I am in school right now, and I’m apprehensive about the future. I was interested in maritime careers because I liked the time off offered (week on, week off etc. for tugs) but now I am realizing that is quite literally half your life working for somebody else. I heard of someone who graduated with my major (1600/500 ton license with options for sail and towing endorsements) and only worked four months (tuna charter vessel) out of the year and made enough to live off of. Is that reasonable? I was wondering if anybody could give me advice on this. Thanks
A lot variables involved here. What’s a livable wage to you? Where do you want to live? Are you going to do any side work in your time off? No matter where you work unless you own your own business you’ll spend all your time working for someone else so I’m not sure what the allure of only working 4 months a year is unless it’s really about working as little as possible.
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It is about working as little as possible, also not working for someone else. I will probably do welding as a side job, I’m set to get a welding license. Don’t really care where I live if I’m traveling a lot. Livable wage is honestly = townhouse or bungalow, don’t have a desire to live lavishly. My mindset is to not do anything restraining unless I need to.
There are certainly jobs where you can make enough to live off of in a few months, provided you live simply, but you have to consider that boats are businesses, expensive ones, and they just cost money tied to a dock.
You might be able to live off of one contract a year, but is someone going to want to hire you for one contract a year? If you’re really good at what you do and establish and maintain a good reputation, yes, but that has to come first.
Yeah I mean, if you want to work 4 months a year do one contract and go live in the PI and you can live fairly lavishly.
Like I said, a lot of variables involved. Seems like maybe you’d just have to do your own research into where exactly you’d like to live and what company/line of work you exactly would like to work in.
You could try the maritime recruiters. A sore subject for a lot of the people on this forum because they get paid but in your case who cares if they get paid. Sign up for a contract job for 2-4 weeks here or there, get paid and keep your license up.
Not working for someone else usually involves working way more for yourself. At least for many years. You’re asking yourself the wrong questions imo about work…
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I checked them out, looks like something I might do. Contract jobs are definitely more what I’m looking for. Thanks for showing me
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