No, not talking about Leroy and Joe-bob bayou headhunting 100-ton licenses for crewboats that make you sign over half your wages or whatever bullshit to get a job, but more of the “higher end” (or so they seem) recruitment agencies looking for higher licensed guys/DPO’s/shoreside positions. For example, Flagship, CORE, etc. Anyone dealt with them and care to share your experience? Lately they have posted a few jobs I have found interesting, but they give off a vibe of snobbieness for some reason where I think qualified people may get overlooked by some no-experience brat’s narrow-minded opinion. I bet the same goes in reverse where they send unqualified or unfit people to employers? Maybe i am wrong, maybe i am right, neither i am certain of. Anyone care to share your thoughts/experiences? Often the headline is a high day rate or annual salary to get their attention.
I’d be also be curious for any input. Another one I see often is Spencer Ogden (sp ?). Any feedback on them?
Remember they are salesman and they make money when they get people hired. So if they are acting like snobs then they wont last long or make much money. One recruiter from one of the ones you posted was a classmate of mine. She actually went out and sailed and has an unlimited Masters license. At least she has been out here. But your right, how can some one judge your qualifications if they dont have any real world experience? It reminds me of some college professor who sailed for a year then went back to teach and is suppose to know everything about our industry?
A buddy of mine found temp work through C-Mar Group as a DPO when he was between jobs. As far as what I know, the overall experience was positive. They collected no fee from him. They got paid from the client, which I think was Cal-Dive INTL.
My experience it that the clients for recruiters like Faststream, Flagship, Core, Swift & Spencer Ogden have to pay a very pricey fee for those they hire from these headhunters so set a very high standard of credentials and experience for the candidates they ask for. Big companies with deep pockets get to do that, but do they get the people in the end? I believe that they are…that no matter how much growth is taking place in the industry, there is a likewise growing pool of mariners (both US and foreign) to take these positions. Lots of DPOs looking for a chief mate’s opening as there are chief mates looking to become a master.
One question I have is how much can the right headhunter get a person in front of the right people who do the actual hiring at these vessel operating companies? How much effort are they willing to put into a person to make a sale because they need the person hired for a sale to occur and them to get paid?
I see a lot of kids with limited sailing experience in these roles from my brief research. Yes, sailing experience, but a year or two out of school sailing pluis a few years an an agent or office minion judging what chief mate/dpo or master of towing resume to pass on or not to the company kind of scares me. They’re in it to get paid, but who knows where their true interests lay. I’ve never dealt with them so I can’t speak from personal experience, hence the post here.
Keep the opinions coming though, its good food for thought for us who haven’t dealt with them. Can anyone outline how exactly it works compared to being hired directly by a company? Can’t imagine its much of a difference but what do I know. Also, is it that these are for competitive positions where they are paying the recruiter to weed out the unqualified/undesirable applicants and only bring the best forward, or is it for positions that are proving difficult to fill? Both perhaps?
i have worked through/via C-MAR on multiple occasions (when they had Lafayette office and when they consolidated everything USA to Houston). i have found them to be knowledgeable about legal/regulatory requirements for the position and the organizational structure as far as mates, engineers, AB, QMEDs, etc, even though I’m pretty sure that none of them have ever been to sea on any ship/boat/tug, whatever (however, i could be wrong) . they were always honest and straightforward with me. i was paid $600/day as dpo 4 yrs ago, and approx $725 for SDPO and then about $815 for C/M on Damond MODU (this was all summer/fall 2009). i didn’t get H&B, but i already had it, so no problem. paycheck was always on time, and office personnel were good. just visited Houston office back in April, everyone was very friendly.
for what it’s worth, nothing but good things to say about Teresa Hart at C-Mar Houston. I also like Micehele Elwell who runs her own business now (Complete Logistical Solutions in Gretna. she used to work at C-MAR Lafayette.) she offered me a DP1 temp mate job for Oceaneering vessel move across Atlantic back in June for a good daily rate in my opinion. was out at sea on sand box run, so had to decline. C-mar and CLS are pretty consistent about following up and tracking you down if they have something you might be interested in and they you know are available and keep in contact with them.
CORE group: i have spoken with Matt and Jared on many occasions. i have found both of them to very personable and knowledgeable enough, but they can be hard to get a hold of and often seemed distracted when i did catch them. Matt is maritime academy grad, but i don’t think he ever sailed, based on his graduation date and his bio on the core group website. Jared has no maritime background. my timing was probably off, but they just never were able to hook me up with what i was looking for.
SPENCER OGDEN: guy was as nice as he could be, but was absolutely clueless about licensing structure, DPO stuff and ships, etc. he called me after seeing resume on rig zone. i spent the first 2-3 phone calls explaining to him that i could not take 1A/E job even if i was greatest the natural born engineer in the history of man, b/c i am a licensed DECK officer. i probably had 5-8 calls from the guy over 2 months. it always seemed to revolve around me telling him that he can try as much as he wanted (an i certainly encouraged him to), but that drillers were not going to hire me w/o DP cert, unless they were filling DPO trainee slot. my license and previous DP time mattered to him, but he just couldn’t seem to grasp the fact that it wasn’t what the drillers wanted. so he usually called me to tell me that he was proposing me to this driller or that driller and asked what certificates I had (again) and then would call back to tell me that the prospective company said no, b/c no DP cert. this happened with DODI, T/O, and Vantage.
if you work through C-MAR (i can only say this for C-MAR) and the company itself decides to hire you as perm employee, then they pay big fee to C-MAR. C-MAR doesn’t do a lot of permanent hires, just mainly fill in work, some long, some short. i don’t really know how the fee system works as far as temp employees go.
happy with C-MAR and CLS.
CORE just didn’t work out, but i liked the people.
SPENCER OGDEN never again.
Update to my previous post: I just talked to my buddy & it was not Cal-Dive that C-Mar placed him at, it was McDermott. My mistake, sorry.
I’ve sailed with a lot of C-Mar people. The Engineers, Cooks, ETO’s and AB’s were the worst of the worst. Most of them had been fired off their old job and after we fired them C Mar had another job waiting for them.
Why they continue to place these people I have no idea when there are so many quality people out there. I know good people that can’t get a job through them but the losers are continuously shuffled from job to job. It seems like once your in your set for life no matter how many jobs you get kicked off of.
On the other hand the Captains are usually pretty good.
Our endorsement goes to Flagship. Rob used to work with them back in the day when they were with Faststream. They are good guys. http://www.flagshipmgt.com/
Core Group is good as well. http://coregroupresources.com/
Don’t write anyone off just because they don’t have a job for you. Obviously it can be hit or miss with anyone. Also, don’t feel like they are stealing your wages. They are not. Lot’s of companies prefer using recruiters because I’m sure it saves a lot of trouble (keeps out the riff raff) and they can keep the vacancies mostly confidential. You’ll notice sometimes they won’t tell you the company name until you are vetted. That’s on purpose.
Any way you go make sure to tell them gCaptain sent you!
In my experience the only group with any kind of real clout is Flagship. On the sailing front I believe at least two of the leaders spent a decent amount of time at sea (5-10 yrs…could be wrong), but all 4 have their entire business experience in the maritime industry. They have placed me twice (once when Craig started at Fast stream and another time in Flagship) and I would say their best quality is that they will tell you your wrong for the job even if you have the qualifications. Of course if you really think otherwise they’ll set up the interview but at least they are honest and care about the quality in both directions. Some of the other organizations are just trying to “turn and burn” in my opinion. Some of the proposed jobs I got from them were ridiculous. Also never made sense to me to have a company led by non-maritime professionals or with people in charge no older than 30. Why organizations even turn to non-maritime people or kids to find their open positions is beyond me.
Flagship was good to me as well. In fact I had to turn down a pretty sweet job that they had for me to take my current one. Just an FYI, most of their postings seem to be in the Houston/Beumont/NOLA region. Good jobs mind you, but they are mostly shore jobs in those spots. However they did have other offerings outside those regions, but that was what I could remember.
Faststream recruiting was just as good, same kinda deals.
Regardless if you have an unlimited engineering license, a couple of years under your belt, and willing to relocate then now seems prime time to move into shoreside maritime, at least in those locations. YMMV
Anyone have dealings with Oceanwide
[QUOTE=“bayoumobboss;120012”]Anyone have dealings with Oceanwide[/QUOTE]
I was working for alliance on the Global 1200 when Technip changed to Oceanwide. The only problem I had was that I was scheduled to demob on a Wed and on Friday they said Wed, on Mon they said wed, so the client said see ya on Wed. My relief showed up 4 days later. Ain’t heard from them since. Shame too cause they seemed like a great place to work
Hi fellas, What do you guys think the chances of someone with no oil patch experience has in landing a job with c-mar, flagship, or any other reputable headhunting agency. I have my AB, STCW, 100ton master near coastal, and soon will have rfpnw. I got my tickets on private yachts and I know that probably (and shouldn’t) count for much, but I don’t mind starting at the bottom to break into offshore osvs. I know that in Fort Lauderdale the yacht “crew agents” won’t touch a greenhorn with a 10ft pole. Is it worth talking to these folks or am I just wasting both of our precious time? Thanks for all the great knowledge as usual.
[QUOTE=needlegun;126398]Hi fellas, What do you guys think the chances of someone with no oil patch experience has in landing a job with c-mar, flagship, or any other reputable headhunting agency. I have my AB, STCW, 100ton master near coastal, and soon will have rfpnw. I got my tickets on private yachts and I know that probably (and shouldn’t) count for much, but I don’t mind starting at the bottom to break into offshore osvs. I know that in Fort Lauderdale the yacht “crew agents” won’t touch a greenhorn with a 10ft pole. Is it worth talking to these folks or am I just wasting both of our precious time? Thanks for all the great knowledge as usual.[/QUOTE]
If you follow the “knocking on doors in louisiana” thread you’ll find a lot of great info. Lots of guys like u get hired, they recommend going in-person if possible.
The September posts by people with actual experience in this thread are very informative. Please keep it going.