|
So have any of you guys started down this road completely cold, as described in the OP? No family or union connections or whatever from the outset? If there is actually eventually steady work in this field and a shortage of new blood for it, I may be very soon in a situation where I need a new career, and this sounds like the one for me. If I spend more than a few months at home in a year, I start to go crazy, and I've had awful luck with archaeology crew jobs this season- starting to think it's too inconsistent. This sounds like a better kind of inconsistent, with better pay. Different conditions, but I'd hesitate to say worse than what I've gotten used to.
|
#
¿
May 12, 2011 12:58
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 3, 2024 03:03 |
|
|
FrozenVent posted:Yeah, I went in completely cold. Made connections through iternships and school. (As in, some of my classmates now have decent jobs, they're connections) Depending which country you're in, there's a pretty high demand for people right now. Sadly, I'm American. I am guessing that makes it hopeless without 6 years of education or 60 years of experience, like every other job in this country.
|
|
#
¿
May 22, 2011 22:38
|
|
|
I've done some more reading up and even in the US this sounds like a growth industry. A career at sea is sounding better and better to me, it is the one pleasant surprise I have had in a long time thinking about jobs and careers. I wish I knew a little more about how to get started, specific to America, but Google is my friend here. Any US-specific advice is appreciated. I don't really care what it is: school is cool with me (all my other options in life involve it), shorter training, unions, moving across the country - nothing is off the table. Been doing a lot of that soul-searching and realizing that a career spent wandering the globe may be not only an acceptable fit for me, but one that makes me want to get up and do something every day.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2011 07:44
|
|
|
No, I know what you mean. Archaeology is the same way, in a lot of respects. Surveying up and down the same 120-mile linear thing in southeast Texas in August gets me going the way India and Lonely Planet does some people. What I think about is that I can't see myself working a "home every night" kind of job the rest of my life like my parents did. I like bumfuck nowhere, I like routine, and I like the ritualized irregular Wal-Mart trip. I want more technical in my life, and more work. Hell, I even liked the safety man they sent down from corporate on that Texas job. Two months between Point Boring and Uglyville is travelling the world to me. I want to be able to grow professionally without the slog through humanities academia that are the Masters and PhD stumbling blocks. Conclusion: my talking is too flowery.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2011 08:46
|
|
|
I'd say Deck more fits my inclinations but I don't really know enough to be 100%. I think you are spot on about routine, one thing that's really been fulfilling to me is the ability to set up a routine and follow it under lovely circumstances in lovely locales, and sneak in some drunk in Mexico time once or twice a year to give the folks back home an anecdote. Would you say it's routine but not always dead dull? Like having to adapt the necessary tasks to changing circumstances type work, but sometimes the circumstances don't change for a few months and thats when it drags? I feel like there is a line between routine, and soul-crushing boredom, but I'm not sure where it is.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2011 10:01
|
|
|
Two Finger posted:It's routine but important work which is why I like it. I struggled with office jobs because I always felt like the work I was doing wasn't actually worth anything. I definitely see where you're coming from. I think you've answered in one stroke the essential difference between routine and soul-crushing. I would gladly dig a 30cm wide by 1m deep hole, every 60m, for miles, and find nothing, since it is important work to preserve history while letting present enterprises advance. I'm 23, got my degree in archaeology 2 years ago and have been working as an archaeology field tech, mostly on pipeline projects, since then, but the last 6 months the work has just died and there is not much room to advance in the field. Between that and the low pay I want out, and considering a masters in this (necessary to advance beyond tech) can take more than 4 years I am very open to 4-year type programs. No seagoing experience myself, some of my relatives were in the Navy and liked it but I don't think the military is for me (I've found something really rewarding in being a part of these big civilian infrastructure enterprises like pipelines and interstates).
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2011 10:31
|
|
|
Hey cool, Great Lakes Maritime Academy has a 3-year licensing program for nontraditional students who already have a bachelors degree, that fits my situation perfectly. Going to have to read up more about that, this sounds like an industry I would really be excited to work in. edit: hey, it looks like my uncorrected vision would need a waiver, it's worse than 20/200. It corrects to better than 20/20 and I have been wearing soft contacts since I was a kid. Anyone know if they actually grant these bad boys? shovelbum fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Jun 14, 2011 |
|
#
¿
Jun 14, 2011 04:02
|
|
|
Tell me more about the union, I've been dicked over so many times because we archaeologists haven't had one in ages. Stories about how great it is make me feel less insane for applying to these maritime academies with no experience at sea. Also anyone who did that, tell me how it went.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 18, 2011 04:08
|
|
|
edit- conversations directly with the NMC medical guys have informed me that there is no 20/800 uncorrected vision cut-off and that I am good to go!
shovelbum fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Aug 4, 2011 |
|
#
¿
Jun 20, 2011 16:16
|
|
|
Couldn't get this out of my head so I talked directly to the Coast Guard medical guys a while back, they said that the NVIC 04/08 vision cut-off of 20/800 was not a hard rule and that the waivers were routine in candidates whose vision was well-corrected. Also figured out that one of my eyes was likely assessed wrong and as far as I can tell both are somewhere between 20/400 and 20/800 uncorrected anyway. Started applying to maritime academies for 2012, Great Lakes had a last-second engineering slot open, toured their facilities, was impressed with their 200' diesel-electric training ship and quite new class and lab facilities (and let's face it, with the non-regimented cadets, small size, and the location in Traverse City, I am not 18 anymore and the town and atmosphere really appealed to me). The prospect of doing most of my sea time on commercial vessels (Lakes and ocean) also appealed. I took their offer, passed their physical, and am starting in a few weeks on track to finish in 3 years due to lots of basic science credits from my previous bachelors degree shaving all the intro to chem, physics, math, etc off. Always kind of wanted to sail the lakes specifically as a kid (not to mention there's about a dozen Michigan guys I've worked with as a field tech who kept saying a southern boy couldn't handle it on the lakes). Tell me what I am missing here, I was away from home 9+ months a year just to scrape up a 20 grand salary as an archaeologist, when I could find work at all, is there a catch to this or is it seriously a reasonably-paid field that people actually don't want to do, with jobs out there for new grads?
shovelbum fucked around with this message at 05:29 on Aug 4, 2011 |
|
#
¿
Aug 4, 2011 05:20
|
|
|
Welp, just finalized registration and pulled the trigger on the first student loan, I'm committed now. Moving to Traverse City tomorrow, I am sure I will have many stories from the school and from the lakes for this thread. You bastards better be right about an engineer's ability to pay down some student loans fast 
|
|
#
¿
Aug 8, 2011 18:42
|
|
|
The US schools all seem to take different approaches, I have looked over most of their requirements- some train you more towards the operations/management side of things, some do the maths/physics mindfuck, some are all over the place and you wonder what they could even call their degrees, the one I am going to takes guys with random bachelors degrees coming in and essentially chains them to either a diesel engine or a pilotage simulator, notice how the curriculum immediately devolves into hour after hour of concentrated lab time past the first semester, as all other aspects of it vanish (in the grand US tradition, credit hours bear no actual relationship to the time spent in the lab)- http://www.nmc.edu/maritime/admissions/three-year-engineering-curr-guide.pdf The upside is a three year program with two commercial cadet cruises. I am still looking forward to it. shovelbum fucked around with this message at 08:22 on Aug 9, 2011 |
|
#
¿
Aug 9, 2011 07:24
|
|
|
ETMPlus posted:NOAA fleet guy checking in. I've sailed civilian and commissioned deck officer, and can answer questions about our ships, life on them, or whatever. Our ships and plants are smaller than almost any merchant ship, but we can do some fun things with them (walking them sideways to piers, holding station without any of that DP crap, etc.) It's a different side of the maritime world, and it's pretty drat fun. Do you have to be a scientist of some kind, or do they hire licensed deck and engineering guys whose background is just civilian maritime work?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 10, 2011 05:39
|
|
|
camino posted:I think we spent all of one day in the diesel simulator during first year, and that was only because half the class took a propeller club trip to go look at a dock or something. I made it through an archaeology degree in what seems like a past life. It transitioned from hours and hours of slides to hours and hours of powerpoints a day while I was there (I am not old, but some profs were). This is where I shine.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 13, 2011 06:03
|
|
|
Grand Prize Winner posted:What kind of policies do shipping companies have with regards to background checks? Would they take a guy with a felony? How old's the felony and what is it? Could be an issue just to get a TWIC much less work, right?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 13, 2011 21:45
|
|
|
Grand Prize Winner posted:I'm a US citizen in the US. It's about three months old at this point, one count of assault resulting in GBI in California. Assuming I keep a clean record through the end of my probation in 2014, the court may reduce the conviction to a misdemeanor. I think there might be a table of crimes and penalties for maritime credentials in 46cfr200 something, saw it in class today.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 26, 2011 04:36
|
|
|
FrozenVent posted:What happened to getting chained to a simulator for three years? I like it so far, we have been more chained to a powerpoint projector than anything, learning rules, regs, and not to drive drunk. I found the table, it's 46 CFR §10.211, I left out the 10 before! Whoops. Anyway, what we seem to do on the engine side instead of sims at this point is STCW practicals (cutting pipes, making gaskets, etc) and tracing systems on the training ship, especially in the parts that previous years of cadets haven't painted color-coded yet. There's big computers with pipe and valve sims etc that we will spend lots of time on later. As someone who already had a bachelors and already did a lot of the math/physics/chem stuff beforehand, this "ok here is how a ship works, as this ship not-so-clearly indicates" approach is really useful for me. Great Lakes is definitely more of a deck/pilotage school but engine side guys sure seem to do fine out of here too. I guess we are the "grease monkey" academy since we don't learn a lot of the physics and chem. If some 18 year old kid is reading this, go to Maine or somewhere and get an engineering degree, but if some other college-educated 20somethings are reading this, at least look at the 3-year license track here. edit: we spent the first two weeks on the training ship doing rowing, lifeboat/liferaft stuff, and intro to pipes and valves and pumps, it was a great time, even if we barely left port! I wake up every day and want to go to class. Oh, found the table of crimes and times for the assault guy, looks like it will give you some trouble http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2010/octqtr/pdf/46cfr10.211.pdf Also, here is what the TWIC guys are looking at as far as criminal record: http://www.tsa.gov/assets/pdf/twic_form2212_english.pdf So just combine those two pieces of information and see where you can go from there. shovelbum fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Aug 31, 2011 |
|
#
¿
Aug 31, 2011 04:52
|
|
|
Heard from recent grads that they are working without relief on the lakes as 3rd assistants, too, as far as America goes.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 13, 2011 00:57
|
|
|
FrozenVent, do any of the Canadian Lakes bulkers have free-fall lifeboats? We kind of learned about them as these voodoo wizard future man devices we'd see on the Lakes about the time our ships were replaced by flying atomic cars but I swear I've seen some pictures of Canadian lakers with 'em.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 25, 2011 03:41
|
|
|
Also interested in hearing about breaking into the oil field jobs, what has been helpful in landing those for people? I'm just a scrub-rear end cadet so I figure better start asking this stuff early.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 28, 2011 07:15
|
|
|
That makes sense, we are really well connected on the Lakes here which means great pilotage-required jobs for the deck grads, but a lot of us on the engine side have been talking about finding out more about other jobs too (other than MSC).
|
|
#
¿
Oct 28, 2011 16:16
|
|
|
FrozenVent posted:The winter jacket goes on my back, sweatshirts and regular stuff go in the regular clothes suitcase. Anybody knows of a place where I can get ski goggles that'll fit over my glasses? A lot of the ESS tactical goggles are cheap and great over glasses, but those aren't cold weather oriented. Rugged though.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 29, 2011 04:24
|
|
|
FrozenVent posted:Nevermind that they can't hire people to cover vacation, where the gently caress are they gonna find scabs? Use strike to justify destroying cabotage laws, hire 3rd worlders?
|
|
#
¿
Nov 1, 2011 03:15
|
|
|
FrozenVent posted:I don't have any illusions, their won't be any more first worlders in ANY business in fifteen years. Fixed that for you! Daily dose of optimism!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 1, 2011 15:57
|
|
|
Fish Shalami posted:Just upgraded to 2nd Engineer Motor/Steam Any Horsepower. Only took a month for Coast Guard to review it. You kept a steam endorsement, what's the requirement for keeping that upgraded along with motor?
|
|
#
¿
Dec 1, 2011 18:44
|
|
|
Two Finger posted:Hahaha, you're as bad as me when I start talking about engineering stuff. Last time I tried it this chick's eyes just totally glazed over, it was hilarious. I'm so glad there was a nice coastie boat here a few months ago that I could grill about all the fancy screens and buttons they had in their pilothouse. Merlot Brougham posted:Does this video bring a tear to your eye whenever you see it? Freaks me out because the school I go to had a cadet on that boat at the time, poor bastard never got to have a career. Every cadet's worst nightmare... never getting your license. Just think of his friends, family, anyone who cosigned his student loans
shovelbum fucked around with this message at 08:37 on Dec 3, 2011 |
|
#
¿
Dec 3, 2011 08:32
|
|
|
PowerJew posted:Deck or engine? I'm engine side in the US, that still a good gig to look into? I know the deck guys can get on one hell of a gravy train with that DPO stuff.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 14, 2011 16:20
|
|
|
Better than sending it through the bottom of a fuel tank, I guess.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 25, 2012 05:02
|
|
|
Just did some alumni meeting and greeting at GLMA. It was awesome, met some guys off the thousand footers, they were just normal dudes like us. Then I got super wasted with the other first-year engineer cadets.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2012 08:50
|
|
|
What the heck is an "Electro-Technical Officer"
|
|
#
¿
Feb 22, 2012 22:15
|
|
|
Serf posted:That's actually the school I'm gonna go to. It's still pretty expensive since I'm an out-of-state student, hence why I want to get some cash before I sign up. Don't worry, they don't give the in-state kids much of a break
|
|
#
¿
Feb 26, 2012 06:39
|
|
|
Two Finger posted:What in the gently caress? COAL??? The Badger is still coal on Lake Michigan, it has giant conveyors feeding a shaker-grate furnace thing with big mechanical stokers I think. Crew isn't huge. But that's the latest and greatest in American coal technology, I'm curious to hear about any other coal-fired ships out there. Tell us everything. How does the coal get to where it's burned? How do you burn it in there? How much coal do you carry and what's the range on it? What on earth ship even is this? We talk about coal ships and the pros and cons of coal CONSTANTLY here so I'd love to hear how yours works. edit: 255m of COAL, that rules. shovelbum fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Mar 1, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Mar 1, 2012 20:18
|
|
|
FrozenVent posted:There are still coal boats around? Seriously? The Badger has pulverised coal loaded by truck in Manitowoc, but was at one time able to crush its own coal. I know that dock has a rail line, so I guess they've just maintained coaling service there since the Age Of Coal. I found a pdf detailing that coal system some. http://files.asme.org/ASMEORG/Communities/History/Landmarks/5496.pdf Since it's a ferry, no reason they can't keep its own dock supplied with coal, I suppose. Anyway, some of us cadets are going to go down there to see some boiler work next week, I will try to get pictures of the coal system and then we can have pictures of two working coal-fired steamers!
|
|
#
¿
Mar 1, 2012 22:52
|
|
poo poo, steam is old fashionned, but coal-fueled steam? Crap.
|
FrozenVent posted:The Badger's kind of a special case, I think they keep it around just for the novelty. There was a big to-do about it this winter, talk of shutting it down due to new EPA regulations... But in the end they got a special permit allowing them to dump ashes in Lake Michigan, so all's well in coal-fired-ferry land. It's a novelty (also I think its dock is at a coal plant), but it is interesting because it is intact and relatively modern. Coal fired recip in 1952? Only the railroads, I guess. Also the whole "domestic fuel" angle fascinates people. edit: whoops, off by 6 years shovelbum fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Mar 2, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Mar 1, 2012 23:37
|
|
|
FrozenVent posted:"The cruise line should hire navy-trained people! I gotta find this quote.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 2, 2012 01:24
|
|
"
|
From the Navy vets I've talked to who are in the engineering program and who did engineering work in the service, each of them had a fairly specific focus on a certain type of equipment, be it reactors, propulsion equipment, auxiliary equipment, electrical equipment, etc.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 2, 2012 03:18
|
|
|
This is fantastic, wish I could get my hands on this beast. Thanks a ton for the video.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 2, 2012 07:51
|
|
|
lightpole posted:Main complaint from my friends was you could only apply for a relief after a certain time period like 3 months and then it would be at least 3 more months before you got one, most likely longer. I know Im good for 3-4 months and start to get a little weired after that but somewhere around 6 months is my mental limit. As a cadet I get to see the MSC make offers to literally the entire graduating class who will even talk to them, and even then no one takes the offers, and this is at the backwoods academy.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2012 07:21
|
|
|
Got to look around the Badger engine room for a few hours today. The chief down there gave us a great tour, considering none of us had ever really spent time on a steamship. Their fuel system: Coal is brought on by truck and is stored in bunkers low in the ship. A conveyor system brings the coal to a crusher. The crushed coal is lifted again and fed using screw augers into small day bunkers. This is fed by gravity to automatic stokers, which throw more or less coal using paddle wheel type throwers into the furnace according to the position of a plate. When the fire burns to ash, the ashes are dumped through a series of flip-up grates into a pit below. A fireman with a long hoe then rakes these ashes into an opening connected to a pipe where an eductor is pulling some vacuum to suck the ashes out, mix them with water, and dump them overboard.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 7, 2012 23:26
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 3, 2024 03:03 |
|
|
FrozenVent posted:Yeah, today's going to be "National Stop Procrastinating Day", I'll write to him this afternoon. National for Canada, right, so I don't have to stop procrastinating?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 4, 2012 12:12
|
|