Reading guide: An undergraduate, because he looked at the booming seafarer market, after making sufficient preparations, rushed in, not to mention a full score, at least he should have graduated excellently, and was ready to board the ship with great expectations, but he was greeted by a crew market that took a sharp turn, and the intermediary, expatriate agency or life, ruthlessly taught him a lesson.
The full text is close to 4,000 words, recording the story of an ordinary person, who cherishes a beautiful vision for the sailing career, and then is defeated by reality and has no choice but to go ashore. It is not uncommon to spend 30,000 yuan before and after, and in the end you can only find a job on the shore, and perhaps what the Xi students represent is not typical, but in the corners of various cities, at this moment, there are also such stories happening. If I have to say who is responsible for this, I am afraid that only I can be responsible for myself
The bubble tea shop encountered the epidemic, the office was paddling, the salary was discounted, and I had no choice but to change jobs
In 2021, I worked as a marketing supervisor for a milk tea chain company in Beijing. The company has about 2,000 franchised stores across the country, and my job is to travel to each store to help them standardize and establish an operating system, plan and implement activity plans, in order to achieve a steady increase in sales. The basic salary is 6k, and the business trip with the store subsidy is 250 yuan a day, and the food and accommodation during the business trip are borne by the franchisee, so that you can get a salary of about 1w a month, and the expenses are very small, and most of them can be taken home.
Due to the impact of the epidemic and the failure of the company's branding, a large number of store closures began at the end of 2021, and we had fewer opportunities to travel to the store, sitting in the office with nothing to do every day. During our stay in Beijing, we lived in an apartment provided by the company, and we had to pay for our own water and electricity bills, plus meals, milk tea, cigarettes, etc., and we had to spend a small 100 yuan a day, and there was no subsidy without a store, and our income dropped sharply. As a result, colleagues began to submit resumes one after another, participate in various interviews, and prepare to change jobs.
Fishing in a clean and bright office in Beijing Sea Violin I interviewed a smart parking company, a craft beer hall, and three catering industries (all of which are chain), and the restaurant fees of these catering companies are not as high as the company I am inThe most infuriating thing was that I turned down my beer hall, and then I hired another colleague from the same department as me, who was not as experienced as me and did not have as good work performance as me, but was ten years younger than me.
The law of 35 years old in the workplace, half angry and half afraid, opens the door of seafarers
I suddenly realized that the root of the problem was whether the "35-year-old law in the workplace" was workingAt the age of 36, I knew about it for a long time, but it was the first time I had really experienced this situation. Half angry, half scared of the future, I began to learn about the profession of "seafarer" for the first time through Douyin.
Looking back, during that time, I was really like a demon, fascinated by watching all kinds of ** and anchors about seafarers, adding various seafarer groups, and browsing the seafarers' post bar ...... every dayIt happened that a friend of mine, who was a third mate, returned home from vacation in December, and I learned some things about the seafaring industry from him, and finally strengthened my determination: I want to be a seafarer!At that time, it was a hot time for the seafarer market, with the average sailor earning $2,500-$3,000 a month, and the mainstream rhetoric of various seafarer streamers at the time was that the industry was suitable for people under the age of 45. I thought to myself that I was only 36, and I could take the third officer exam after two years in the industry, and I was still confident in my Xi learning ability, especially English, so that I could be officially promoted to the same rank as my friend before the age of 40, with a salary of $6,000 a month, and drive the boat to the peak of life. Let me ask me, on land, even though I belong to a management position, how many years of hard work and the favor of the leader need to have a chance to be promoted and raisedAnd even if it goes up, it can't reach $6,000, it can be said that it will never be, and it will never be ...... in this life
So I tried hard to convince my family one by one and got their support, and then contacted a seafarer school in Tianjin to sign up (Contacting the school directly saves money than finding an agentAfter three months of closed Xi, he passed the sailor exam with a perfect score of more than 90 points in English in all subjects, and obtained the "Outstanding Student" certificate issued by the college. Before I graduated, I contacted several agents and ship management companies, and the communication with each other was smooth and pleasant, and I agreed to contact them after I got the certificate. Referring to the experience of various old seafarers at sea, I made sufficient materials, psychological and physical preparations for going on board: the newly bought 28-inch suitcase was stuffed full, and the mouth full of teeth was filled with imported materials, and I also deliberately went for nail extraction surgery in order to cope with the torture of onychia, and read a lot of related posts and anchors for the loneliness that may arise after getting on the ship. The feeling of claustrophobia of living in a small space for a long time and the psychological gap that may arise from starting from the bottom have been comprehensively prevented and psychologically constructed, and I am full of positive energy ready to board the ship and start a new chapter in my career!At this time, some of my former colleagues had not yet found satisfactory jobs, but I found such a bright path, and I felt more and more that I might have made a great decision that would affect my lifeThis was an important turning point for me to start the second half of my life, and the choice is always greater than the effort, and some chicken soup articles automatically came to my mind
**In the cold, I was forced to pay the intermediary fee obediently, and I also asked the crew intermediary to put it together
The time came to October 2022, at this time the seafarer market has fallen significantly, the companies that contacted me at the school before told me that there is no ship for Xi students now, and the recruitment information refreshed daily on the seafarer recruitment website has also been beaten by me**,Some of the other party is indifferent, some are enthusiastic, but in the end, they all have one sentence: there is no boat. I am also constantly adjusting my expectations: from the beginning of the container ship that had to find a European or American route, to the container ship that did not require a route, to the later bulk carrier of more than 50,000 tons, and then to the 30,000 ......In the end, I had to compromise, pay an intermediary fee of 2,000, and find someone who claimed to be from a company in Shandong to help arrange the boarding of the ship. (My previous attitude was to resolutely not pay the intermediary fee).
While waiting for the ship, I couldn't join a regular company because I could wait for the shipping schedule at any time, and the regular job involved many factors such as the transfer of files, insurance relations, and the handover of work content, so it was impossible to quit immediately. In desperation, I used a private car to run an online car-hailing car, and when the business was good, I could have 300 yuan a day, but the oil price was high at this time, basically every 300 of the flow had to add 150 gasoline, which is not counting the loss of insurance car damage, etc., and the profit ratio was really low. The time soon came to January 2023, the agency never arranged for me to get on the ship, under the other party's repeated various excuses and excuses, I lost patience and reported to the police on the grounds of fraud, and later found many agencies, including but not limited to the online fraud center, the police inspector's office, the mayor's office, the court, Shandong TV station, the legal aid center, etc., the money dragged on for about three months before finally returning, or relying on a *** published my self-report "A Xi sailor's bloody experience of being deceived" , which caused the attention of a company in Shandong and the panic of the first company. This article can still be found on *** wonderful crew", interested friends can read it, and I won't repeat it here.
Twists and turns, eating a trench and growing wise, but how can life be embarrassed
So I started a long road to find a ship, this year's seafarers' market has fallen to an outrageous level, a well-known intermediary to me is 5,000 yuan intermediary fee, does not guarantee the shipping schedule, route, ship size is not guaranteed to be able to go ......In short, you pay the money first, it can give you a hope or opportunity, but I don't promise anything, you love to pay or not, anyway, there are leeks that can be cut。More companies refused as soon as they heard my 38-year-old age, and someone told me bluntly that you are looking for domestic trade at your age, and don't be delusional about international routes. In short, the four words of exhaustion are really appropriate to describe the experience of finding a boat. In the end, I was lucky to find a company in Jiangsu, where I could pay a service fee of 6,700 yuan (because it is not an intermediary company, so it cannot be called an intermediary fee), sign a five-year contract on board, and provide 1-30,000 tons of foreign trade container ship jobs. At this time, I will no longer bargain, as if I have seen the last straw, only to firmly grasp this one choice, the previous self-confidence and arrogance have long been thrown out of the clouds, I have no qualifications for choice. Finally, in mid-May, I boarded a 600-TEU container ship and opened the Jiangsu-Russia route. On the ocean, there is no need to talk about the beautiful natural scenery and exotic customs of Russia, and the boring and sweaty work of Xi students does not need to be repeated, but the cramped living environment of the cabin, the food that is quickly tired of eating every day, the 24-hour non-stop shaking of the ship when the storm comes, and the constant longing for family are not so easy to adapt and accept as a newcomer to the industry.
The cramped and cramped living environment of the cabin After the sea violin is actually on the ship, you will find that no matter how much psychological preparation you make, when you really experience that kind of life, it will definitely be completely different from what you imagined. I have seen people describe running a boat as a "water prison", and I think it is very appropriate, every time I get on the boat, it is another "sentence" to begin, and getting off the boat is like being released from prison. However, the most desperate is much more than that. The leader of the ship helped me calculate an account for my career prospects: with the current market, the actual Xi period is 200 US dollars a month, the salary of the second ship is 800 US dollars and ten months, and the third boat you are called a "general certificate sailor", you can't call it a "senior sailor" because you don't have any qualifications, about 1200 US dollars, if it goes well, you need to go to school to learn the Xi third mate course for about 8 months, and then become a real Xi third mate salary back to 800 US dollars. During this period, counting the time of vacation, waiting for the shipping schedule, looking for school, etc., after five years, your monthly salary still does not exceed 10,000 yuan, and it is not enough to reach the income before getting on the ship, and at that time, as a 45-year-old third mate with no qualifications, I am still not competitive, and I still have to face the picky and harsh rejection or exploitation ...... of various shipping companiesEventually, a month after I came on board, I decided to terminate the agreement early and never get involved in the seafaring industry again. After getting off the ship, after a series of extremely difficult negotiations and many requests for help, I asked for part of the service fee from the company, which can be regarded as a timely stop loss. This is another story, interested friends can go to read the article "The First Sailor".Nanjing, a seafarer expatriate agency, has a bit of a conscience!This is the punishment of impulsiveness
In the wave of wage increases in the seafarer market from 2019 to 2022, intermediary companies and training institutions can be said to have made a lot of money, and some veteran seafarers have also earned a short income far beyond their usual wages. But I see more leek cutters like me who are eager to join the industry in gold panning. In the past year and a half, my direct economic loss has been close to 30,000 yuan, but more importantly, the opportunity cost of missing out is immeasurable. I missed out on a lot of job offers and interviews, and in 18 months, even at a lower salary of 6,000 yuan a month, I had 100,000 yuan. And I, on the other hand, spent it in vain without any income. That day, I read a seafarer's self-report, he said that as a seafarer, you should first be prepared for your family to suffer with you in poverty for three years, thinking about the encouragement and support that my family has given me in all aspects over the past year, as well as the infinite tolerance and understanding of me after I got off the ship, suddenly, my eyes turned red. I felt deep remorse for my impulsive choice, and this experience was destined to become an experience that I would never want to mention or even remember again.
My story is over, but life is not. I am still living with the aftermath of this "seafarer's dream". A year and a half of sitting and eating has stretched my balance on my card, and at the age of 38, it has become more difficult to find a job, and more importantly, I don't know how to explain the one-and-a-half-year career gap during the interview. If I tell the truth, I believe that the interviewer will definitely lose points, so I have to say that there is something at home and other excuses, but the effect is still not good. At present, I have found a job in my hometown with a monthly salary of 4,000 to barely survive, and I run takeaways after work and weekends to supplement my income. I don't know if I will have a chance to bottom out in the future, or if I will continue to go downhill like this......But I knew I would never be able to stop.