assistant engineer

shift leader

control officer

assistant leader

radio technician

Military Sealift Command

The motivation to become a merchant marine is  to be able to travel and see the world and earn good money while doings so; unfortunately as of to date it's not so.  Most ports of call are closed due to Covid and the money you earn is more like blood money for the life it takes from you to be able to earn a decent check.  There is no work life balance.  They never tell you that you will be extended for months at a time before you are relieved from your assignment.  Depending on your department of work you may have to work 7 days a week and 14 hours a day.  Your living conditions on the ship is minimal.  The screening process used to hire people it seems if your breathing your hired.  No sense of accountability from management.  Rules are put in place for promotion, but they do not apply for the buddy buddy system in place by management; so if your not a A** Kisser and you do your work they are going to keep you in your place so they can promote other worthless/lazy people to lead and keep the government work release program alive so it looks like it's working to give second rate people who are not hire-able on land a job.  Most people stay only because it is a government job to be able to receive the benefits that come at certain longevity points.  If your in this position for a long time you probably have no life outside of maritime.

Life onboard the ship can vary vessel to vessel, but the pay is generally fair, and if you find the right crew, the working environment can be tolerable. You will make money only by working all the overtime available, and so you will generally make less per hour than a commercial gig. Also, due to poor manning, you will be overdue for relief every time you reach your 4 months, and the office will tend to forget about you once your attached to a ship.

MSC has a "Civmar Support" office, but the office personnel and administration are woefully disconnected from the maritime world. Many of them have no clue what MSC does at sea, and cannot keep a proper turnaround for the sailors looking to do their time and go home. The disconnect is built in as this is a government outfit, and the administration is highly compartmentalized, making basic communication between shoreside and seaside very difficult.

MSC will pay for your training, especially if you are trying to upgrade a credential or license, but they will take their time approving your requests. The best advice is to use MSC to get your seatime and credentials, then move on for better opportunities. MSC will use you, so keep it fair and use them while you can. 



What is the best part of working at the company?
International travel and cross-cultural interaction are significant advantages.  MSC's operational effectiveness would be considerably enhanced by addressing employee harassment concerns, particularly involving non-employee interactions with senior staff.  Increased supervisory oversight and regular employee engagement initiatives would foster a more positive and productive work environment.  Addressing employee attrition, particularly among those exceeding four months of service, requires a proactive approach to understanding and resolving contributing factors, such as fatigue, while maintaining expectations of job performance. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Employees who consistently exceed their scheduled hours and expect colleagues to compensate for their diminished performance due to fatigue are a concern.  This necessitates clarification of management responsibilities.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It's pretty cool some days, but i guess it depends how someone is feeling that day.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Work & sleep. Might get off the ship, all depends on how I'm feeling and where we are docked

Well the job is good if you're single, if you have a family it can be stressful being away 8 months out of a year.  Unless you're lucky to be living in Norfolk or San Diego and your ship is there also, but for most we live all over the country so we don't see our families much.  Plus being under paid and the company's upper brass always trying to figure out how they can take more and more money out of our pockets.  For example Chief Radio Electronics tech's go to certain ship's and work as the Ship Communications Officer but they make the billet for CRET's so they don't have to pay the SCO's more money and have us doing the department heads job.  They have their lawyers fight so the RET's can't have union representation because if we ever got representation they would owe us a lot of money they've been not paying us for.  Most of the people I work with are friendly but it's like any job there's good and bad but other than MSC upper brass not caring about their people, it's good job security and you'll meet some great friends and see the world for free.

If you're a lone wolf and only care about money, MSC is for you. You start out with training for about two months (living out of hotels in Norfolk VA and going to classes) then you will be moved into the "Mariner Pool" similar to a union hall where you sit and wait for Assignment. This can take anywhere from a few days to a few months depending on your position. Once you get assigned a ship, they will fly you to its location and you are now attached to the ship. Also your pay will go up. Realistically you will double your salary in overtime once aboard a vessel. You have to serve a MINIMUM of 4 months once aboard a ship and you could stay as long as you like. Getting a good crew is really hit or miss and it changes the whole feel of the job. If the food on the ship is really good, morale will be higher. I've traveled the world for free, if you're into that sort of thing, join up.

Work-life balance
Work-life balance at Military Sealift Command is not the best unless you're an officer. They get 4 or 5 months off and unlicensed get 1 month off.

Pay & benefits
My pay and benefits at Military Sealift Command are below average.

Job security and advancement
In terms of job security at Military Sealift Command, I think that's one of the few positive things about this company.

Management
In general, managers at Military Sealift Command need to be secretly screened because the majority of them who I've been in contact with are by the book when it comes to the crew but don't follow the very rules that they are enforcing. They are always doing some illegal underhanded stuff.

Culture
Collaboration with my colleagues at Military Sealift Command is not so bad.

Overall
My experience working at Military Sealift Command will be a very memorable one.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Visiting new places and opportunities to get better at your job / field of experience. Certain men and women can become like family. Supporting the Navy and allies. Training people and becoming better at ship-handling on different classes of ships. There are some really great Captains and engineers who will take the time make you a better mate. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
COVID quarantine and depending on what ship you are own, having a good quality salad bar

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Could be fun place to work, esp. if you had a good team and worked together well. There are some men and women working to improve company culture where it may be needed, which is great. (One ex. improving recreational equipment / gyms for the crews)

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Varied - Not sure what I can or cannot post

MSC is great because they will hire any US citizen who can pass a background check. It is bad because they will hire any one. With 6,000 sailors you will find all kinds of people on any ship. After a one year probation period is complete is is almost impossible to get fired. If you are luck you will be on a ship with mostly quality people. There are lot of slackers, Whiners and less than quality employees out there however. If you can tolerate working with anything you might wind up living and working beside then this is a great job. The pay is decent and there are usually lots of opportunities to work over time for the big money. The port calls are usually longer than commercial ships make and you do go everywhere. If you don't mind living away from home for long periods of time this is a very good agency to work for.

The command is not honoring the leave rotation and withholding accrued leave. The office does not respond in a timely manner and is generally hostile to the mariner. Some ships can be fun with the right crews, but are increasingly undermanned and untrained. I've struggled along with this outfit for over 4 years now and it's getting worse by the day. The command in Norfolk with it's Civmar support is woefully disconnected and uncaring about seaside operations. 
I can only imagine the Navy or Transportation Command will be forced to step in soon and restructure the whole thing or return MSC to active duty Navy.
I regret saying all this, MSC could be great employment with the right people, but they have run it into the ground lately. If your a mariner, look elsewhere for commercial jobs, they pay more anyway when you factor in paid leave.


This is a great place to work as long as one can reconcile long absences from home. You can advance as far as you want to go provided you're willing to put in the work. Civilian Mariners usually work a 4mo/ 1mo sea/ shore rotation, however sometime reliefs are slow and one can easily be weeks or months overdue for relief. The work is exciting and monotonous at the same time. MSC's primary mission is providing logistics support to the US Navy at sea. That includes underway (alongside) replenishment and vertical (helicopter) replenishment. MSC operates around the world and you'll have the opportunity to visit ports in many countries. You'll be there to work though. I spent 27 years going to sea with MSC and overall it was a good career.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Assistant engineer 1 salary reported	$80,312 per year
Shift leader 2 salaries reported	$98,483 per year
Control officer 1 salary reported	$105,408 per year
Assistant leader 2 salaries reported	$102,613 per year
Radio technician 2 salaries reported	$69,959 per year

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