I know seatime is seatime. I am having a very difficult time getting a job outside the ferry, dinner cruise, fishing world. I am trying to get AB special or AB OSV.
My curiosity is will my sea time be looked down on for being from those industries as apposed to tug or other more relevant industry? Or not even my sea time but my resume? Or is any maritime job at the OS level a good one to start and work from. I’m currently working 3 different boats and a land job to just get as much on my resume and learn as much as possible, took a huge pay cut to follow this dream and work 7 days a week now!
You do run a risk of getting pigeon holed on certain types of vessels if you only have one type of experience. Keep sending out apps. There are three requirements to get a job. Be ready to leave at a minutes notice. Be drug free. And be ready to leave at a minutes notice. And probably being drug free helps. Oh yeah, being ready to haul ass out the door when they call. At your stage of experience not much is expected of you except BEING THERE. And being on time. Oh yeah, drug free helps too. I keep beating this dead horse, but check around this forum. Anyone who is really seriously looking for a job most likely gets it by being a Pain In The Ass. Of course, there is a fine line between being memorable and being such a schmuck the HR would never give you a shot. Keep calling or visiting.
Obviously the best experience to have is precisely the same as the job you are looking for but as long as you are competent, reliable and able to learn then you should be able to switch sectors.
One point I’ve not seen made here is the value of networking. If you travel in a small circle you will not come into contact with people who are knowledgeable outside that circle. I got my first job as AB based on a tip given to me by another AB who was riding next to me on the city bus. I got my first job as mate from a tip that was given to me by a dock worker in a beer joint in Seattle (Borgie’s Place, 20th and Ballard Ave)
My son got his first job on the water based on a tip he got from a lobster fisherman at a neighborhood cookout I had dragged him to.
You need to expand your circle beyond the dinner cruise folks who may only know other people in the same circle. Don’t just keep hitting the same place and talking to the same people, think how you can encounter the right people. Running into the right person is some combination of random chance and a deliberately effort to increase the number and quality of those encounters.
Meet lots of new people and if you have a chance tell them you are looking for a job.
K.C.
Dinner cruise and Ferry equal passengers, not a good point to transition from.
Fishing could mean WORK BOAT, that time would be relevant.
But your phrasing suggests a fishing head boat or charter boat and that goes back to passengers.
As an OS the 2 posts above are correct.
Things are beginning to turn around, keep searching.
There are jobs out there.
I sent you a PM with a possible lead.
[QUOTE=Kennebec Captain;70889]I got my first job as mate from a tip that was given to me by a dock worker in a beer joint in Seattle (Borgie’s Place, 20th and Ballard Ave) [/QUOTE]
Borie’s Place of course! I totally forgot to add that to my other thread listing Ballard seaman’s watering holes. I also forgot to add the Sunset Tavern on Ballard Avenue too. What was the place down on Dock Street across from Dock Street Brokers called before it became “Bad Alberts”? There was also “the Bitt” just up the road and across Leary Way and the Viking up on 65th & 24th but then again, that was not stumbling distance to the Ship Canal.
now back to the thread already in progress…
yeah i’m living right on the NY harbor and just trying to get ANY experience. I was an engineer in the navy, but SHORESIDE. Never went to see, worked at a repair yard, really not happy about that, so I got no sea time. I spent more time on a toilet in the navy than actually on the water. Go figure.
Anyway, so I have a job on a charter fishing vessel (on call) and extra crew on a commercial vessel (on call) met both captains in bars, both have full time long time crew ut were willing to have a hard working hand from time to time either going to the shipyard, someone on vacation or away etc.
primarily I work on the ferries both on deck and in the yard. I actually manage a shipyard in the area 4 ten hour days a week, from 5am till 3pm, jump on the ferries for sea time at night, weekends either on the ferries or fishing boats on the weekend.
I am certainly not a slacker but i’m having a hard time getting something that pays enough to leave, thats the problem, i was offered at very small tug companies (2 or 3 boats) one even less, a deckhand job but it was long hours and less than 30k a year. I need to make atleast over 30k and hopefully overtime or weekends off to work another job, or just nights or some time off for making some supplemental money, ny is expensive!!!
yeah i’m living right on the NY harbor and just trying to get ANY experience. I was an engineer in the navy, but SHORESIDE. Never went to see, worked at a repair yard, really not happy about that, so I got no sea time. I spent more time on a toilet in the navy than actually on the water. Go figure.
Anyway, so I have a job on a charter fishing vessel (on call) and extra crew on a commercial vessel (on call) met both captains in bars, both have full time long time crew ut were willing to have a hard working hand from time to time either going to the shipyard, someone on vacation or away etc.
primarily I work on the ferries both on deck and in the yard. I actually manage a shipyard in the area 4 ten hour days a week, from 5am till 3pm, jump on the ferries for sea time at night, weekends either on the ferries or fishing boats on the weekend.
I am certainly not a slacker but i’m having a hard time getting something that pays enough to leave, thats the problem, i was offered at very small tug companies (2 or 3 boats) one even less, a deckhand job but it was long hours and less than 30k a year. I need to make atleast over 30k and hopefully overtime or weekends off to work another job, or just nights or some time off for making some supplemental money, ny is expensive!!!
just wanted to bump and see fi I could get any more opinions, suggestions or anything else.
Honestly im still having trouble figuring out why you want to leave a decent paying shore job to go a boat as an OS making crappy pay (an OS will start at 120-160 a day in NY harbor) being away from your family and your bed every night, having to pick up after a bunch of slobby tug boaters. Its not that glamorous, believe me. If I could find a land job that payed the same I would be gone, as it is my only skill set is crashing a tugboat into the sides of ships, splicing lines, chipping rust, and painting.
If I were you I would work on the ferries on your days off, get a 100 ton license work your way up to the wheelhouse on them, and enjoy running them on a part-time, go home at night basis.