COMMENT
I have no idea, I didn’t think to ask him
I
was slightly taken aback the other day when the un-smart phone jangled on my desk here at Salty HQ. Normally the only ones who use the phone connected by wires to a box on the wall, are folk in India trying to persuade me that my Microsoft programmes have become corrupted and that I should follow their advice to put my computer right.
It was not India but an old colleague of mine from way back when I was a lad and went to sea on yachts to earn a crust.
My mate Martin was hugely excited and wanted to share with me the news that a yacht manager in Athens had just phoned him up and offered him a job on a 77 metre superyacht. “That’s great news,” I said but I could not help myself and asked, “Martin do you know the yacht’s name?“
How the hell can you go for an interview without knowing anything at all about the position
“No idea,” he said. “Do you know how old it is or what condition it is in?” “No idea,” he said. “Where is it, do you know?” “Nope,” he replied.“Well surely you must know who you will be working for?” “Not got a clue,” he said. “What not even if he is a millionaire from Outer Mongolia or a drug baron from Uzbekistan?“
At this point I began to get a little exasperated and so I started to rant at poor old Martin. Incredulously I asked, “You mean you are considering taking a job as the Master and Commander of a multi million dollar enterprise employing a team of some 30 or so lives who will depend on you and you do not even know the flag the yacht flies or the port of registration. How can you even be sure it is insured?”
Martin explained, and he is not alone here, that the yacht manager would give nothing away other than the fact the yacht was 77 metres long. I suggested to him that the job of yacht Captain is like that of a Managing Director of a small to medium sized limited company ashore and then I asked, “If you were ashore, would you go for an interview for a job as a Managing Director of a firm without knowing the name of the company you would be working for, where it is based, the salary, location or any other terms and conditions of the employment?”
“No,” he said somewhat sheepishly. I
screeched back “Then how the hell can you know you want to go for an interview without knowing anything at all about the position?”
In yachting, it seems we must all agree to go for an interview often at our own expense, armed with no information at all except for the size of a boat. But why? Surely to goodness it must be far more productive for everyone concerned to give out more relevant information. Why waste time and effort on the part of both interviewee and interviewer only to find that you do not want to command a clapped out, 100 year old steam yacht that is laid up in Madras waiting to be sold or even command a brand new yacht owned by a drug taking oligarch whose yacht sits in port hosting wild parties and whose crew change every 18 days?
The certificates we as seafarers hold are hard earned through graft, sea time and study. We have often paid the expenses involved in obtaining them ourselves so why on earth should we risk losing them taking a job that we know nothing about? Oh sure, sometimes you learn a little more before you get an employment contract pushed in front of you but not always.
Why is it that if owners can insist on NDAs being signed then those offering a job cannot employ the same device when suggesting a candidate come 580 miles by airplane for a job interview? The answer is, and here again I quote my dear friend Martin. I have no idea!
Salty Seadog bemoans the veil of secrecy that still exists surrounding yacht names and ownership during the interview process
ONBOARD | SPRING 2017 | 9
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