No experience? No problem!! At least that’s what you hope would be the answer, right? Do you wonder if the experience you have will be enough to land your dream cruise ship job? How do you go about finding the job that meets your skills? How do you apply for jobs that seem to require skills and experience that you don’t have?
For the positions that do not require a specialized skill, ‘experience required’ should be interpreted as ‘experience preferred’. Many cruise lines are often overzealous when detailing the skills and experience required in order to be hired for the job. Instead these requirements should be viewed more as a guideline or a wish list of what the employer would like to see in a potential crew member.
Cruise lines use this ‘experience required’ tactic as way of limiting the number of candidates applying for the job. Sure, they have an ideal candidate in mind, but even they know that the perfect applicant probably doesn’t exist. Therefore if the job description sounds interesting and doesn’t go beyond what you think your capabilities are, then go for it.
Which Cruise Job is Right for You?
Understanding what your talents and skills are may take some thinking outside the box. When assessing your own skills and experience, don’t get hung up on the titles you had at your previous jobs. Instead, concentrate on what you DID at your last jobs. Titles don’t matter…experience does! Be honest with yourself and look at what your best qualities and skills are. Understand how your areas of expertise and personal experience translate into a cruise ship job.
There are many positions you can get without direct on-the-job experience, the key it to look at what you offer. What skills, experiences and training do you already have? What is it about you that would make an employer want to hire you?
Scan the cruise ship job descriptions for positions that have similar skills and experience to what you have. Along with your personality traits, you can start to look for a job that is best suited to you. Comparing a skill that you used with Company XYZ to a skill required by a cruise line takes a little imagination. Marketing your seemingly unrelated background takes some creativity.
One of the most important things to remember is to only apply for one cruise ship job with each resume and cover letter that you send out. This doesn’t mean you can’t apply for ten different jobs, it just means ten different resumes and cover letters.