Introduction and Advice on how to start

Hello all,
My name is Vance W. I am 22 years old and have always been interested in this type of lifestyle. With work at my local port slowing I figured it was a good time to try and make a change. I have worked at my port for the last two and a half years loading and unloading boats but have never been on a vessel off of port. I have my twic card and have also just recently got my mmc. I have no experience, other than talking to captains and deckhands that come in my port, about the offshore life or how to actually get started. Most that come into my port are from other countries and dont have much advice. Someone recommended this site to me and although im very familiar with forums I seem to be fairly lost here with all of the terminology and such.

Anyways, im near pensacola fl right now as its where I was raised but have some family over in loisianna. I first thought I could just go visit louisianna and stumble upon a job, but that seems very unlikely. If anyone has any advice on how to go about starting a career id be glad to listen. I am a very hard worker and have always moved up in my work enviroment very quickly.

All the answers your looking for have already been discussed just use the search function.

Check out the employment section…knocking on doors in Louisiana as a keyword

[QUOTE=VanceW;97920]Hello all,
My name is Vance W. I am 22 years old and have always been interested in this type of lifestyle. With work at my local port slowing I figured it was a good time to try and make a change. I have worked at my port for the last two and a half years loading and unloading boats but have never been on a vessel off of port. I have my twic card and have also just recently got my mmc. I have no experience, other than talking to captains and deckhands that come in my port, about the offshore life or how to actually get started. Most that come into my port are from other countries and dont have much advice. Someone recommended this site to me and although im very familiar with forums I seem to be fairly lost here with all of the terminology and such.

Anyways, im near pensacola fl right now as its where I was raised but have some family over in loisianna. I first thought I could just go visit louisianna and stumble upon a job, but that seems very unlikely. If anyone has any advice on how to go about starting a career id be glad to listen. I am a very hard worker and have always moved up in my work enviroment very quickly.[/QUOTE]

Vance,
You’ve come to the right place, you’ve just gone about it the wrong way. Like Sailormike said above, all of this has been discussed many times over on this forum. It’s not that we don’t want to impart wisdom on you, it’s just that the people who comment on the forum regularly have had to do it so many times already. Please do use the search function and read through older threads on the same topic, of which there are several. After you’ve read through the old material if you still have questions specific to your situation then feel free to come back to this thread and pose them to the forum.

Welcome to gCaptain, welcome to the maritime industry, and good luck on your adventures.

Fair winds and calm seas,

  • PaddyWest

Thank you. I knew I would probably get some responses like that, since thats how the motorcycle forums are. Same questions over and over that have already been answered just a lot less info on the moto forums so it’s a lot easier. Was just hoping for a little better advice than the search box.
No problems tho. Used to doing it on my own.
Thank you all. Hope I can learn as much as I want and can land a job soon.

To put it rather bluntly: You have posted for info in “The Professional” Forum. Since you are an entry level, you need to look in the “Maritime Employment” Forum. Check that out. Read through the last couple dozen threads. Search using common key words. ‘new entry’. ‘Just starting’. ‘New to industry’. THEN when you have specific questions, ask.

ARRGGHHHH!..They just won’t stop coming at us!