When I joined the Maritime Academy in 2012, I didn't know much about seafaring but I was ecstatic about one thing, I would make a lot of money. So I will start with the first lie people tell about seafaring.
You will make lots of money and never be broke in your life.
While seafarers earn alot of money compared to other landbased jobs, the story is often incomplete. Salaries are dependent on type of vessel, crewing agent, nationality of Seafarer, license/Certification, experience etc . These irregularities coupled with difficulty of securing contracts often leave seafarers broke and in debt after spending/borrowing huge amount for money for their trainings/Certifications.
Most seafarers who are paid according to international standards are from the West (Read Europe, Canada and USA). Seafarers from other countries —Africans and Asians — are often paid lesser than their western counterparts even though they have the same qualification and experience. ( I will explain this further in another post)
The other side of the coin of earning huge salary is the ever rising cost of Certifications and Training. The International Maritime Organization aka IMO (This is the Organization in charge of Maritime in the world) often come up with new conventions (read regulation and policies) in response to research, development or marine accidents. These trainings are expensive and expire after a short duration of time. ( I will also do a more extensive post on this.)"The ships are waiting" a colleague said this back in school during a boring lecture. The Prof trying to get us to focus chided us about our efforts. So the colleague echoed what we've been told from the 1st day at the academy, "the ships are waiting." So it didn't matter if studied or not.
Oh boy! How wrong could he have been.
The dream for every cadet was to get onboard placement ( internship which qualifies you to obtain your professional license) immediately after graduation, and become a Captain/Chief Engineer within 10 years.
Not that this is unattainable, it is an exception rather than the norm. It takes years to grow in the industry, this is a combination of several factors which includes ; difficulty getting sustained contracts, cost of upgrading/trainings and certifications, poor salary, poor planning and bad financial management of seafarers etc.
Most of us ended up waiting for years to get our first placement onboard and some are still waiting for the ships. The ships are not waiting and your life is going.
Just get your COC and jobs will choke you.
Nobody tells you how to navigate the muddy waters of shipping agents. Or how job ads mention specific nationality, unrealistic experience, unrelated certificates you should have and the small matter of mobilization/consultation/placement fees.
I once saw an ad for a 3rd Engineer onboard a Tanker vessel that required minimum of 3 years experience, DP Maintenance , HUET and Ukrainian/Polish nationality even though the ship is operating in Angolan waters.
Some will even ask for experience operating a particular model of engine — Imagine being told that one of the requirement of getting a job as a full stack Engineer is to have operated a MacBook Pro. Isn't that ridiculous?Travel the World for Free and Get paid while at it. Nobody mentioned that 90% of the time you are at sea with endless ocean as your view. And when you get to your dream destination, port calls are often hectic and last for few days. Nobody included that you will need shorepass and that on some ports you won't be allowed to go out based on your nationality (you may require a special visa.)
On every port, drop anchor! and along came Covid19.
I would have loved to explain this further but this is your assignment. Ask anyone in Maritime to explain it to you.
Before you check out some of my photos taken at sea, tell me some lies about your profession in the comments. I'm sure it will be helpful to someone.
PS Thanks to my friend 
