[QUOTE=SeaMonkey6969;185443]Like the others said for job opportunities yes, but they can also switch you back and forth from positions. For instance I worked for a company when this guy would have to work as AB one trip and go oiler on another. It just depended on what they were short for. The guy was always complaining because he was working toward becoming an engineer and didn’t want to work deck. He should have been happy he just had the work.[/QUOTE]
When I sailed as an AB with MSC, I worked with another AB who was an academy graduate with a mate’s ticket. He preferred working as an AB maintenance and never told MSC he had the ticket. They weren’t knee deep in mates as they are now and they might have forced his hand if they had known and needed him on the bridge. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor, as they say.