[QUOTE=Capt. Phoenix;180867]Yes, that’s unreasonable for Maritime schools. A very high percentage is in their 30’s and even 40’s.
The jobs I’ve seen like that (about Maritime Academy grads) made me think they were advertising to inexperienced people (thus why [B]recent[/B] grad) specifically because they weren’t going to pay much.[/QUOTE]
Well that’s pretty much it in any industry. Get the cheapest labor you can. Young grads need jobs too but that doesn’t mean that over 50’s should just curl up and die, but I get the impression that we’re supposed to do just that (lol)
[QUOTE=cajaya;180871]I’m not sure if it’s age or not. I have seen and heard of companies recruiting older cadets right out of college. On the other hand one engineer I worked with who got hired on with a place young (that paid particularly well) explained to me he got his job for being at the right place at the right time, had flunked a semester, had to retake licensing exams, or failed cruise or something and was one of the few cadets hanging around the school waiting for his license to arrive because everyone was graduated already and working etc when a company called the school and told them to send them somebody asap if anyone was around.
He then explained that he learned later on they liked to get people right out of school because the particular ship was complicated and they wanted people to work “their way” and wanted them before they developed any bad habits or something like that. To be honest, I was an oiler so stood watches with many engineers at different companies and didn’t see much of a difference ( I thought most or all of the engineers I worked with deep sea were pretty good). The only thing that was true was that the ship was complicated, diesel electric with a lot of quirks, so maybe they correlated academy grad with being smarter and able to figure it out. Though that reasoning doesn’t make sense to me unless they were an academy grad from a place like SUNY that has electrical engineering degrees. I think someome who sailed electrician in the navy or something first with a lot of experience would be a better on a system like that than a newly minted academy grad that studied marine engineering (marine engineering programs arent very electrical intensive). He wasn’t bad, just not any different than any other engineers I stood watches with. But anyway, that’s just the disconnect and biases we have to deal with. He also mentioned that they wanted people fresh out of college because they wanted permanent employees that would stay a long time, so maybe it’s perceived that fresh out of college cadets are more likely to stay at a place longer. I have no idea, I’m just speculating here, it could be about age but [I]how[/I] much older might be the issue. I would say the academy people I have heard of getting jobs right out of graduated where in their mid 30’s to early 40’s.[/QUOTE]
I completely understand the rationale of wanting someone to learn good habits, but the ability to do so is not limited to young people. I learn something new every day, and I tend to be curious about things with which I have no experience. But…after working with enough people my age, I can attest that there are plenty who are happy with simply doing as they are told. Sometimes, with disastrous results.
For reference, I’m in my mid-50’s and working as a 3A/E. Ex-Navy EM…which gives me an advantage in some areas (as you noted)
These are just observations. I’m not ranting about anything in particular. Just making comments about the way things seem to shake out.