Hard to get a job as Trainee Engineer or Deck Cadet on ship?

Hello there !

For the past few years, I have been noticing how difficult it has been to get a job as trainee marine engineer or deck cadet on ship after completing marine engineering or nautical science course even from a well recognised maritime institute. The main reason behind this would be the approval of so many substandard institutions by the government in recent years, because of which the number of students graduating every year is far more than the number of job openings that we have. Along with this, a lot of job agents, mostly fraud ones have come up offering jobs in known and unknown companies taking a huge amount of money. You would wonder that the average agent fee they are charging has been above 3.5 to 4 lakh INR for a normal company and 5 to 6 lakh INR for a well known highly paying company which is one third of actual engineering course fee itself. The funniest part in fact is that the agents get only 10 to 15 % of the fee and the rest goes to the people who are sitting on top of crewing department in these companies, even the best shipping companies I would say.

Though it is rare that the companies take freshers from outside without reference, there are few companies that do recruit cadets on regular or non-regular basis. Some of them are Shipping Corporation of India, SCI, United Ocean Ship management, Seastar Ship management, Wallem Ship management, Nortrans Maritime, and V-Ships.

If you would like see the contacts of shipping companies where you can apply directly online, follow the links below:

( Skip the advertisements to see the list ) 

• Email ids of 100 Shipping Companies (Main Fleet)
• Email ids of 50 Shipping Companies (Offshore)

Addresses of shipping companies located in Mumbai are given below ( in case if you guys want to do job hunt ).

• Shipping Companies in Andheri East
• Shipping Companies in Andheri West
• Shipping Companies in Nariman Point
• Shipping Companies in CBD Belapur

I wouldn't say not to approach agents for a job because the fact is that 70% percentage of the students graduating from most of the maritime colleges don't get their placement and to get one, they should either have very good contacts in shipping or they should look for a genuine agent. Over the years, I have seen many trainee engineers and deck cadets coming to mumbai to find an agent, some of them get a job after long waiting, some of them don't and the rest of them get cheated by fraud recruiters. If you are a fresher and you are paying money to an agent, make sure the company they recruit you to is approved by DG Shipping of India and has an RPSL ( Recruitment & Placement Services License ) number which is not expired. 

Never ever pay the agent before your contract letter is signed !!

Use the below link to see DG Shipping approved manning companies in India.

DG Shipping Approved Manning Companies

I wish Indian government would take some actions against these fraud recruiters and find a way to control the approval of marine institutions that do not have sufficient academic, residential facilities and campus placements. 

I am a seafarer and if you are looking for more information about shipping companies, like which company to choose which company not to choose, please leave your queries and comments below.