[QUOTE=Shredrick McGnarlson;135515]So how many of you would recommend shelling out the ~$1000 + 5 days to do the BST course and/or the ~$200 +2 days for RFPNW before heading down to the GOM to knock on doors?
I had been under the impression that although it would make it easier to get hired initially, most companies will pay for some or all of that after you get hired. Bad assumption? I was thinking I’d at least try without it for a bit first and see if I got lucky.
Thanks[/QUOTE]
It depends on your budget and how much of a gambler you are. For the most part, the guys that will pay you more will find you more attractive if you already have BST and RFPNW but will often hire guys without and send them to school, but their hiring OSs seems to be sporadic. The lesser paying companies though are more likely to hire an OS and often don’t even require STCW so they don’t care if you have BST or not. But since they don’t require STCW, they aren’t going to send you to school for it either.
So in a nutshell, if you have the funds for BST and RFPNW right now and are willing to gamble that a bigger company will hire you, then do it. If you need the paycheck now and don’t mind that it’s not top dollar, save your money and hit up the smaller boat companies.
There’s always the chance that a major player still won’t hire you even with BST and RFPNW and that you’ll wind up at the smaller company for less money anyway. (In the end you will still have to get those eventually though).