Cruise Job Insider Blog

For those aspiring to become officers onboard a cruise liner, the bridge is definitely the most coveted area. After all, it is the top spot in the ship’s hierarchy. But as it turns out, getting there is not as easy as getting aboard the ship itself.

The bridge serves as the command center aboard the ship. It is where all the instructions comes from when traveling. And some cases, the bridge is also the place where passengers and crew settle disputes and other problems.

The bridge is of course, headed by the captain, which issues every command and approves all the actions made by the ship’s crew. In some cases, the captain can also take over the ship’s wheel if needed. He is also the chief liaison officer between the ship’s passenger and the crew onboard.

However, note that you won’t get to the captain position that easily. You need to start from the lower ranks in order to climb up to the captain’s seat. The lowest that you can start at the bridge is as a second officer (or third mate in some countries). The second officer serves as an assistant to the first officer and also takes orders from other higher ranking officers onboard. You can serve as a second officer right after graduation as the only requirements are a completed seaman’s course and your license.

After spending around a year aboard the ship, you then will be elevated to first officer rank. Here, you now take overall responsibility for navigational watch. You are tasked to keep track of of all navigation data and charts. Though computers have pretty much lightened the workload, you are still expected to know how to read from the charts just in case. You will also be charged with overseeing the maintenance and deployment of safety and conducting inspections afterwards.

Luckily after two years on the sea, you will be closer when you get to be promoted as the chief officer. However, your duties and responsibilities will now also be bigger (literally), as you now have to take care of maintaining the ship’s hull and all the heavy equipment that the ship has, like cargo transport and mooring gears. You will also be the monitor to ensure that the crew is working round the clock as required. And you will also be the one to ensure that all regulations and procedures are implemented properly. These tasks would require you to be on call in the bridge most of the times, but other duties, such as inspection and refurbishing of cabins will have you going around the ship.

And finally, there is the staff captain, the second in command and overall assistant to the captain. As the staff captain, your main duty, aside from assisting the captain in maintaining the ship, is acting as his reliever in case he is absent or sick. Also, you will be given duties as per the instructions of the captain.

As you see, getting to the top position aboard the cruise liner is not that easy. However, if you are patient enough, you will be able to wear the captain’s cap in just a few years. So good luck to you.

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