Signed on as an ab and I am going throught the process about to get a ship. What to do now. Any good ships vs not so good. What to bring, ot, time home, trype of work, aand on…oh and do the people like it there? Just fishing. Thanks
RUN!!! (Just kidding)
I work for NOAA as an AB also, been here about two years. Welcome to the lowest paying gig on the ocean, but also the least amount of work.
You don’t get to pick a ship (regardless of what they tell you) Instead the ship picks you. Are you in the augmentation pool? I imagine you are.
The ships are good and bad which totally depends on the crew. You will share your room with at least one other person no matter what ship you are on except 1, the Ka’imimoana out of Honolulu. On the Alaska ships you could have as many as 4 roomies bunking with you.
They will tell you that there is no money for school or overtime, I have heard that from day one, yet I have managed to have them send me to about 15 grand worth of schools. It is a good place to get some experience if your new, and get some schools out of the way. I don’t see it as a career gig unless you can manage to get promoted quick.
You only get about 45 days off a year without taking non paid leave. They make it VERY difficult to take non paid leave. They expect you to live on the ship even when at port, you don’t rotate home like the rest of the industry. If you have a family or are looking for a rotational assignment that does not fit with the NOAA culture. Most of the senior deckies are still around because nobody else will hire them…the good guys run away within 3 years or less.
As for what to bring, not much as the rooms are VERY small and have little storage in them. What to bring depends on what sort of mission your ship has (survey, fishing, diving). Bring a laptop as they all have internet at sea most of the time.
[QUOTE=Seaman;50102]Signed on as an ab and I am going throught the process about to get a ship. What to do now. Any good ships vs not so good. What to bring, ot, time home, trype of work, aand on…oh and do the people like it there? Just fishing. Thanks[/QUOTE]
Lowest pay or not I would LOVE to sail on a NOAA ship… Sounds almost adventuresome as one of those tramp ships
[QUOTE=capttarpon727;50139]RUN!!! Welcome to the lowest paying gig on the ocean, but also the least amount of work.[/QUOTE]
Not exactly the lowest paying, expect to double your salary with overtime. As a former bosun on a NOAA ship I gave overtime to the guys willing to [U]work for[/U] it.
[QUOTE=capttarpon727;50139]You don’t get to pick a ship (regardless of what they tell you) Instead the ship picks you. Are you in the augmentation pool? I imagine you are.[/QUOTE]
[LEFT] Every new hire below journeyman level (Lead Fisherman, BGL) is in the Augmentation Pool. Work hard and be a good shipmate and you will land a permanent job.
[/LEFT]
[QUOTE=capttarpon727;50139]You will share your room with at least one other person no matter what ship you are on except 1, the Ka’imimoana out of Honolulu. On the Alaska ships you could have as many as 4 roomies bunking with you.[/QUOTE]
Not everyone shares a room on a NOAA ship. Only one ship in the fleet has a 4 man stateroom. That stateroom is occupied by 20 somethings that are just happy to be there. The good news is there is no shortage of sea lawyers.
[QUOTE=capttarpon727;50139] I have managed to have them send me to about 15 grand worth of schools. It is a good place to get some experience if your new, and get some schools out of the way. I don’t see it as a career gig unless you can manage to get promoted quick. [/QUOTE]
Its probably the best thing about NOAA. You will sit through more training that you will ever want. I am headed to Bell Chase, LA in a couple of weeks for my Advanced DP. Not a lot of places doing that.
[QUOTE=capttarpon727;50139] You only get about 45 days off a year without taking non paid leave. They make it VERY difficult to take non paid leave. [/QUOTE]
You have the option of working comp time. 1hr overtime = 1hr paid leave. Suppose you work 70hrs OT in a 2 week pay period. You can assign 30 hr to comp time and 40 hours to overtime. Its a good way to build up your leave balance.
[QUOTE=capttarpon727;50139]They expect you to live on the ship even when at port, you don’t rotate home like the rest of the industry.[/QUOTE]
Not true. You are allowed to live aboard the ship when it is in home port. Whats so bad about having a free place to stay when the ship is in port for the winter?
[QUOTE=capttarpon727;50139] If you have a family or are looking for a rotational assignment that does not fit with the NOAA culture. Most of the senior deckies are still around because nobody else will hire them…the good guys run away within 3 years or less. [/QUOTE]
Some guys are just sour. Your time at NOAA will be what you make of it. All of the opprotunity in the world is at your fingertips. Don’t let people like the OP drag you down. See you out there.
Thanks for all the info. Been looking for work for a year so any gig is better than nothing. Noaa seems like it will be interesting work that pays actual money. Be nice to earn income again. Just hope I get a ship soon.
Not to jump your thread but just got offered an ab job too, got a call from XO of a ship a few days later… Called by hr today and they said the xo wants me on his ship, if that is okay with me, and go straight to being assigned to a ship vice the “pool”… I do have my 3rd mate unlimited oceans and am a vet, so does anyone know if this may have been factor in the request?
[QUOTE=george44;52191]Not to jump your thread but just got offered an ab job too, got a call from XO of a ship a few days later… Called by hr today and they said the xo wants me on his ship, if that is okay with me, and go straight to being assigned to a ship vice the “pool”… I do have my 3rd mate unlimited oceans and am a vet, so does anyone know if this may have been factor in the request?[/QUOTE]
The Veteran status and time on the water helped you land a job with NOAA. NOAA does not hire Mates or Masters from the outside, all of our civilian officers were brought up through the NOAA hawsepipe. Congrats on landing the job. What ship BTW?
Rainier… I have a house in oak harbor, wa, but its only 6 hours drive so…