Crews and cruises

Sun, sea and tax-free earnings is the popular image of working on cruise ships and, while this is true to a degree, for many hospitality workers it's increasingly becoming a serious choice of career path rather than just a seasonal stint.

With a host of major launches over the next two years, cruise operators are busy recruiting for all positions - from entry level, such as waiters, through to experienced hotel directors.

Positions are offered on a contract basis, which can be anything from six weeks to eight months, although the average for a management position is six months.

Yet despite offering contract-based positions, most operators are keen to promote the time on board as a career, not a job, says Stephen Read, managing director of Ready Steady Staff, which recruits for food and beverage operations on board cruise ships.

Extra training is often available to help candidates reach their goals. For example, Celebrity Cruises offers a rank called sous-chef-in-training. "This is suitable for someone who is capable of being a sous chef but has no experience of working on a cruise ship," says Read. "Such a chef would go into a training position for nine weeks before becoming a fully fledged sous chef."

Other shipboard job titles might sound strange to a landlubber as they are drawn from the maritime ranking system and are more appropriate to the Merchant Navy than the hospitality industry.

"A vessel has officers, petty officers, staff and crew," explains Alex Anderson, manager fleet personnel and procurement for Maritime Leisure Group.

"Hotel manager is a senior officer, and such names are a way of relating hotel departments to the deck and engine to show that staff have the same worth. The title ‘crew' is applied to ranks such as waiters and bartenders," he says.

There is less strict demarcation, however, on river cruises, such as those which tour the Rhine and Danube, points out Chris Karavos, general manager Europe of the recruitment consultancy CTI Group UK.

"It has traditionally been difficult to build a career with river operators, because most are small family-owned operations that try to keep costs low. They take 80-150 passengers and a crew of around 30. Cabin availability and space on board means that everyone performs at least two jobs," he explains.

On the high seas you'll find that there are no age limits for working on a ship, but few candidates under 21 years are likely to succeed.

"This is partly because they may not have the experience to cope with the large volumes of passengers, but also because of international laws governing the serving of alcohol, particularly in US waters, which require the server to be 21," explains George Robertson, client support executive of the cruise division of recruitment consultancy Berkeley Scott.

Once you have impressed an interviewer with your work history there are still other criteria to fulfil. For example, there are strict rulings concerning medicals, visas and safety training, and sometimes deposits - so be sure to check out the facts before you sail into the sunset.

By Stephanie Sparrow

Monthly Basic cruise ship salaries