I put forth a lot of effort to get sea time and a bunch of endorsements to upgrade but I hate navigational watch. Also, I’ve kinda lost a lot of respect for the licensed deck officers over the years. Owe it to the prominent psychological and cognitive problems. I can believe at one point good guys sailed but they’re so few and far between. Has anyone else reached the point to go test and completely lost interest in the industry? Should I start over and try engine room or just bail?
That’s not a decision we can make for you. Maybe a different area will give you a better experience. I work tugs/barges and really enjoy my career. If you’re going to keep sailing, look around and see what is out there
How much of the industry have you really seen though? The different sectors are all very different.
GoM & SIU. I do always take the blinking red all ports job at the hall which is probably what my issue is. Poorly managed SIU crewed ships are a terrible experience and I think about going back to GOM often. I completely agree that licensed and unlicensed unions enable poor performers but I don’t think zero bargaining power is a great idea in any trade. If I didn’t have to cook for the crew I would’ve gone tug while ago.
So get your license then go to tugs.
Sounds lazy. Please stay on the ships
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Oh the feeling is mutual trust me…
It takes real commitment, and precious time, probably a lot of money out of your own pocket to upgrade.
You can count yourself lucky if some company is paying for any of those classes.
If they ARE paying… and you still don’t have the wherewithal to get the license then shame on you, just be content in your current role.
Nobody is going to force you to improve or upgrade except for yourself.
My advice is do like other have and say to yourself “if those guys can do it, I can do it too”. You can let that be your motivation, (it was for me)
If you can’t commit to it and that deep sea grind has you burnt out, change to another part of the industry to see how much it differs, or just go ashore.
Good luck sir.
Put in the work to study and pass the test. Then, put yourself in a position to be one of the good guys and make everyones lives a bit better while they sail with you. 
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Deckie here. I’ve seen d!ckhe@ds in all departments. Some departments seem to attract certain personality types more than others. Don’t let those people ruin your ambition. The only way to deal with those people is to not give up and get promoted. That way YOU are the one in charge and don’t have to deal with them. They exist everywhere. Grass is never greener on the other side.