Degree or sea time: what shore employers actually look at

The question comes in two forms and they are really the same question. Officers with a degree ask whether their sea time counts for anything. Officers without one ask whether the CoC is enough. The honest answer is that it depends entirely on which door you are knocking at, and the difference between those doors is predictable.

Shore employers in shipping sort roughly into three groups.

Group one: they hire the certificate and the sea time

These are the roles where the job is to understand ships, and where somebody without time on board simply cannot do the work. The CoC is the qualification. A degree is pleasant and changes very little.

• •Marine surveying, cargo surveying and consultancy, where the question is always what happened on that ship.
• •Technical and marine superintendence, where the employer wants someone who has run a dry docking and a planned maintenance system.
• •Vetting, ISM, ISPS and DPA roles, which are built on the certificates and the inspection experience you already hold.
• •Nautical and simulator instruction at maritime academies and training institutes.
• •Pilotage and port marine operations, where the CoC is a statutory requirement rather than a preference.
• •Marine warranty and tow approval, which is a senior CoC plus a specific operational track record.

If this is where you are heading, a two year master's abroad is an expensive way to acquire something you already have. What these employers want instead is specific certification: surveying accreditation, auditor training, a NEBOSH or equivalent safety qualification, or vendor training for the systems in question.

Group two: they screen on the degree and then hire the sea time

Here the degree is a filter rather than a qualification. Human resources will not move your CV forward without one, and once it moves forward the sea time is what wins you the job over the other candidates in the pile.

• •Chartering, operations and shipbroking at the larger houses, which recruit graduates by default and take experienced mariners by exception.
• •Marine insurance, P and I claims and average adjusting.
• •Classification society technical and plan approval roles.
• •Energy, offshore and renewables project management, which usually sits inside an engineering corporate structure.
• •Shipping finance, trade finance and anything inside a bank, where the screen is close to absolute.

This is where a master's earns its money. Not because it teaches you shipping, which you know, but because it gets you past a filter that would otherwise reject you unread, and because it gives you the commercial vocabulary to explain what you already understand in a language that room recognises.

Group three: they do not care, they test you instead

Small operators, owners, independent surveyors and young commercial outfits often have no formal policy at all. They hire on referral and on what you can demonstrate in an interview. Qualifications matter less than whether somebody in the industry will vouch for you. This group is harder to find and faster to join.

How to find out for your own target, in a week

1. 1.Collect fifteen live job adverts for the role you want, from the employers you would actually join.
2. 2.Mark each one as requires a degree, prefers a degree, or requires a certificate of competency.
3. 3.If most say certificate, stop planning a degree and start planning the certification instead.
4. 4.If most say degree, find out whether they accept a maritime academy B.Sc. or B.E., which many officers already hold without realising it clears the bar.
5. 5.Write to two people doing the job and ask what their employer actually screened on. People answer this question far more often than you expect.

The thing both groups undervalue

Whatever the screen, nobody ashore knows what your sea time means until you translate it. "Chief Officer, four years" is a rank. "Responsible for cargo operations and stability on product tankers, including eleven ship to ship transfers and two vetting inspections with no major observations" is a job description an employer can price. The officers who move ashore fastest are rarely the most qualified ones. They are the ones who explained themselves clearly.