Work at sea Junior Officer & Junior Engineer
Automatic translation
Looking through the vacancies of seafarers on various sites, graduates of academies and graduating from their studies may stumble upon an offer to go to sea not only as a cadet, as the first stage of their career, but also as a Junior Officer or Junior Engineer. As a rule, there are few such vacancies, if not to say that they are absent. This is due to the fact that the Junior Officer and Junior Engineer are, in fact, an intermediate link between the cadet and the 3rd assistant or 3rd engineer, and on many ships they correspond to the rare position of the 4th engineer and assistant.
Continuing their educational program
If we think about naval practice in the rank of cadet, then the first thing that comes to mind is the acquisition of experience. Juniors, as a rule, are those seafarers who have already made one or two contracts as a cadet and are ready for the next step in their career. Often, shipowners who offer to work at sea as a cadet and offer the positions of Junior Officer and Junior Engineer, since, in fact, this is a continuation of their educational program. Unfortunately, in many cases these ship-owning companies already have formed agreements with educational institutions, and they are very reluctant to hire outsiders for such positions. However, if we go to the website of any labor exchange for seafarers, we will see that there are offers on the job market. It is worth making a reservation that there are proposals specifically for the positions of the 4th mechanic and the 4th assistant,
It is important to note that the spread in salaries and contract terms for this position is very large and depends both on the type of vessel and on the responsibilities that will be assigned to you. Let's repeat, as a rule, the Junior Officer and Junior Engineer already have the entire package of documents and are ready to work independently, but they perform many processes on the ship under the supervision of their elders. Most often, for a promotion (especially if this is not the first contract in this particular company), it is enough to work 4-6 months as a junior, show yourself from the best side and gain enough experience.
On the maritime forums, there is a lot of evidence from Ukrainian seafarers who came to the Junior Officer or Junior Engineer contract, but did not receive the proper support or level of training from higher officers. Unfortunately, the policy of a ship-owning company in this matter can be completely different and change almost from ship to ship. Therefore, before concluding a contract, if one has already turned up for you, it is advisable to find out this question as well - you will hardly want to scrub the deck around the clock, and improve your education and knowledge not in practice, but purely from books in your free time.
Contracts for both Junior Officer and Junior Engineer
Summarizing the above, we note that contracts for both Junior Officer and Junior Engineer can often benefit you in training only if you have previously worked with this ship-owning company and worked at sea in the rank of cadet. Then the established connections and, so to speak, the beaten path can both provide an opportunity for promotion and acquire the missing knowledge and skills for promotion. In all other cases, as a rule, such a contract will not differ much from the cadet one, that is, there will be a low salary, not quite a suitable deadline, and if you are not at all lucky, then they will not wake you up to teach you anything. Therefore, when choosing such a contract, it is necessary to be guided by all those rules that are also true for ordinary contracts for other specialties.
