Who will not be enticed of seeking a job in a cruise ship? Aside from earning a decent amount of money, you get to travel to beautiful destinations the world could offer. It is one of the best example of hitting two birds in one stone particularly for people who loves to travel. Albeit, you need to work in between, and this work could be as demanding or much difficult than land based careers.
Work in a cruise ship, at least for most of its employees, is very different from the work you will see from regular container, cargo or oil tanker ships. While other ships are designed to deliver products for trade or commerce, cruise ship is designed to cater to individual people to make them happy for the duration of their vacation.
Before getting excited about it and jump into applying for a job in a cruise ship, you should know which job you might be qualified for a cruise ship. It is important that you know all these so that you can evaluate your qualification against possible position in a cruise ship.
Generally, there are three categories of personnel in a cruise ship. These are the officers, staffs and crews. These people are the responsible for efficient operation of the cruise ship and ensure that the customers will be satisfied for the service they paid for.
 |
Cruise ship Carnival Splendor somewhere in Manila Bay |
Officers - These are mainly people on managerial positions but mainly these also include people who are in-charge of navigating the ship safely. Primarily composing the captain of the ship, deck officers and officers in the engineering department. These are the same people you would see in any other sea going vessel. This will also include people such as the hotel manager, human resource director, doctor, casino manager, security officer, executive and sous chef and cruise director.
Staffs - Often these people are in charge of all the entertainment requirements of the guests and are non-supervisory work. These are often compose of cruise activities staff, casino staffs, entertainment staffs, gift shop or onboard retail stores and spa or salon staffs.
Crew - Probably the most number of employed people onboard a cruise ship. These people are in charge of hospitality requirements of the guests. You will also find these people on similar employments with land based hotels. Security personnel, housekeeping and food and beverages composes the crew of a cruise ship.
Basic Requirements
1. Passport - The most basic requirements you need to secure first is your passport. You will be travelling along with the ship on different parts of the globe and certainly immigration staffs of different countries you are travelling to will be looking for your passports to ascertain your nationality and identity. It is a good thing that the government have already extended the validity of passport for 10 years, so you would not be reapplying or renew it often. There are also documentary requirements that needs to be present when you apply for Philippine passport and you need to secure your appointment for personal appearance. So if you are planning to apply as soon as possible secure your appointment first online to DFA appointment system. Be sure to secure you passport application requirements first before heading to your nearest DFA office.
2. Seaman's Book - All Filipinos employed in any type of ship, particularly those that are doing international voyages are required to have their seaman's book. This document records all your employment and time aboard ship which could come in handy when you are securing another sea based job. Recently, MARINA have implemented some changes to this document and they now call it Seafarer's Record Book (SRB). Read all about it in my separate post on the difference between the new SRB and the old SRB including the Seafarer's Identity Document. There are several documents that you also need to complete and similarly with passports you need to appear personally in their office to apply for one. Go to their website to secure appointments and read their requirements in this link.
3. Mandatory Training Certificates - These documents are important for it will show you have undergone training in at sea work environment. Work at sea has a very different atmosphere or environment than land based ones. Because of this, safety of personnel and ships are emphasised and that is where your training under STCW or Seafarer's Training, Certification and Watchkeeping comes in. These trainings are essential during emergencies where you need to respond accordingly and adhere to certain rules and procedures. Remember that when emergencies strike onboard you cannot call emergency numbers to respond such as fire trucks and police or rescue personnel. Only the ship's crew can save their ship and themselves that is why these trainings are important. Some of the basic trainings that you need are the following:
a. Basic Training
b. Medical first aid
c. Fire fighting training
d. Proficiency in survival crafts and rescue boats
e. Security training for seafarers
f. Crowd management (requirement for cruise ship)
Depending on the position that you are seeking for, additional trainings might be needed for you to qualify on that position. These trainings are being offered by maritime schools around the country, so depending on where you stay right now, it is wise that you ask some training institutions if they offer these kind of trainings. You can see some list of schools or training institutions that can possibly offer these courses here.
4. Medical Certificate - This requirements is also important since it will tell if you are fit to work in a ship board environment. As we have said before, ship environment is a unique one. The usual medical attention you require in land might not be available aboard ship, so it is best that you make yourself fit if you plan to work on a cruise ship.
5. Completed Resume - Land or at sea work needs require resume to verify your educational background and work experience. Be sure to put all relevant data particularly the ones that relates to the position you are applying for. Remember that all cruise ship job does not require you to have a college degree, except for those people that are in charge in safely navigating and running the ship and in some managerial and supervisory position. In some cases your senior high diploma or NC2 certificate from TESDA relating to the work you are seeking might be enough to land you a job in a cruise ship. But more importantly, experience in similar field even on land based job will be highly advantageous in your application.
No comments:
Post a Comment