Appalling Lack of Good Leadership On Vessels
Pros
The paycheck and the ports
Cons
Advice for your first MSC ship as a watch engineer: - Get the virtual tech library (VTL) for your class of ship and read as much you can before getting onboard. You’ll be expected to know everything already regardless of experience or if you have this material or not. - Don’t ask questions. About ANYTHING. Especially not about the engineering plant or ships schedule. - Don’t bother kissing up to your Chief or 1st. Don’t play into anyone’s egos. It won’t be worth your time trying to make friends with the type of people that run these ships. - Don’t expect to find a mentor. - Don’t expect to have leadership that you can trust. - Try your best to stay out of sight and just do your job. There will be some department heads that that will make it difficult to do even that. - Any personal information you divulge can and will be used against you to put you down. Keep to yourself. - Don’t stand up for yourself. Just keep quiet and document everything. Emails, incidents, dates, times and witnesses. - Quit. - Don’t work for MSC.
