a list of some of the various capacities that ships of the Merchant Navy operate in (http://www.sstg.org/cms/show/your-opport...ip-types).
Anyway here are some resources for the British Merchant Navy:
http://www.careersatsea.org/index.html
An introductory resource for pretty much any question you might have.
http://www.careersatsea.org/resources/faq
Commonly asked questions from the above site.
http://www.officercadet.com/
A forum for officers and cadets
http://www.sstg.org/cms/show/merchant-na...rough-sstg
SSTG is a training company and I found their site useful.
http://www.careersatsea.org/apply/sponso...panies.php
Here is a list of scholarships, shipping companies and training organisations that you can apply through.
And some international resources:
America:
http://www.usmma.edu/
Switzerland: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Ma...witzerland
(some shipping companies listed at the bottom)
Australia:
http://www.australianmerchantnavy.com/
New Zealand:
http://www.careers.govt.nz/qualification.../0259/7203
Poland:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Merchant_Navy
Greece:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Merchant_Navy
Largest in the world (followed by the Japanese)
Canada:
http://www.cmsg-gmmc.ca/
Other resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mer...by_country
http://www.isl.org/
Apologies that the resources are slapdash but they can hopefully act as a starting point for anyone interested in other merchant organisations.
I would recommend using the resources for any questions as they'll be much better than I will (but feel free to ask) and I'm just throwing this out as an idea. As a final unrelated note I'd just like to say again what a fantastic forum this is and that I look forward to being more involved in the future and hopefully creating some better and more informative posts.
My career idea was joining the merchant navy. I'm currently employed as a chemist but looked at joining (and was offered a position as a cadet) with the British Merchant Navy.
I turned it down due to its low training wage (its a position that doesn't pay well for its significant training period and makes more sense for a guy straight out of school not someone just finished with university).
When I say joining the Merchant Navy I am referring to undertaking a cadet-ship as opposed to joining in another entry level position (think joining the military as a commissioned officer as opposed to as a private).
The cadet-ship consists of 3-3.5 years of combined work experience and classroom learning.
The positives of the career that I thought might appeal to the people who frequent RooshV:
- Well paid (after training and with experience as it is with many careers).
- Ability to gain qualifications (paid for as part of training).
- International travel (also paid for).
- Time off (most merchant navy positions operate on a 1 day on/1 day off after the training period) (so as an officer you should only work 6 months of the year but get paid over 12)
- Masculine Career (Free from office politics with a career ladder that rewards effort, experience and capability.)
- Low lifestyle costs (you will be unlikely to save on rent unless you live a very nomadic lifestyle, but for large parts of the year your expenses will be minimal).
There are of course negatives:
- Low initial pay (you will most likely be receiving pay that totals a few hundred a month, to the extent that many people take on loans and other ways of making money during their cadet-ship)
- Your travel is dictated
- Large periods of time away from home and away from civilisation itself.
- Long and hard days
- More dangerous than many other jobs (although not particularly dangerous) .
- Basic medical, eyesight, age and nationality requirements.
- Significant training period (3 to 3.5 years of which approx. 18 months is spent at sea (the 18 months are not consecutive)
Now I thought I would give a brief overview of the three types of cadet-ship, the merchant navy itself and finally some resources.
1. Deck Officer
In charge of navigation and controlling the ship. Also often responsible for other member of crew and liaising with ports and authorities. The Captain/Master of the ship is an experienced Deck Officer.
(http://www.sstg.org/cms/show/your-opport...ck-officer)
2. Engine Officer
Responsible for monitoring, maintaining and repairing the engine and other mechanical elements of the ship.
(http://www.sstg.org/cms/show/your-opport...er-officer)
3. Electro-technical Officer
Responsible for monitoring, maintaining and repairing the electrical elements of the ship. This is considered the least important officer class and is often just included in the ships engineering department.
(http://www.sstg.org/cms/show/your-opport...al-officer)
Bear in mind that the top engineers and technicians report to the top deck officer (the Captain) and this is often reflected in pay. But also bear in mind that finding a engine officer/cadet-ship position is much easier and there is a current perceived shortage of young men becoming marine engineers.
The term Merchant Navy simply refers to the commercial shipping industry. It is private sector not public sector and merely refers to the place of business (in this case the fact that the ships are registered/connected to Britain but are not property of the British government for the most part: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Fleet_Auxiliary).
There are both national and international governing bodies that dictate both the national (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritime_an...ard_Agency) and international(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internation...ganisation) laws of commercial shipping/maritime operations. This is of course due to the huge amount of tonnage, investment and potential earnings of a merchant fleet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HM_Revenue_and_Customs).
The British Merchant Navy currently comprises of many hundred ships (and was once in the thousands, but as ships have gotten larger; their number decreases) which carry out operations across the globe throughout countless industries and carry millions of DWT (deadweight tonnage which is the safe capacity of a ship). So there is potential for a very interesting and varied career also. Here is a list of some of the various capacities that ships of the Merchant Navy operate in (http://www.sstg.org/cms/show/your-opport...ip-types).
Anyway here are some resources for the British Merchant Navy:
http://www.careersatsea.org/index.html
An introductory resource for pretty much any question you might have.
http://www.careersatsea.org/resources/faq
Commonly asked questions from the above site.
http://www.officercadet.com/
A forum for officers and cadets
http://www.sstg.org/cms/show/merchant-na...rough-sstg
SSTG is a training company and I found their site useful.
http://www.careersatsea.org/apply/sponso...panies.php
Here is a list of scholarships, shipping companies and training organisations that you can apply through.
And some international resources:
America:
http://www.usmma.edu/
Switzerland: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Ma...witzerland
(some shipping companies listed at the bottom)
Australia:
http://www.australianmerchantnavy.com/
New Zealand:
http://www.careers.govt.nz/qualification.../0259/7203
Poland:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Merchant_Navy
Greece:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Merchant_Navy
Largest in the world (followed by the Japanese)
Canada:
http://www.cmsg-gmmc.ca/
Other resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mer...by_country
http://www.isl.org/
Apologies that the resources are slapdash but they can hopefully act as a starting point for anyone interested in other merchant organisations.
I would recommend using the resources for any questions as they'll be much better than I will (but feel free to ask) and I'm just throwing this out as an idea. As a final unrelated note I'd just like to say again what a fantastic forum this is and that I look forward to being more involved in the future and hopefully creating some better and more informative posts.
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