Coming ashore: the questions to answer before you apply anywhere

Almost every conversation I have starts the same way: someone has found a programme online, in a country a friend recommended, and wants to know whether it is any good. It is the wrong first question. A programme is only good relative to what you already hold, what you can spend, and what you want to be doing in five years.

Here is the order I work through with people, and you can do most of it yourself before you speak to anyone.

1. What do you already hold?

Write down your Certificate of Competency and its level, your sea time by rank and vessel type, your highest academic qualification, and any shore courses or audits you have done. This single page decides more than anything else: it determines which programmes will even consider your application, and whether your experience earns you credit or counts for nothing.

Be precise. "Chief Officer, four years" and "Chief Officer, four years on LNG" open different doors.

2. What are you actually moving towards?

Coming ashore is not one destination. The route to marine surveying is different from the route to shipping finance, which is different again from technical superintendence, port operations or maritime law. Some need a specific postgraduate qualification. Some need a professional accreditation instead. Some need neither, only a network and a relocation.

• •If you can name three job titles you would take tomorrow, you have enough direction to build a shortlist.
• •If you cannot, read job adverts for a fortnight before spending money on anything.
• •Check what those adverts actually ask for. Many want experience you already have.

3. What can you fund, honestly?

Count tuition, visa costs, flights, a deposit and the first few months of rent, insurance, and the months after your course when you are job hunting rather than earning. The last item catches people out. A cheaper programme in an expensive city with a long job search can cost more than a pricier one somewhere you can work sooner.

If the numbers only work assuming you find a job the month you graduate, the plan is too tight. Give yourself a margin.

4. Who else is affected?

If you have a family, their visa rights, the cost of schooling and whether a partner can legally work are not details to sort out later. In some countries a dependant can work immediately; in others they cannot. That single fact has changed people's choice of country more often than any league table.

5. What is your timeline?

Count backwards from the intake you are aiming at, not forwards from today. Admissions deadlines, document legalisation, language tests, visa appointments and notice to your company all take time, and several of them cannot run in parallel. Working backwards usually reveals that the comfortable-sounding intake is in fact the tight one.

Then, and only then, pick the country

Once you have those five answers, the shortlist narrows itself, often to two or three realistic options. That is the point at which comparing programmes becomes useful rather than overwhelming.

If you want a second opinion on your own five answers, that is exactly what the consultation call is for. Bring your CoC, your sea time and your budget, and we will work through them together.