Change my mind: MSC is the least professional maritime-“business” in the entire world.
Realizing this only a month after sailing with them. It will be difficult to convince me otherwise.
I mean, if you look around here for 10 minutes you’ll find 1,000 threads that say the same thing. Nobody is going to change your mind.
Thank god. Money’s good, but for fuck sake not even close to being worth it
Good grief. One does not work for MSC and expect it to be run as a business. The US Army, Navy, Air Force are also not run as businesses. They exist as perpetual money generating endeavors for the contractors and officers paid for by wage earners who pay taxes. Been that way for 100 years and is not surprising to most folks. Realizing that, take the pay check or seek employment elsewhere.
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What is so bad about that place really. Can you go into specifics?
Many threads on this site regarding pros and cons.
Do your homework.
Yes I do search all the time but all I see are people bitching but never post specific things.
Specifics… I worked for them between 1978 and 1988 when Commercial Shipping was bad. They almost NEVER relieve you on time. You don’t sign Shipping Articles; so they can damn near get away with anything at the behest of whoever is the Master- it’s especially bad when they have the “ear” of the personnel detailers. They have a lot of favoritism- good ole boy cliques that get all the good jobs and permanent promotions- the Officers on the promotion boards sometimes completely ignore shipboard evals and get their favorites promoted… There’s an awful lot of favoritism given to “Ex-Navy Lifers” who for years controlled the scene- irrespective if they were good at what they did or not. The Senior Officers for the most part are “khaki-clad” desk pushers who seldom are working stiffs… This practice ended commercially in the late 1980’s… Don’t get me wrong, I met and worked with some fantastic guys when I shipped there- some of the best I sailed with- BUT because of the military mindset- a lot of the people will willingly take shit and not even complain…
As far as sea time, advancement as you get sea time- it was pretty good- after about 1985 the food improved too. The pay sucked- you only get between 4 and 6 days a month vacation as opposed to 15, 20, 21 days on commercial vessels- the OT on certain special mission and unrep ships was alright…
The bad parts were their lodgings for unlicensed- back then it was 3-4 to a room on certain vessels- and more often than not 2 to a room- hell some of their smaller ships have been putting two officers in a room- this practice ended commercially- decades ago. Also, there are ships with “community berthing” for unlicensed- something that ended commercially in the late 1920’s…
All in all great to start out, get 3-5 years sea time and upgrade to a license- it will serve you well, then get to commercial as fast as possible… Good Luck…
Thanks for that. I found one topic that I think nails it down.