I graduated from a small, coast guard accredited school in December. I have no sea time, so nobody responded. wtf I know I live in a landlocked state, but I just relocated to Florida for school and lived on sardines and hormel chili for four months, relocating anywhere is nothing at all. I’ve hopped from homeless shelter to shelter before. Anyway, I want to go offshore and deep water eventually, once the covid paranoia blows away, but I had to take work somewhere, so I took a job with a river tug company. Is it hard to get hired offshore, if all I have is inland time? It just beats the hell out of me that a 32 year old in peak health, and certs from school showing I’ve got skin in the game ($12,000 worth) can’t get an ENTRY job on a ferry, tug, tanker, or container in the Great Lakes. Am I just a worthless shitcan?
What credentials do you have?
STCW and radio operator. I’m also safe with guns, if that’s part of the watch with some companies.
You need to specify more than that.
And nobody cares that you’re safe with guns.
Can you specify what I need to specify? I just told you what certifications the school gave me… Thanks. I’m not some big dick old salt who knows everything.
I thought it would be important when selecting people for offshore jobs in dangerous places like India or Africa if I can pass some kind of marksmanship class. My mistake. I won’t say anything.
STCW means a whole lot of things. You don’t have STCW. You have certain codes of STCW. Do you have a MMC? If so what endorsements do you have?
I (and probably most of the others here) sympathize with your situation. We know it’s frustrating, but please don’t walk in the door with a chip on your shoulder which it reads as if you have. We’ve all gone through the same things.
And in reference to the current thread on airline pilot vs mariner quals and responsibilities vs training and skills. As one who has gone both routes when I was climbing the ladder toward an airline seat my peers and I would often say that since we haven’t logged 3 space shuttle landings as pilot in command we weren’t likely to get a seat very soon, but if we had tits we would already be Delta captains.
Keep your sense of humor if you have any left and keep slogging away building any an all experience you can.
If you don’t have an MMC that’s the reason you can’t get work…not sure what you spent 12k on but you got ripped off. For 12k the school should provide you with all of the info you’d need get hired. I’d go back and ask them that.
https://www.dco.uscg.mil/nmc/merchant_mariner_credential/
It’s about the best time ever to job hunt in the maritime world, so you need to figure out what you need to get and go from there.
Starting out is hard for everyone. I should add that it’s the same for most industries I’ve been involved with in that employers want experience, but you can’t get experience without a job. You’ll get one soon enough, keep trying. Everyone is hiring now.
What is “covid paranoia”?
Are you fully vaccinated and boosted against Covid?
Where are you located?
Where are you looking for work?
What kind of work have you done the past?
I assume that you have an MMC endorsed as Ordinary Seaman (OS), Wiper, Food Handler (FH)?
Do you have Basic Training (BT) endorsed in your MMC?
Can you cook? Are you willing to learn?
Unless you’re working for MSC or certain government contracted ships you won’t have guns onboard. If you’re passing through dangerous waters the company will hire armed security, that’s not a crew responsibility.
I have my MMC, MEDCERT, and TWIC. I’ve had it for 2 years now. (I’ve had a passport since 2014.) You want to know my rating/endorsement? Its OS/Wiper/Cook. I don’t have any sea time. I have STCW (safety, firefighting, cpr, etc), radio operator and navigation class certificates, from the school I went to. If I was ripped off, I wouldn’t know, because I know nothing about this line of work.
blog:
I was going to start my life over 2 years ago, but covid paranoia struck, and because I won’t take gene therapy for my reasons, I can’t work for MSC. I was thinking Gulf shore oil rig delivery would be available so I can still get my offshore time.
Also, sorry for being a whiny bitch, I’m just frustrated.
" Where are you located?" Anywhere I need to be. I literally have no home and can be anywhere my crappy ranger can drive. I’ll buy a plane ticket if I have to, make no difference.
“Where are you looking for work?” East coast, West, Alaska, Gulf, Great Lakes. As long as I can get sea time. I was told certain tonnage and days on the Lakes can count as sea time. Is that true?
“What kind of work have I done in the bast?” fedex, private contracting, maintenance man stuff.
Languages:
I know some German, but not enough to converse. I don’t know Spanish, French, or Portuguese. I don’t know Chinese, either.
You have what’s necessary to sail as OS on supply boats, apply to all the OSV companies you can find. Most of the good places to work will likely require you to be vaccinated though.
You got ripped off because nobody with an OS/FH/Wiper endorsement has any need for navigation classes or a radio operator cert. What school is this that you went to?
Have you tried the SIU or SUP?
Marine employers are different from shoreside employers; they are financially responsible for seamen’s health, including maintenance and cure.
For many reasons, a covid infection onboard is an expensive disaster for an employer, particularly if it results in hospitalized Seamen.
Most experienced mariners do not want to live and work with unvaccinated shipmates. Many guys would much rather go home.
This guy has voluntarily chosen to be an unvaccinated and therefore undesirable maritime job applicant. It’s no surprise that he cannot find a job.
And that’s before even taking into consideration the obvious bad attitude that he wears on his sleeve.
I would also add that you can spend $100K on all of your endorsements… at the end of the day your attitude matters, and if you present yourself anything like you do on this thread, I understand why your having a hard time.
Vaccination record will be a red flag with every single company.
Well, nice knowing you. You’ve shot down help from all the people who like to help and shit on everybody else. See ya.
Type in OSV companies lousiana in google.
Pick your favorite colors. They are all hiring.