Hello! I am new to the industry and seeking employment on a Tug or OSV, but am open to just about anything.
A bit about me:
I have been on the water my entire life and spent all of my career in Finance. My time in the financial industry has come to an end, I could no longer sit at a desk. The change may have been brought on by a midlife crisis as I just turned 40 haha. I do not have children, and I am not married (any longer). I live in Wilmington, NC - but of course am willing travel to wherever I can find work.
I have my:
-OUPV
-Able Seaman Special
-STCW Basic Training
-Survival Craft
-VPDSD
I am trying to get my foot in the door with a company, any decent company - working equal time 14/14. Please chime in if you have any words of advice for me or if you know of any companies looking to hire ABs immediately.
Unfortunately, I had to resign from my previous employer in order to take the AB course. I need to find work quickly at this point.
In my prior career - following up with HR after submitting your resume was extremely frowned upon. Does this standard apply to mariners? Or is it ok to reach out to follow up on a resume submission after a week or so?
I’d call and follow up. Doesn’t hurt/you won’t get knocked. Try my old company, Norfolk Tug. An engineer I worked with lived in Wilmington and isn’t too far. Great company with room for advancement. There are a lot of good places to work on the east coast.
I would absolutely follow up in this industry. There are a lot of folks that just dump resumes everywhere and it’s a good idea to follow up to show that you’re actually interested in working for that company. You’ll get better (and faster) results than just waiting for a call back.
Thank you for the response. I have been submitting application for about 8 hours a day. I wish all of the application formats were the same, but man, they sure aren’t - it’s such a simple process but time consuming.
Do any names come to mind who are definitely hiring?
I think I’m going to put together a list of tug companies so someone in my position down the road has a nice, consolidated list to work off of.
Dated but a bunch are still around. Calling/filling out apps is a process, but if you want a job you need to be persistent. To start, I’d google companies in your general region that you want to work and go from there.
You’ve got to call people on the phone, or go see them in person. Just submitting applications does not work, especially online applications are useless. Nobody reads them.
Did i miss something ? You spent your entire life on the water but had a career in finance ? Please explain. Doesnt add up from where I’m from. What is it ? Marine finance or what ?
TugSailor - I am located in Wilmington, NC. I am from Monmouth County, NJ - I am not sure if it would be worth it to head north, stay in NJ/NYC with friends and go apply in person to some of the companies with locations in the area. Thoughts? Or would a phone call suffice?
I am open to working anywhere on the east coast or Gulf.
I submitted my resume to McAllister via email to the email addresses post on an ad I saw last week. I am going to start making follow up phone calls this week.
In most East Coast ports Moran and/or McAllister will have a presence. You can try to walk in, if you can get past the gate. You could also call the local numbers.
At some companies (typically smaller companies) it’s easy to walk in. At other companies (typically bigger) it’s almost impossible to walk in.
Many Gulf Coast companies of every size tend to be walk in only.
Nobody has time to read applications and resumes. The companies may need them in the file, or collect certain information out of them for payroll and benefits, but the people doing the hiring are too busy to read them, unless you can spark their interest in you with a call or visit.
At some companies the recruiters doing the hiring are completely separate from HR which just processes paper and manages existing employees.
Just about everyone is trying to hire new people, and having difficulty finding them.
But many HR departments are still trying to do things the way the did a few years ago when crew was plentiful with many applicants to chose from.
