Entry Level Positions in The Marine Engineering Sector – Spotlight
When you are starting your career, it can be difficult to know if the skills and technologies you are studying in College or University offer many entry level positions where you can start your career. How open to hiring entry level Field Engineers is the Marine Engineering sector? This article gives one woman’s perspective. Ifunanya Kanu is a Marine Engineer based in Nigeria. She studied Marine Engineering at the University of Cebu in the Philippines after winning a scholarship.
Marine Engineering Sector Entry Level Positions – An individual perspective
Introduction
The International Maritime and Labour Organizations have been decrying the dearth of qualified seafarers for a good while now. As someone who has received hundreds of rejections in the course of my two-year job search, I believe this is a sad misrepresentation of facts on the part of these reputable organisations. But to what end? The pipeline from operational/entry level positions to management levels is relatively straight forward. Therefore investigating why the entry level pools are so saturated while companies seem to struggle with filling the management level positions should be a very simple process.
Shipping companies are trying to avoid the responsibility of training qualified personnel yet expecting to reap a bountiful harvest of management level seafarers.
International Labour Organization
IMO – the International Maritime Organization
Entry level positions in the marine engineering sector
To put it practically and realistically, getting your practicing license as a marine engineer is an investment you are not sure to reap returns on. You spend a good amount of money to do your basic and advanced training courses. Then additional amounts for your practicing license, examinations, and certificate. Armed with your license which qualifies you to apply for jobs as a junior engineer, you enter into the fray. However, only to realise that there are so many more people with the exact same experience and certificates applying for the same jobs, all at entry level positions, all desperately grappling onto crewing managers, globally.
Your cadetship experience only counts if you it is done onboard a more specialised vessel like a tanker. So if presented with the gift of choice, always choose cadetship onboard more specialised ships. This is because it is more likely to pay off in your job search later on. The cadetship experience onboard these is sometimes counted as valid experience when applying for junior engineer positions onboard the same types of ships. Other vessels often demand experience in the rank you are applying to.
Months of experience
Sometimes 6, 8, or even 12 months in rank experience is needed for these entry level jobs. How can you get experience without working and how can you work without experience you ask? That is the conundrum of a saturated job market. A market where the employer whistles the tune, and all applicants dance in a confused frenzy.
Advice for looking for entry level positions in the marine engineering sector
My best advice to anyone looking to join the maritime profession is this,
“Do not put all your eggs in one basket.”
Do away with the idea that it is only onboard a ship that you can work in the maritime and marine engineering sector and investigate other ways you can work in the sector as an engineer. Get valuable skills that are required in associated areas and pivot to ensure you do not waste your time chasing elusive opportunities onboard ships.
Many shipping companies handpick their cadets straight out of maritime academies for their fleet. When hiring to complement their crew, many companies also have preferences to boost their appearances and bottom lines. Hiring from certain countries requires more expensive flights and visa processes that many are not willing to pay. Covid-19 forced many companies to have a more diverse and open hiring process but a return to normality has also meant a return to status quo hiring processes.
While this may all seem like a bleak view of the sector, this is the reality I have witnessed in the last two years. Some others have had more successful outings, and their stories can inspire hope in the hearts of young engineers. I encourage such engineers to speak of their own experiences and how they have navigated the sector so successfully.
Mentors are also immensely helpful if you can get them. A good mentor can shape your career and give you a good head start by informing you of the pitfalls and opportunities in the industry.
The author
Ifunanya Kanu is a Marine Engineer based in Nigeria. She studied Marine Engineering at the University of Cebu in the Philippines after winning a scholarship. She holds an Officer in Charge of an Engineering Watch from the Philippines.
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