Want To Pursue Marine Engineering? Let’s Find Out Its Career Prospects

Posted by Anika Shah
1
Aug 10, 2017
181 Views
Marine engineering is a profession in which a person is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the equipment, both engineered and mechanical, on the vessel or ship. If you are up for a challenging job, then marine engineering will be a lucrative career for you.

In the contemporary, ships employ modern technology and equipment that can be handled and controlled by marine engineers only. This job is very crucial and requires great discipline as the ship is worth a million dollars. The marine engineers manage the overall ship and ensure that it safely reaches its destination and then back to the place from where they started their journey. The vessels on which the marine engineers may work ranges from cargo ships, oil, and gas tankers to container ships.

Career Prospects of Marine Engineering

After the successful completion of Bachelor’s Degree in Marine Engineering/Nautical Engineering, a person can join the shipping industry as a 4th engineer. The ship building firms, engine production firms, research bodies and even the Indian Navy can also recruit the Marine Engineers.

In case, the Marine Engineers don’t want to join as a 4th engineer, he/she can opt for working in the marine workshops at the ports and in ship manufacturing companies, which also pay a hefty salary package. They can also opt for working in the IT sector, power sector, construction companies, electronic industry, and steel industry.

The demand for the marine engineers has highly increased in both the private and public ship management companies, owing to the hike in the international sea traffic. Since a marine engineer must deal with the technical functioning of the ship, the tasks such as maintenance, operation and repair of the ship are his/her primary job role.

The Chief Engineer is the top most official in the hierarchy of the marine engineers and is the ultimate authority responsible for the well-being of the vessel and the people on board the vessel, i.e. the entire crew.

They have to spend around 6-7 months on the vessel at the sea, and all their hardships and homesickness is rewarded by hefty paychecks that are high right from the entry level. In addition to this, they get a chance to sail around the world and get a period of 4-5 months as an off. What can be better than this?

On an average, a marine engineer sails for around 15-20 years in his/her career on the vessel, after which they can either join shipyards, ship constructions companies or maritime universities as professors/instructors.

Challenges Faced by Marine Engineers

Along with the perks, come some challenges that the marine engineers get to encounter every day while they are on the duty. They have to spend months at sea, which at times, might get irritating and tiresome and also leads to feeling homesick. In addition to this, they are always at a risk owing to the weather conditions, and other factors at the sea.

There is no denial in the fact that a life of a marine engineer is both rewarding and challenging. Since, they are responsible for managing the vessel even the slightest error can lead to havocs. However, as we said earlier, the high paychecks tend to balance these challenges.

To know more about the job prospects and opening in Marine Engineering, consult Westline.
Comments
avatar
Please sign in to add comment.