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I have a question.
These past few months, and after talking a bit with the union guy who's supposed to be hooking me up, I've realized that after hearing so much from so many people, both online and irl that the maritime industry is hurting bad for workers/sailors, it's actually an unspoken and silent reality that it's *only* AB's and above that are in high demand and who are actually being sought out for, not OS's. As far as OS's go, generally speaking, they can get fucked. Yet isn't it necessarily that sailors have to start out as OS's in order to graduate into AB's and officers? So why this attitude and overall market decision then? Why doesn't the industry want to invest in the new higher interest in OS's so they can actually make a career out of maritime, and instead continue to gatekeep for AB's and above only?
I want to invest the rest of my life (or at least a good chunk of it) into maritime, but it's so hard to do that if nobody wants to give me the time of day in favor of those already experienced, who are already in low(er) supply and already more picky about where they work. There can't be AB's if there aren't OS's at some point.
Can anybody help me to make heads or tails of why this is the case? I just want to sail...