You’ve been waiting ever so patiently for a cruise line to call or email you and schedule an interview with you.  And then the day comes and they want to conduct a Skype interview with you in a couple of days.  Will you be prepared?  Have you ever even used Skype? Many companies and agencies choose Skype as a new method of choice to conduct a cruise line interview, but not all applicants are familiar with the technology.  Besides going to www.Skype.com and downloading the software, there are some other factors you should consider when preparing yourself. Know how to

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It is a common misconception that the Gift Shop and Retail Sales position is the only cruise ship job that is suited to an applicant with a strong sales background.  Contrary to this assumption, there are plenty of other jobs onboard that a person with sales experience could apply for. So which jobs are they and what other experience and skills are required? For starters, jobs such as the Port and Shopping Guide, the Art Auctioneer and the Cruise Consultant all benefit from having a sales experience.  Additionally, these positions are held by persons that have an entrepreneurial spirit, possess public

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Why not make 2010 the Year You Get a Cruise Job? Many of you may be thinking about your New Year’s resolutions for 2010.  If finding a job on a cruise ship is at the top of the list, then here’s what you need to know. Some of you may have already started sending off your resumes, but are sitting back and taking a wait and see approach.  That won’t work. Some of you may not have sent any resumes out yet, but have filled out a number of online applications.  Has that worked for you?  Probably not. And then there are others

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Almost all crew members at one point in their contract or career will experience homesickness when working on a cruise ship.  Whether you are a first time joiner or someone that is nearing the end of their contract, it is normal to miss being at home. For adults, homesickness may occur when travelling.  And working on a cruise ship can exacerbate those feelings about life back at home.  Consider the length of time away from home with contracts of 4, 6, 8, and 10 months on board.  We’re not just talking about missing friends and family, but also about

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Finding a cruise ship job is ultra competitive, so applicants need to be more creative when it comes to finding their dream job.  There are a number of effective social networking websites for cruise job hunters, but how do you use them to find a job within the cruise industry? It’s not likely that posting your resume on sites like Monster.com, SimplyHired.com, or CareerBuilder.com will actually be helpful in finding a cruise ship job.  The fact is that that the cruise lines receive so many resumes and applications that they don’t need to look for applicants on these types of

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As you can imagine over the years we've seen thousands of cruise job applications. Some great, some okay and some downright poor! Here are the 5 of the most commons mistakes we see most job seekers making time and time again: 1) Applying for more than one position in the same application (you should only ever apply for ONE job at a time). 2) Your CV/resume is longer than 2 pages in length (lengthy resumes almost never get read because recruiters don't have time). 3) Too much irrelevant personal data clogging up your CV/resume (for example, nobody cares that you have a 'full

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There's no doubt the cruise industry is a TOUGH industry to crack. If it was easy to get a job on a cruise ship then you would not be reading this newsletter... Instead you'd probably be working on a cruise ship right now... perhaps getting paid to travel around exciting places like the Caribbean, the Med or the Far East! Sure, some people send off ONE job application, land an interview and then get hired right away. But I can assure you this is definitely not the norm! For most people, it takes some determination and persistence. It takes the ability to

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We're not talking about big ships versus small ships. We're talking about the number of cruise ships that each cruise line has, also known as their fleet. Getting to know the size and type of the company's fleet for where you are applying is advantageous for a number of reasons. Cruise lines with large fleets mean that you have the opportunity to work on different cruise ships throughout your career. And, the more ships that a cruise line has, the better the chances are for advancement. But don't expect that all the ships in a fleet are identical. Older ships have fewer

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Apart from sending your employment package out sooner rather than later, there are some tricks to decrease the time it takes to get started working on a cruise ship. This is not a 'get-rich-quick-scheme', though. The application process takes effort. And the better the effort, the better the chances are to get hired to work on a cruise ship. Extra effort starts in the form of tweaking your resume and cover letter. If you’ve been waiting for a long time for the cruise lines to call, it may be time to re-look at your resume and cover letter. The Getting Hired department of

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How long should you wait for a cruise ship job is one of the most common questions that we get on our discussion forum. Unfortunately, there is no standard time frame for how long the hiring process takes from start to finish.

In fact, we've had members who were hired in a matter of days but we've also heard from some members who've reported waiting over a year to finally getting hired and placed on a ship.

One of our members, Jaime from Australia, just posted last week that she just received her flight details.

She writes:

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