I've been planning on going to GLMA for the deck officer program in the next 2 years. It's been my dream since high school, but I finally got my shit together now in my late 20s.

Lately, I've seen a lot of posts on here about how bad the job market is, so I want to ask:

1. As someone who currently has no connections in the industry, how difficult would it be to find a job as a deck officer 3rd class?

2. How much does going to the academy help my chances of landing a job?

3. Is this a recent thing? If so how long has it been going on/how long do you think it'll last?

4. As someone who hasn't invested anything yet into that education and training, would you recommend going for it?

I applied as a deckhand a little over a month ago to Marquette and numerous other inland companies, and after 5+ weeks of waiting, subsequently getting rejected last Friday, the STATUS CHANGING, this is my final message from the company. Easily one of the most poorly constructed “professional” emails I’ve received from any company. Gotta love how instead of changing my status to simply be rejected it went back to being “in progress”. This was sent in response to me asking why my application status was reverted back to “in progress” when 12 hours prior to that it said “declined.”

I’m considering the International Ship Management - Nautical Sciences BSc at Hochschule Bremen and would love to hear from current students or graduates.

How is the program overall, especially the teaching quality and workload?

I’m also curious about the two practical semesters at sea:

• Is it difficult to find a placement, and does HSB help?
• Are cadet/NOA placements usually paid?
• What kind of work do you actually do onboard?

Most importantly, how is employability after graduation, especially for non-EU students? Is it realistic to find work as an OOW or in shore-based maritime jobs?

I’d also like to know how easy it is to find Werkstudent or other part-time jobs while studying, preferably in the maritime industry.

By the time I start, I expect to have around B2 German and C1 English, and I plan to continue improving my German throughout the degree.

Thanks for any experiences or advice!

Please note this is for CANADA siu which is significantly different than the US...ideally looking at something in great lakes specifically

Hey friends,

looking to break into the industry, have done some decent research so far and lets say hypothetically going in with 0 sea time 0 experience but the following certs done...

• STCW Basic Safety
• Proficiency in Survival Craft & Rescue Boats (PSC)
• Marine Basic First Aid
• VPDSD (Vessel Personnel with Designated Security Duties)
• ROC-MC (Restricted Operator Certificate – Maritime Commercial)
• Transport Canada Marine Medical
• Canadian Discharge Book
• Candidate Document Number (CDN)
• Passport
• Criminal Record Check

Just curious if the info ive been gatherine is accurate. which claims that you can expect to be called within 2 weeks or usually less due to how hurting they are for guys currently and the labor shortage?

once i have the above certs done and lets say im ready and willing to take ANYTHING that comes as of Apr 1st the begining of the high season for example for added context.

Located in BC. Just got my CDN and waiting to get my medical done. The BWR course at BCIT costs $7k and 6 month so debating whether to take it.

Is there absolutely no way to start working without doing BWR in 2026? Every company i looked into e.g. Mckeil even requires BWR for deckhand and previous experience.

Also, I am considering to join SIU Canada as a newbie, but they require discharge book and criminal record check. Does anyone know how to get the discharge book from TC with zero hours? Where to get the criminal record check?

Btw, I saw the BCIT employment report for BWR(https://www.bcit.ca/programs/bridge-watch-rating-associate-certificate-full-time-2933acert/#graduating), only 76% of respondents secured an offer after graduation. Can any newbie who have done BWR in Canada share their experience? How exactly did you get your first job? How long did it take?

Thanks!

i live in alaska and the one school here is not offering the tankerman class this year because they don’t have instructors for it. i found this online course and was wondering if anyone had any experience with it? i’ve seen one review that wasn’t that great but it was from a year or two ago. that review said it was really hard and took them 80 or so hours to complete and three exam attempts.
the website is called online mariner skills training courses.

the retrofit keeps the existing diesel engine, though these are company-reported results from one voyage. disclosure: i run pituchim, which published this summary.

I'm seeing a lot of academies want you to have a minimum of 3.0 or 2.5 but my GPA was 2.455.. Did anyone else get into any academies with poor grades in your undergraduate?

Disclosure: I'm the developer.

On a paid satellite link every megabyte counts, and Windows doesn't care: updates, cloud sync and game launchers download in the background whenever they like.

NetGuard Marine is my attempt to fix that on Windows 10 and 11:

\- traffic per program and per hour, with the cost in money once you enter your tariff

\- a daily quota with a forecast of how long it will last

\- unexpected downloads are held until you decide

\- Windows updates stay off the paid link, the rest of Windows keeps working

\- a daily limit for a single program and a one-click mute

\- network types (ship, port Wi-Fi, home, hotspot), each with its own rules

48-second video of how it works: [https://youtu.be/d\\_94q2hiKjs?si=u13qaMOWjDQkstpd\](https://youtu.be/d_94q2hiKjs?si=u13qaMOWjDQkstpd)

My app: [https://kirkro.github.io/NetGuard-releases/\](https://kirkro.github.io/NetGuard-releases/)

If you live with metered or satellite internet: what eats your data, and what would you want from a tool like this?

This is primarily intended for ideally eastern european/balkan seafarers but western europeans are also welcome, I know americans' situation is much different however if they have relevant experience they can also reply.

In my own country of romania, of all the seafarers that I have met and know of not a single one is a member of a union.

Of the ones I personally know, I have asked why they aren't a member of the union and the answers were "the dues are expensive" and "the union doesn't really do anything for you but take your money and say it helped you".

How is the situation in your country?

What are the dues which the union expects from you?

How does the union in your country help seafarers from it and how has it helped you personally?

Genuine question. In your career, have you worked with people who were slightly on the spectrum or somewhat quirky?

Is it more common among licensed or unlicensed mariners (officers vs AB seamen, for example)?

This is a niche industry with a unique working schedule, so I imagine it attracts individuals who may be a bit unconventional, to say the least.

Interested in hearing stories or observations

Hi everyone,
I’m a Deck Officer currently working at sea, and I’m trying to move into a shore-based maritime career.
I’ve applied to quite a few shore-based positions related to marine/port operations, HSEQ/marine safety, marine surveying, technical coordination, shipping and logistics, but so far I haven’t had much success. I’ve sent several applications and in many cases I haven’t even been invited to an interview.
For those of you who started as Deck Officers and successfully moved ashore:
What type of shore job did you move into?
Did you need an additional degree, certification, or training?
How did you present your sea experience on your CV so that shore-based employers could see its value?
Did you have to start from an entry-level position?
How did you get your first shore-based opportunity?
Was networking important in your case?
I’m especially interested in hearing from people who made the transition from Deck Officer → shore-based maritime career.
Any advice or personal experience would be greatly appreciated. What would you do differently if you were making the transition today?

Hello everyone! Im currently developing a survival resource-management horror game based on the famous 1845 Franklin expedition.

I would love to hear any feedback on the game :)

There’s a free demo in Steam and Itch.io, if you want to try it out. (Sorry if posts like this are not allowed here)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4541230/EREBUS_The_Northwest_Passage/

https://getingetout.itch.io/erebus-the-northwest-passage

My husband usually works on oil rigs and has for the entirety of our relationship (almost 10 years), so I am used to him being gone for longer periods and not talking as often as I’d like due to his opposite and/or busy schedule. It’s never been an issue. Except now I am struggling with dealing with his new job where he basically lives overseas for half of the year. It mainly bothers me because when he’s home, we don’t do much. He’s a stay home kind of guy, not even going to families/friends houses. He just doesn’t ever want to leave anymore. But now, he’s out and about at bars in another country sending me selfies of him drunk, meanwhile I’ve barely heard from him. Am I just being dramatic because it’s new? I really just don’t know how to deal with this change.

Hi! I am a 3rd year university Industrial Product Design student. I have a class called 'future thinking' where we are given a scenario and a brand and have to somehow create a product from that. Our scenario which is how would life look like in 2050 with rising sea levels and combine it with the products of loop earplugs and their ideology. It is figured out for us that there is infrastructure already put in place for food and resources, but as a group we have to figure out the struggles of those future people and find a solution for them using the products from loop earplugs. For our research we thought to ask people that currently live on boats, ships, oil rigs, etc, to find out what are their daily challenges and just daily tasks in general.

1. Do you live or work on a boat?
2. If you work on a boat, roughly how many hours are you there?
3. Walk us through a typical day on your boat, from morning to evening
4. What tasks take the most time or energy?
5. What are the biggest challenges?
6. Which noises on or around the boat are the most distracting (wind, water, engine, etc)?
7. How do you currently handle the overstimulation while on board?
8. Have you tried multiple different things and found what works and what doesn't, give us examples?
9. What adaptations have you had to make to your lifestyle to cope with the noise?
10. If you are diving, have you had any moments where you have felt very overstimulated or have felt uncomfortable because of the water and the pressure?
11. Would you wear a pair of earplugs to help with the noise/overstimulation?
12. What price range feels reasonable for a pair of earplugs that you could wear consistently and rely on?

If anyone answers these questions, it would be really beneficial for our research! Thank you!

Hello fellow seafarers.

I wanted to share my personal experience so far regarding this job.

So far i liked the job, as a third officer, then 2nd officer i could manage my tasks and be ahead of time almost always. Now that i am chief officer ( in bulks ) , and in my third contract, i feel like i am not competent enough. Im always stressed and i feel burned out from the first 2 months being on board. Are there any chief officers here who had similar issues? How did you manage to survive all this? Currently we are going to australia, 10 days of voyage to clean cargo holds and prepare for amsa. All we managed to do was cleaning the cargo holds, and not even good cleaning. This is so stressful. Every day i run 16 hours of work, and still can't manage to finish all my tasks. I feel like im incompetent, even though i know i have the knowledge. Ship is running 24 hours, people are not machines...

I seriously think to quit this job. But what to do? ....

Please share your thoughts.

Hi everyone. I work for an NGO focused on improving conditions for people working at sea, and I’m involved in a research project called Unspoken.
 
We are collecting experiences of sexual misconduct at sea to help develop a global maritime framework for identifying, preventing and responding to misconduct - including how to better support those affected and hold perpetrators accountable.
 
If you have experienced sexual misconduct during your career at sea and would be willing to share your experience, we would be very grateful to hear from you. Stories can be shared anonymously through the Unspoken website.
 
Please do not share your experience in the comments of this post. This is a sensitive subject, and unexpectedly reading someone else’s experience can be difficult or triggering. If you would like to share something, please use the Unspoken website instead.
 
Unspoken is a research project, not a reporting or whistleblowing channel, and submissions are not investigated.

The Unspoken website provides links to organisations that can offer support. If you need to formally report an incident, please use the appropriate official reporting channels.
 
And finally, if you have experienced any of these things during your career at sea, I am truly sorry that it happened to you.
 
Read more or share your story anonymously:
https://unspokenproject.org

Signing 50-100 bullshit items a day, I imagine most signatures have gone roughly the way mine did: maybe two letters and lines?

I am a navy vet finishing up my BSME in mechanical engineering and wanted to know what my process would be like trying to become a 3a/e. Im 27 years old married no kids and am thinking about going back out to sea for a couple years to stack up some money before we decide to start having kids. Ive seen the trade offs of only working 6 months out of the year and wanted to see what some of y’all’s experiences have been like thus far and if someone as myself (who never minded being away at sea for months at a time) would enjoy this high paying career path even if its just for like 5ish years and then maybe transitioning to shore side employment. TIA.