Cruise Ship Jobs Blog

cruise concessionaire should not be confused with a cruise ship recruitment agency, although many cruise applicants make this assumption.  So how do you know when you should use an agency and what’s the difference in the application process?

The fact is that a concessionaire is a third party vendor that sells services or merchandise on board. For example spa, gift shops and the photography department are all departments that the cruise lines use concessionaires to handle the recruitment.

In fact, you work for the concessionaire and not the cruise line.

On the other hand, cruise line agencies qualify potential crew members for positions with a cruise line. For this service, the cruise lines pay the agencies a fee for each crew member that is successfully hired and placed on board.

Most agencies cover a wide range of cruise lines, departments and jobs for their cruise line clients.  And, some agencies are even referred to as an official hiring partner for the cruise line. (Be careful of Cruise Ship Recruitment Scams, though).

Neil Maxwell-Keys

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When people get an idea that they want to work on board a cruise ship, their scope of the cruise jobs offered may be limited.  But, the fact is that a cruise ship offers numerous different and unique opportunities.

For example, when Royal Caribbean introduced their Oasis-class ship in December 2009, it also introduced many new cruise jobs as well.  They now employ a Horticultural Specialist to care for the live and artificial plants in the ship’s Central Park neighborhood.

Recently, Holland America Line announced the introduction of a new cruise job, a Lifestylist. The primary function of this cruise job coordinates and hosts activities associated with the Mind, Body, Spirit program.  The Life Stylist hosts Tai Chi each day but also serves as the on board liaison between Entertainment and the Greenhouse Spa.

Other unique jobs in the cruise industry include dive instructors, desktop publishers, party planners, lifeguards and crew trainers.

Cruise ships that have unique recreation activities offer unique jobs as well.  For example, Royal Caribbean recruits Open Deck Managers to manage their outdoor facilities at sea from their rock walls to their FlowRiders.  The Norwegian Epic will hire Recreation Staff for similar positions.

Neil Maxwell-Keys

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Although we are only into our first weeks of spring, cruise lines are starting to think about their crewing needs for the summer. For the most part, hiring occurs throughout the year due to turnover of existing crew and the launching of new cruise ships. But, during the summer months (school holidays), cruise ships sail at full capacity and therefore need more crew on board to compensate.

The cruise industry is a competitive industry to get hired in to. Therefore, getting your resume and cover letter into the hiring managers before your competition starts thinking to send theirs in is a crucial first step.

Many future cruise applicants are thinking right now that they should apply within the next couple of months to get a cruise job by the summer. Don’t wait. The sooner you apply, the sooner you can get started on following up on your application.

Then, when other resumes and cover letters start streaming into the hiring offices close to summer, you possibly will have already had your interview and just waiting to be placed on a ship.

The last thing you want is that your resume is received with the thousands of other resumes that are sent just prior to summer. Put yourself ahead of the competition by applying today so that you can secure your dream cruise job for tomorrow!

Neil Maxwell-Keys

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Finding a way to put your cover letter on top of the pile or make your interview stand out from the others when applying for jobs with cruise lines can be as simple as doing a little research ahead of time.

Which facts about a cruise line should you inject into your cover letter?  How do you seal the deal during your interview by wowing interviewers with your knowledge?

Just as for land-based jobs, knowing as much as you can about the company you are applying to can help you get hired.  This step is often neglected by applicants, so those that do their research will have a big advantage.

Cruise applicants should focus their research on five key areas.

1. Cruise Ship Fleet.  You should know about the ships within the cruise lines’ fleet such as total number of ships and which ship is debuting.

2. Passenger Demographic.  Who are the cruise line’s passengers? What is the demographic of the cruise line?

3. Cruise Itineraries.  Some cruise lines concentrate on world cruises while others like Disney Cruise Line stay in North America with the exception of their European itinerary on the Disney Magic.

4. Latest News.  Following cruise news publications and cruising websites will keep you informed about the latest in the cruising industry.

5. Contact Name.  This may be one of the most important pieces of information for getting hired.  Don’t assume that there is only one contact name for each cruise line.  More often than not there is a different contact person for each department.  You need to send your resume to the right person, or it may not even get read.

Neil Maxwell-Keys

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As you prepare your cruise ship Application here are some tips to keep in mind.  Resumes of the past used to list things like age, gender, marital status and hobbies.  Today’s resumes should not.

Why?

For one, they take up a lot of valuable space at the top of your CV. You literally have SECONDS to grab a cruise line recruiter’s attention before they put your CV down and move onto the next one. Age, gender, marital status doesn’t compel them to read any further, and thus finding out what you’re applying for and what you can offer.

Secondly, irrelevant information can actually be harmful to your chances of getting a job on a cruise ship. Regardless of whether it’s ‘legal’ or ‘fair’, an employer can form an instant opinion of you based on this information alone and then decide not to read any further.

For instance he/she may see your age and decide immediately that you’re too young (inexperienced) or too old (not fit/healthy enough) without even giving you a fair chance to prove yourself by reading the rest of your CV.

Neil Maxwell-Keys

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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.

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So how do you make yourself stand out from the other hundreds of other applicants that are applying for the exact same cruise job that you are?

For starters, you need to do one thing that the majority of cruise applicants fail to do.  Write a thank-you letter immediately.

One of our members wrote on the Discussion Forum this past week about his success story.  DJigor75 shared on the Forum about his Skype interview with NCL for the position of Disc Jockey.  His interview was on Thursday February 4th.  He explained that he wrote a thank-you email immediately after the interview.
This is what it said,

“I would like to thank you a lot for our interview…I had a great time and I hope to be part of the NCL crew.  You are a great interviewer and you made me feel very comfortable during the conversation.  I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.”

On February 9th, five days after the interview, DJigor received an email from NCL that said,

“I am pleased to advise you that you’ve been approved to be hired and deployed in the next opening, upon successful completion of the final clearance steps…”

It’s the little things that will give one applicant an advantage over another applicant when it comes to applying for a cruise job, even if they have the exact same skills and experience.

For more resources, members can read,

How to Write Effective Thank You Letters to Cruise Line Employers

How to Follow up Correctly

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As information technology is evolving, the demand for IT jobs on cruise ships has too. So what are these positions all about and how do you go about getting one?

Just as on land, a cruise ship has a need for a myriad of computer-savvy crew.  At one end of the spectrum they need persons to look after the behind-the-scenes operation of onboard computer systems.  Also, as cruise ships look for ways to make additional revenue, they now employ computer instructors and managers in charge of internet cafes.

Keen applicants will want to apply for all computer jobs with the same resume and cover letter, but DON’T.

Each of the computer-related jobs is very different so treat each cruise position as a separate entity.  Consider that the Internet Cafe Manager is hired by a specific concessionaire, but Computer Officers or Information Systems Managers (I/S Manager) are usually hired directly by the cruise line. Furthermore, Computer Instructors are hired by a completely different agency.

The best advice is to send separate resumes and cover letters to each specific job you want to apply for.  This means that each resume and cover letter should have an “Objective” stating the exact position you are applying for.  Then, your resume needs to back up that particular cruise ship job with skills and experiences that closely mirror that particular cruise ship job.

Members can read one of our recent feature articles, How to Get an IT Job on a Cruise Ship, which details the differences in the onboard computer-related positions.  The article also gives tips on how to apply for IT jobs on cruise ships.

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Earlier this week, one of our members posted this on our Discussion Forum about her cruise ship job interview:

“I had an interview with Harding Brothers in December 2009 and I didn’t get hired.”

She further explained that she then had an interview with Starboard Cruise Services approximately one month later (January).  She then writes, “Two and a half hours after the interview (with Starboard) I got a call back from the HR Assistant saying I got hired.”

In her post she encourages other members to “keep believing.”  Do not look at the interview that didn’t get you a job as a failure.  “Instead, see it as practice,”  she adds.

Although you may think that you are prepared for the interview, there are many factors why you may not land a job with your first attempt.

For starters, make sure you are not making one of many common mistakes, such as not asking specific questions or having poor non-verbal communication.  (you can also read, “Are You Making These Mistakes at Your Cruise Ship Job Interviews?”)

But, even if you are well prepared, there are other factors that may prevent you from being hired.  For example, they might have hired a more qualified applicant or maybe you and the interviewer just didn’t click.

There can be so many other reasons.

But, don’t give up!!  Cruise lines and agencies are constantly hiring.  If a door seems to shut for you with one, try another and view your Cruise Ship Job Interview experience as being able to learn from your mistakes.  Practice!!

Neil Maxwell-Keys
www.WorkOnCruiseShips.com

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