Are Kings Pointers Completing Sea Service?

Scuttlebutt
41

I’d list the union, but ask recruiters how to do a good resume targeted to the audience that you seek. They are the experts.

For example:

My contact at Core has left recruiting.

https://www.oceanwideamerica.com/

My contact at Atlas and Oceanwide (Marylou) is now at Noble Drilling.

My contact at Faststream is now a financial recruiter.

I think HR is changing fast. A lot of it is outsourced or work from home. Resumes have been read by computer looking for the right buzzwords for sometime. Soon it will mostly be AI. It’s critical that the resume be written to please the computer.

I get the impression that HR at many companies has high turnover and is dysfunctional.

Yesterday’s good advice may be worthless tomorrow.

People send me dozens of resumes a year. I sometimes review resumes at the office. I have no HR training. I take a practical approach and focus on personal contacts: who do I know at the companies this guy has worked for that will talk to me off the record, or what is the reputation of that company or boat. Sometimes, I know the captains and have their cell numbers.

I see some resumes that list the union as the employer with the specific vessel and employer listed as “vessel assignments” or some such. Other resumes list companies and vessels.

HR people are trained to focus on length of employment, starting and ending salary, and to “mind the gaps” (gaps in employment).

Most mariners are basically gig workers that hop from job to job, and have a lot of gaps in employment. Computer algorithms reject that instantly. HR people hate it. Mariners do not fit the standard HR model.

Of course, this just makes it more difficult, but not impossible.

I’ll also mention that Edward Jones, the stockbroker, is actively recruiting engineers to be trained as financial advisors.

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42

It’s up to you but I’d personally would reverse it. Id put the union as a start and finish or continuing employment date and not divide up every contract you’ve done but list certain ones and note advances/ upgrades etc etc. Because if you listed then the Union you could then list the multiple ships/ companies / projects you worked on while not seeming like you jumped around. Provides some visual consistency while also allowing you to appear well rounded and have fast experiences.

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43

I agree with others here, list the union and the time you’ve been a part of it. Third and Second mate are the different positions you’ve held it sounds like. List what you did in those positions, like planning voyages and weather routing for 2M. If a particular type of ship/cargo lends itself to certain skills (tanker and petro/liquid cargo, containership and containers, Government contract, etc) sell that experience. If you’ve reflagged a vessel or even gone through yards/repairs sell that. You’ve probably been responsible for inspecting, maintaining, and ordering SOLAS and Fire Fighting stuff. Maybe you were the medical officer or training officer. If you look back at the last few years you’ve done this, you’ll start to realize that you’ve done a lot. It can seem like no big deal because its every day life for us on ships.

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44

Want to get dirty? Come work on my Sea Going, Trailing Suction Hopper Dredge! Worked my way up from AB out of the Navy to Unlimited Master so I got dirty a lot! HAHAHA

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45

My hands were always dirty, from OS to Master, and then some as a true Hawespiper. No regrets. A lot harder now, but still doable.

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46

I heard that they are calling up SSO officers, and I also heard that MARAD is recinding waivers too.

47

True. Son was on a committee during Naval Reserve training to find “absentee” SSO officers a few years back. Why he was stationed in Tennessee had me scratching my head. The powers of the internet perhaps. Some of the SSO guys were contacted relating to this recent miracle Gaza project.

48

Do you know if this has actually happened or you’ve just heard it? Feel like the rumor mill has been pumping this out for years but I’ve never met anyone who could tell me even 2nd hand if it’s happened.

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49

I was at a training in VA, and there was a KP engineer with a shoreside job renewing his BST in class with me, he is an SSO and he said that he was getting called up, and that classmates of his, graduated more than 5 years ago, were also getting called up, and also getting waivers recinded.

Still just a rumour, but right from the horses mouth, and he seemed pretty rattled by it all. MSC is in crisis and those KP kids are a resource they can tap. I think it is real, but I cant say for sure. I think that the Navy and Govt. in general are starting to get worried and are waking up and starting to take action.

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50

True

51

When you say “called up” you mean the Navy is calling and saying you’re going to work at MSC or MARAD is calling saying you need to fulfill your obligation? Or the Navy is activating their SSO’s from a reserve to active duty?

52

When I made the move Shoreside my Resume just listed the Union as one continuous date with my Positions and Duties as I upgraded.
Then I listed the Tug Company I was a permanent at afterwards etc.

So it was like

  • Union 2011 - 2014

  • Tug Company 2014 - 2021

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53

SSO offficers arent’t actually “Called up”. They’re mostly on a subscription service that lets them know the needs. It is voluntary, and must pass all the regs, physicals,etc for the position. As SSO, they work for the Navy, and their crappy pay…

54

They can be, that’s kinda the schtick.

Just like everyone else when you join the military. But you have a minimum commitment.

What are they, a magazine?

They don’t work for the Navy, they’re in the Navy. Also, pay isn’t that crappy when you factor in that they only need two weeks a year to get benefits and retirement.

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55

Yes , they are in the navy doing SSO stuff. Pay is crappy compared to what many leave shoreside.I will have to ask a reputable SSO officer how they remain in contact. No… it is not a “Magazine”.

56

Yes, but that’s for ROS so it’s year round 9-5 M-F, home nights and weekends.

57

Beer Captaiin . they are contacted by e-mail, on a special list… Volunteers for now, but who knows what the future brings. Neither you nor I. Son volunteered for his last two SSO gigs for a good cause. The union members aboard did quite well as opposed to his navy pay. His shoreside pay was/is almost double his lieutenants pay. Still grinding out the points as a reserve for the" massive " LOL retirement from navy. And going far and above his USMMA 5-7 year requirement. That are KP GUYS completing sea service was the initial post, I am not sure you did one minute for service in your beloved country.

58

I know how it works, I was in the program.

Yeah. He was also a union member as you’ve stated multiple times. His SSO time is in addition to whatever he makes in his day job.

Still more of a retirement than you get with AMO. I know you have a pension but your kid isn’t much older than me so if he has any pension it’s pennies.

You don’t know shit about me so don’t make assumptions.

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59

Well they did also have the government pay for their education. Sounds like they still got a pretty good deal. And it’s officer pay, not like they’re being forced into a draft and receiving enlisted pay.

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60

This. I was in the Army, and I have several friends who recently retired or are still in, and some of them graduated from the USMA. They got a first-rate education at the taxpayers’ expense and then spent nearly their entire service obligation bouncing from crappy duty station to deployment to school to deployment to crappy duty station. All on O-1 through O-3 pay. Those who stayed in for 20 have endured multiple years-long family separations, uprooted spouses and kids every 2-3 years, been shot or blown-up or just generally broken by OpTempo … and are just now, in their 40s, making what a 22-year-old 3rd mate makes.

I have zero sympathy for whining from KP grads that they can’t find top-dollar jobs or can make more shoreside. You got a free education, presumably graduated with zero student debt, and you knew the deal when you signed up. You still have the opportunity to immediately make more money than the vast majority of four-year degree holders – and certainly more than any other service academy grads – and the privilege of serving your country.

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