Seafaring or the maritime business is as old as man’s quest for adventure. What started in the middle ages to circumnavigate the world and find new possibilities has become more of a necessity now. Almost 90 percent of the world’s goods pass through sea lanes during their journey from production to sales. It makes the maritime industry one of the largest prospective job providers.
Reasons to work at Sea
As mentioned earlier, the maritime industry is a booming trade occupation with countless job opportunities. Not only do these job opportunities provide an excellent career path but a way to secure many other interests for an individual.
Perhaps the biggest attraction for people who want a maritime career is the lure of traveling worldwide. This single attraction is available in the maritime industry or the aviation business. The aviation industry, though, features less quantity and more restrictions on these globe-trotting opportunities.
Another major attraction for the seabound job hunter is the appeal of a long career at sea. The maritime industry offers excellent packages and also an ideal career path. With the dearth of trained individuals, job saturation is also relatively low, and job security isn’t such a significant issue.
A Responsible Way of Living
Another great advantage of venturing out to the sea in search of a job is the responsible nature of the job itself. Maritime careers exciting, lucrative, yet they are expected to give the person a big responsibility. It is due to the nature of the job, which is demanding and requires great dedication.
The job tends to start at a young age, making sure they learn to live responsibly from a young age. The person develops certain traits in response to this responsibility, which helps them throughout their careers.
A Unique Career Path
Careers at sea are unique as they promise a whole new world of responsibilities and rewards. The career progression is excellent, and job satisfaction also up there with the best professions out there. A person learns valuable lessons while on the voyage with his fellow seafarers.
Of the qualities that a person develops during this tour are camaraderie and being a team player. Despite these jobs’ civilian nature, they still instill strict discipline in the incumbents making their personalities different from the typical job professions. It keeps the person motivated as opposed to facing the monotony of a nine to five job.
Extended Holidays
Perhaps one of the greatest perks of working at sea is the extended length of holidays they’re afforded. Merchants on sea duty are often known to spent months on the ship at a stretch, but this also entails a more flexible holiday period.
The rotations on a merchant navy are typically like one month at sea and one month on holiday. Similarly, deep-sea trading routes require almost half a year to traverse and come back, meaning the seafarers enjoy even longer holidays when they return. It adds more flexibility to the person’s calendar to pursue other goals in this allotted free time.
Opportunities for Working at Sea
Now that we have looked at the possible advantages of working at sea let’s look at how to work on ships. As mentioned earlier, there are numerous unique opportunities for careers at sea. More importantly, there is a wide gap between the demand and supply of trained maritime professionals.
This gap in demand-supply is due to the changing nature of the maritime industry. As technological innovations occur at a rapid pace, every industry is affected by its consequences. The effect on the maritime sector is profound as newer technologies make old skills redundant.
Skills needed for a maritime career are unique and thus not widely available. Proper training programs that inculcate these skills are also few and far between which is why the job opportunities are lucrative in this sector. In the next lines, we shall look at some of the careers at sea and how to pursue them.
How to Work on Ships
Seafaring and working on ships are one of the oldest professions. It has changed exponentially over the years, evolving into a separate educational degree these days. The skills required for today’s seafaring journeys are different from the seafarers of the past centuries.
As ships get more technologically advanced, the nature of jobs on the ships also changes. However, some jobs such as the deck officer are still the same as they were many years ago. The position is that of an assistant to the captain of the ship and involves navigating the ship and performing routine tasks to keep the ship on course.
Newer and Unique Opportunities
Newer ways of working on ships include being marine engineers, electro-technical engineer, cargo engineer, and so on. These jobs have been created due to the complexity of ships and the sheer size they have grown into. Most modern ships have become somewhat of self-sustaining entities.
Most modern ships can stay on the waters for months at a stretch, thereby requiring these vessels to be all-encompassing. Then there are cruise ships that add luxury on sea, however, they’re a different breed altogether. These ships are laced with all sorts of non-traditional maritime opportunities as well.
The Future of Maritime Career
All in all, the maritime industry shows no sign of slowing down. Since the pandemic hit, everything halted for a while, but now it’s back to the normal. The need for supplies across seas and oceans will only grow and require more sophisticated ships and larger crews.
The maritime industry is thus rife with opportunities for a person looking to explore beyond the typical drag of a 9-5 job. The sea lanes are an exciting prospect with a world of their own and no boundaries and only compelling sunsets on the horizon.
Working on a ship may not be the most glamorous for some, but it sure is one of the easiest ways to roam the world. All this with excellent perks, good packages, and excellent rotations where you can relax and pursue other goals.
