Just what is the ‘right’ sort of experience to help in getting a job or advancing one’s career? Experience is a subject which keeps coming up these days, as crew accept that qualifications alone are simply not enough to ensure they stay ahead of the game and stand the best chance of getting the best jobs. Few crew are willing to spend money on training unless it is directly prescribed by the MCA or pertinent authorities. This means that separating one CV or resume from another is a matter of looking carefully at experience. The qualifications alone don’t even get you through the door.
Quite recently we at IYT trained two young guys for the IYT Master Of Yachts 200 tons licence. They actually sat next to each other and within a day or two realised that their experience was pretty similar. Both had served aboard similar sized yachts for over a year. Both had logged plenty of days on board and had travelled more than 10,000 miles at sea. However their experiential similarities stopped there. One of them had been trained as a watchkeeper by the captain, mate and bosun to varying degrees. He was able to plot fixes, correct charts and use the radar effectively, both to navigate as well as to plot targets. He had been involved planning passages and included in weather routing discussions from time to time. He was regularly briefed on night orders and knew exactly when to call the captain which was whenever he needed to.
The other fellow had worked on board a yacht where the most important training he had learned, revolved around what the owners preferences were and what the captain’s likes and dislikes were. Although used as a watchkeeper he was trained to monitor the position only on the plotter and not to touch any of the electronics if he wanted to keep his job. Only the captain and the mate were permitted to do so. This fellow did recall seeing paper charts on board but they were kept in drawers that neither he nor anyone except the captain was allowed access to. He did not actually ever recall seeing a chart opened on the bridge except the one time the captain was showing the owners wife her range of beach choices. He was forbidden to wake the captain at night unless it was extremely important and the radar said there was a potential collision.
As you can imagine this guy failed his master of yachts course. Despite a great effort on his part he was simply not able to get to grips with basic navigation techniques to the standard required. He was invited to take a re-test but only after getting more experience hopefully of a more constructive kind.
The point is that until he realised his experinece was actually quite limited himself, it sounded pretty good. The boat was a busy charter yacht and surviving a year in your first position was respected highly by the crew agencies.
The two of them have both found jobs even in this climate ,one on the basis that he is a qualified watchkeeper and the other on the basis that he can work hard and will survive a busy charter season wearing a smile at the end of it.
Whilst gaining experience is vital it is worth remembering that qualifications such as the MOY 200tons and the RYA yachtmaster are not issued simply in recognition of time served. Nearly all tickets require seatime and continued on board training in addition to sitting in the classroom and writing exams. The on board training and experience is vastly different from boat to boat and that experience is what is marketable and provides the key to gaining a comparative advantage in the jobs market, which iets face it is more competetive than ever.