Where to go if there is no work at sea
Automatic translation
Surely in the life of every seafarer there came a moment when there are no lucrative offers for contracts and the process of being on land begins to drag on more and more. Of course, for those seafarers who have already completed a sufficient number of contracts and created a financial cushion for themselves, it is undoubtedly easier to wait out the unfavorable period. And what should the rank and file do or those who literally managed to make two or three contracts and then do nothing?
Finding a suitable vacancy
For seafarers, the topic of unemployment is not particularly different from the lack of work for other citizens. On maritime forums, almost every second topic consists of requests to suggest or create patronage in employment. Naturally, the salaries of seafarers and many ordinary working professions on land cannot be compared at all. But, if such a situation has already developed, that we can recommend - first, continue to search. We have already touched on this issue more than once in our articles, but this point is really key. Not only is it worth posting your resume on sites with vacancies for seafarers, it is advisable to devote a day to viewing positions at least once a week and send your questionnaire to the positions you like most. In addition, no one cancels visits directly to crewing, where specialists can immediately, face to face, so to speak, assess your readiness to work. On the same forums, stories from seafarers often surface when they had to beat the crewing thresholds for six months and send their questionnaire to almost a hundred places, but luck still smiled at them and, thanks to their perseverance, they found a suitable vacancy.
Among other tips that are often found on the forums, you can also find a recommendation about using time on land as a way to improve your skills. This is common sense, especially when you have some kind of financial security. By spending time efficiently and improving your qualifications, you can count on a higher-paying position in the future, which means that you will be more in demand as a specialist, which will increase the likelihood of getting a suitable job offer soon.
Other options
Other options, especially if the financial situation becomes completely deplorable, is temporary employment in related specialties. So, for example, in large port cities of Ukraine you can find vacancies for tugboats or port ships. In this case, your sailing experience will be a significant advantage for you and will allow you to provide yourself with earnings at least for a while while you are looking for a vacancy to work at sea. Among those seafarers who had to go through a long wait for the voyage, there are those who decided to get a job at ship repair or shipbuilding plants in their cities. Yes, of course, this is not the same thing as working as a seafarer, but as a temporary option it may also work well.
Well, and, of course, one cannot dismiss ordinary workers' specialties that are not related to the sea. When it comes to getting at least some kind of livelihood, there is already, as they say, no time for fat. Therefore, at maritime forums, they share their experience of work in such positions as security guard, taxi driver, handyman at a construction site and many others. You should not take such work as a refusal to work as a seafarer - everything depends only on money.
Thus, even now you have a long period of being on the shore and a difficult financial situation, the main thing is not to stop looking for and sending your profile wherever possible. And if at this time you work at a construction site or a shipyard, no one will poke a finger at you after that on the ship. After all, every seafarer knows what it means to wait for his voyage.
