Cruising for Cruise Ship Jobs

by Ed Teja

One of the most glamorous-sounding jobs is that of working on a cruise ship. Travel the world, especially those balmy tropical paradises, and live on board. Have most of your expenses covered and sock away your earnings, right? That’s why we get lots of requests from people who want to learn how to grab one of those berths, so here we go.

First, however, I want to dampen the enthusiasm of the weak among you. I said that cruise ship jobs are glamorous sounding. But the reality is that they are hard work. You are going to be serving a demanding public in a confined space. And the quick turn times in port don’t necessarily give you quite the adventure you might be thinking of. Not to mention that in most cases you are not allowed to mix with the passengers except in the line of work, and will sleep in the least comfortable, noisiest parts of the ship. And forget about privacy.

Consider that cruise ships are floating resorts – many with casinos. The goal of the cruise ship line is to first of all attract people to the cruises, then keep them on board spending money. The passengers are not there (ironically) for the passages, so whenever possible they take place at night, and the ship arrives in port in the morning and leaves at dusk. There is nothing at all wrong with that, of course, and it obviously appeals to lots of vacationers, but it is important to bear in mind that your job will involve catering to other people under circumstances that can prove less than optimum.

The upside is that there are a lot of openings on cruise ships and they often do go to exciting places. You can earn decent money and gain excellent experience. You might even find a career in cruise ships, and this is the only way you would discover that.

If you have any kind of skills that involve feeding, or caring for, or entertaining people, you can probably find a job on board. The jobs on these ships break down into basic categories. Various agencies and companies group them differently, but in general they are:

o Concessionaire jobs – activity and entertainment,
o Deck & Engineering – professional crew,
o Service and hospitality – cooking, cleaning.

And then there are the office jobs, for a cruise ship is a business and needs office work done - tons of it. And the cruise lines need people in this category ashore as well, so there are ways to use office skills galore.

Clearly there is a need for doctors, nurses, bartenders, cooks, nutritionists, golf pros, tour guides, physical-fitness trainers and day-care professionals. If you have any of those skills you can usually find welcome arms at the human resources department of the cruise line. And that is the place to start. Most of the cruise ship lines have web sites, and they generally have job openings, requirements and some way to get in touch with the human resources person.

For instance, if you are an entertainer, and interested in Holland America, you go to their entertainer website to learn: “Our on board music program caters to guests with a variety of tastes...from contemporary to classical. We hire individual musicians to accompany our award winning shows and entertainers and we are always auditioning individuals and groups to entertain in our bars and on deck. If you are looking to continue your musical career, Holland America has the very best there is to offer.”

In fact the firm’s shipboard employment website gives info for every kind of job and how to apply.
Carnival Cruises has a similar website for jobs. By the way, this site warns of reply to fraudulent newspaper ads for cruise ship jobs, and recommends contacting them direct.

Going to the cruise line web sites gives you an idea of the kinds of ships and cruises they feature, their corporate philosophy, hiring policies and lots of other things that are useful to know if you are thinking about working for them. In fact, I recommend that approach for any job hunt—get to know the employer through the official face it puts out there. You want compatibility, or at least as much of it as possible. For example, if corporate responsibility is an important issue in your life, then you want to know if the employer even gives it lip service.

In addition to direct employment searches, there are also employment web sites such as Cruise Ship Jobs and Cruise Job Line that specialize in cruise ship jobs. We make no specific recommendation with regard to cruise job websites, so be sure to look at several. Consider those listed here as examples only. Most will cost you money, so you’ll probably want to select only one or two to work with.

Bear in mind that when you look for a cruise job, in addition to the normal information you need for job seeking (especially a top-notch resume or CV), for this one you’ll also need a current passport. The job is going to involve international travel. If your current passport expires in six months, do yourself a favor get a new one now. If you don’t have one, get one before you apply for jobs. It can take some time and paperwork to obtain a passport and if there are job openings you don’t want to miss them because you haven’t done the paperwork.

In addition, you’ll probably have to undergo a background check. This doesn’t mean that the cruise line calls your third grade teacher to see if you behaved in school, but it does mean that a private investigating company will check public records to see if you have been arrested, or if there are any outstanding warrants for you (this is big business these days). And, for some positions aboard, especially if it involves handling money, you’ll need to be able to be bonded. Bear in mind that old traffic violations that you haven’t bothered to clear up can come back to haunt you at a time like this. I’ve seen work permits overseas held up because of unpaid traffic fines, so make sure your record is clear.

Another way to work on cruise ships, at least for short periods, is to work with people who hold seminars on a cruise. This is increasingly popular and there are agencies that help arrange and facilitate specialty cruises. These agencies also sometimes set up incentive cruises, that reward employees for high sales or good service. Making arrangements and seeing to the needs of the passengers, independent of what the cruise line does, is an important part of their customer service.

As with most job hunting efforts, getting a job with a cruise line is easy if you have marketable skills. If you are fresh out of school, you might have to be more creative and versatile, but willing workers are always needed. Put together a resume that shows you are reliable and capable, put on your best and toughest smile and get sending it out - after you get your passport, of course.
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Traveling Ed Teja
www.myspace.com/TravelingEdTeja
www.geocities.com/edteja