I have two things to say, #1 I never thought I would end up working in human resources and, #2 I never thought I would end up with a career based at sea. Human Resources was vilified and made to seem scary when I was in high school and my family business was a yachting and marine service company. I thought HR was scary and the inner rebel in me automatically avoided the family business.
I am not sad that my life has taken several personal and professional diversions over time. But, I know that HR is not scary and evil and I also know that my heart belongs to the ocean. It may have taken a few years but I am happy and proud to say I am “back in the family business”.
How did I get here? Well, that is actually a funny story, at least to me. I have a close friend that for years has fantasised about working on cruise ships and after both of us were in a bit of an emotional slump career wise I finally said “ok, thats it! I am coming over on Sunday with food and we are going to apply to the cruise lines”.
Sunday happened and with our laptops out, resumes and cover letters updated we applied to a couple of our favourite companies. We were both in the same role in another industry and ended up applying for the same role which was in Training & Development.
Monday morning… We BOTH received responses from our most preferred company asking to complete online personality testing. We did that right away and both passed. The next steps were phone/skype interviews with the recruitment professional before we would progress to the direct hiring manager. We did our interviews on the same day, mine in the morning and his in the afternoon.
Success! we both passed the screening process to this point. The next step was to do a teach back (facilitate a mini training session) via Skype. Not an easy task over Skype at the time! I had to use several devices to ensure I had all my bases covered. Skip to a couple days later and I had passed the interview, my friend, had not… I was devastated for my friend because really, this was their idea.
Once you pass the interview process you have to complete intense background checks and a very thorough medical exam. Some of this is out of your own pocket and the medical exam, at least in Canada was about $800. I was then offered a start date! after some back and fourth and trepidation on my part I left my office job for the last time in March 2015 and have not looked back since. I love my life at sea and yes, it is a lot of work to get here. I think it is worth it and is the most rewarding work I have ever had the pleasure to do.
If you feel like getting your feet wet… join me! I will follow up with another article more specific to job hunting for careers at sea. In the meantime, just check out all the various websites and or speak to your local hiring partner.
May the winds be in your favour,
Jeff
I am not sad that my life has taken several personal and professional diversions over time. But, I know that HR is not scary and evil and I also know that my heart belongs to the ocean. It may have taken a few years but I am happy and proud to say I am “back in the family business”.
How did I get here? Well, that is actually a funny story, at least to me. I have a close friend that for years has fantasised about working on cruise ships and after both of us were in a bit of an emotional slump career wise I finally said “ok, thats it! I am coming over on Sunday with food and we are going to apply to the cruise lines”.
Sunday happened and with our laptops out, resumes and cover letters updated we applied to a couple of our favourite companies. We were both in the same role in another industry and ended up applying for the same role which was in Training & Development.
Monday morning… We BOTH received responses from our most preferred company asking to complete online personality testing. We did that right away and both passed. The next steps were phone/skype interviews with the recruitment professional before we would progress to the direct hiring manager. We did our interviews on the same day, mine in the morning and his in the afternoon.
Success! we both passed the screening process to this point. The next step was to do a teach back (facilitate a mini training session) via Skype. Not an easy task over Skype at the time! I had to use several devices to ensure I had all my bases covered. Skip to a couple days later and I had passed the interview, my friend, had not… I was devastated for my friend because really, this was their idea.
Once you pass the interview process you have to complete intense background checks and a very thorough medical exam. Some of this is out of your own pocket and the medical exam, at least in Canada was about $800. I was then offered a start date! after some back and fourth and trepidation on my part I left my office job for the last time in March 2015 and have not looked back since. I love my life at sea and yes, it is a lot of work to get here. I think it is worth it and is the most rewarding work I have ever had the pleasure to do.
If you feel like getting your feet wet… join me! I will follow up with another article more specific to job hunting for careers at sea. In the meantime, just check out all the various websites and or speak to your local hiring partner.
May the winds be in your favour,
Jeff
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