Invest In Yourself

Hello everyone,

I would like to talk some of your time to read this as it might have some advice regards improving yourself in the maritime field.

As the headline mention, it's time to invest in yourself; I know it's hard for a lot of people to invest due to financial reasons but this should never make you stop learning. I want to share some situations that happened in my career life with people I have met so far.

The first example, when I started working in this field, I have met 11 ambition rating (AB) seafarers who wanted to invest in themselves and with the time and the effort they spent, they upgraded themselves from ratings to officers (2nd Mate), I was really happy by their accomplishment and I am very proud also that I was one of the people who helped them to go even further and obtain DP license until they have reached unlimited. If you have a chance to help someone who is investing in himself to be better, never hesitate to help him even if it is small help, it will give him a great push to even go further. In 2020, my employer bought his first container vessel and I was assigned to be one of the team composed of 3 members (Marine Manager (Ex-captain), Technical Superintend, Crewing Coordinator) and we were doing interviews for the whole crew starting from Master to Cook, and this example regards one of the masters we interviewed, in the beginning, he was answering the questions in the right way but suddenly when we started asking him regards 2nd Mate and Chief Officer duties, his reply was these are duties for their ranks why I am even bothered by these question. Of course, he failed, but what really surprised me and that he didn't even know why he did and he asked for feedback. So when he asked for feedback on why he got rejected, my answer was that he lacked investment himself, simply didn't update his knowledge, he forgot basic stuff, how come I entrust you with my vessel and crew if you lack supervision and knowledge. Even if it has been so long since you have been promoted to your current rank, never stop updating yourself and remind yourself of the basics and tasks that you used to accomplish. After my superior heard my feedback which lasted more than 30 minutes, he told me I was harsh on him, but deep inside me, I knew that this harsh feedback will lead to something if he invested in himself. After 6 months, I found out that he was hired by a well-known company, bigger than ours and he thanked me because actually he didn't know why he was rejected from all previous companies and no one even told him the real reason or what he lacked.

Second example, same year and vessel, welder, we recruited him as he answered all right answers and even held welding certificates from various countries and it was confirmed, after he started working and while it was 1st shift, I received a request to replace him immediately, he didn't invest in himself to learn harder as he failed to accomplish few tasks that related to the courses he attended, as sometimes people just attend to pass and get the certificate but not to learn. If someone invests in you, pay more effort to be worth that investment.

So before asking others to invest in you, start investing in yourself to show that you are worth investing in. You can invest by reading online within your work field, there is always something new to learn, even if it's refreshing your old knowledge, sometimes the answer is in the basics that you started by learning.

Last example, a friend of mine, chief engineer for 12 years, a co-worker I have met when I started working in the offshore field, he is very knowledgeable always seeks to learn something new, and honestly one of the very few chief engineers I have met that accepted to work without ETO and also one of few people who received approval Aramco under special terms as he lacked a year in his sea service but since he was technical superintend for more than a vessel for a whole year they used it as an exception and added it to his sea service. And I know he will keep investing in himself because this will make others see him worth investing in.??

Only limited employers will take the risk to invest in people, who didn't invest in themselves yet.