Sailing deep sea has certainly become more challenging for academy grads, both deck and engine, but considerably more so for deck officers. I find it troubling and frustrating that the Academies continue to graduate licensed mariners at a rate that is so obviously disproportionate to the number of available jobs. Not only that, but they are still actively recruiting license-track students and making outrageous promises of guaranteed job placement. They have become much more interested in collecting tuition money than supplying a steady but sustainable supply of qualified mariners, consistent with the needs of the US merchant marine.
You absolutely have to be versatile these days. Sometimes I wonder if my resume looks bad to potential employers because of the inconsistency, but that has hardly been the case. In 6 years since graduating CMA, the longest I’ve worked for a single company was two years. I’ve jumped around from union deep sea jobs, to commercial fishing vessels, Tugs, research vessels, and private charters. I’ve found that you have to take whatever comes your way to stay busy, and sometimes you have to do a lot of hunting for odd jobs as well. I’ve noticed lately that the diversification has started to pay off. The last several jobs I’ve landed have been a direct result of having a broadened resume and good references. Moving around a lot helps you make contacts in different sectors of the industry, which can be extremely valuable when things slow down in one area.
It requires the full 1080 days so if you get your 3ae via the abet engineering degree and 180 days in the engine room then you don’t qualify.
(That’s the same as how Master 3,000 GT isn’t an automatic endorsement with Master 1,600 GRT anymore. If an academy grad gets a year as mate and upgrades to 2nd mate with a 1,600 Master crossover they don’t qualify for Master 3,000 GT anymore.)