Finding any superyacht job can be tough but finding the one that’s perfect for you can be even tougher. This is especially the case when you’re competing with candidates with more experience than you. Here we provide some strategies to help you overcome this competitor’s advantage, which can prove a tricky issue sometimes.
It’s not black and white, you can get that job even without experience
Why experience is valuable
With experience (you would hope) comes wisdom. Employers look for “safe pairs of hands” who have done the work before and will complete their role with the minimum of fuss and difficulty.
“You can’t buy experience, you have to earn it”. This is why employers value experience so much, in essence, you have already completed similar work to what they require.
Other important job attributes
Here is a list of techniques you can use to overcome potential objections to a lack of experience, or perhaps less experience than other candidates:
- Pay – not ideal to start a conversation on, but if you feel it may make a difference, offer to work for lower pay. Say, “to gain the experience, I will work for lower pay”. This will give an edge over more experienced candidates, but only offer this if it’s absolutely necessary
- Positiveness – be positive and state clearly your attributes and talents and why you are suited to the role
- State other experience – if you have less experience for the current role but have lots in another position then use that to your advantage and say “you will bring this to the role”
- Willingness to learn – a lack of experience can be an advantage in terms of flexibility. Just emphasise you are eager to learn and are very flexible about the demands of the role, this may not be as true with more experienced candidates who may be “set in their ways”
- Younger (and fitter) – if you know that other candidates are older, and you are physically fit you could use this as an advantage. Superyacht jobs can be demanding, say you can work long hours and are very active and fit to be able to cope with challenging days/weeks
Finally, don’t draw attention to your lack of experience, but equally don’t hide away from your other attributes if this topic is raised.
Contact J4Crew
We can only speak briefly here, experience is clearly an advantage, but not the “be all and end all”. Contact us here at J4Crew today and we can help you to find vacancies to apply for and also advise on how to best position yourself in interviews. Maximise your employment prospects by contacting us today.
Image Credit: Matamoros