The Best Time to Start Planning Your Exit From Ships

When you're working on ships, it's easy to think of leaving as something you'll figure out later. Perhaps you love what you do, the money is good and you already have another three, four or five contracts in mind. Life is good. But you also know you won't do this forever, at some point, there will be a last contract. You work, go home on vacation, see family and friends, take a break, sort out everything you couldn't do while you were onboard, and before you know it, you're packing your suitcase and heading back to the ship and this is your lifestyle.

So when exactly are you supposed to start planning for the life that comes after it? The answer is now.

Not because you need to leave ships anytime soon, but because eventually your ship career will end. You might make that decision yourself because you're ready for something different. Your family circumstances might change. An opportunity on land might appear. Your company or role could change. Or life may simply reach a point where another contract no longer makes sense for you.

You don't need to know which of those will happen or when. You just don't want the first time you seriously think about life after ships to be when you suddenly need that life to work.

Right now, your ship life has an entire infrastructure around it.  You know when you're going to get paid and roughly what you're going to earn. You know how contracts work. You know what happens when it's time to join your ship and what happens when it's time to leave.

You also know the people. You know who to contact about flights, medicals, visas, payroll or joining instructions. You know who to speak to onboard when something goes wrong. Over the years, you've worked with colleagues, managers, shoreside teams and crew from different ships, departments and perhaps different cruise lines. You may have hundreds of those people sitting quietly in your LinkedIn connections, WhatsApp, email contacts or social media.

You already have an entire infrastructure around your ship career without necessarily realising you have one.

When the time comes to leave and you don't have any infrastructure around your move to land, that's when the transition can start to feel scary.  But you don't need to build your entire land life today.  While you're still working onboard, there are two things you can start building that will make whatever comes next easier:  Money and people!

Make Your Money Work for Your Future

It's very easy to fall into a financial pattern with ship life. You work your contract, get paid, go home on vacation, spend money, return to the ship and start the cycle again. Or perhaps you're earning good money and enjoying spending it a little more because you've worked incredibly hard for it.  Whatever your situation looks like, start asking yourself one question:

How can I make some of the money I'm earning from ships today work for the future I may want tomorrow?

That doesn't only mean putting money into a savings account. Depending on your circumstances, it could mean building a transition fund, paying down debt, using an appropriate savings or investment option available where you live, investing in education or new skills, or even putting money towards a business opportunity you have properly researched. The right choice will be different for everyone. The important thing is that some of what you're earning today starts creating something for your future rather than every contract beginning and ending the same financial cycle.

You may leave ships in two years, five years or ten years. You don't need to know that yet. You're simply planting something now that has time to grow - whether that's money, skills, knowledge or another source of future opportunity.

Build Your Network Beyond Your Next Contract

The other incredible resource you already have is people.  Think about how many people you've worked with over the years. Different contracts. Different ships. Different departments. Different nationalities. Managers, colleagues, crew you've supervised, shoreside employees and people who have since left ships themselves.  Those relationships have value beyond your next contract.

And for those of you who “freeze” when you hear the word ‘networking’, don’t worry, this doesn't mean you suddenly become someone who posts on LinkedIn every week or spends hours commenting on other people's social media.  It can be much simpler than that:

• LinkedIn: Connect with people you've genuinely worked with and gradually build a professional network that stays with you when you leave the ship.
• Social media: Stay connected with former colleagues and notice where their careers take them after ships.
• Direct contact: Keep the email address, WhatsApp details or other appropriate contact information for people you genuinely want to stay in touch with.

And remember that networking starts before you add someone on LinkedIn, as it's also how you work with people and how you leave them feeling about their experience with you. The colleague you help today, the manager who trusts you or the shoreside person you've built a good working relationship with may still remember that experience years from now.

Don't underestimate how valuable those relationships can become.

Someone you worked with five years ago might now work for a company you're interested in. A former manager might know somebody in an industry you're exploring. A shoreside colleague might be able to tell you who handles recruitment. A former crew member might be able to explain how they made their own transition or introduce you to somebody you would never otherwise have met.  You simply don't know where everybody's career will take them, including yours.

You don’t need to know when you are leaving ships, this is the point.

You don't need a leaving date. You don't need to know your future land job. You don't need to spend every vacation preparing for the end of your ship career.

You can love ship life, sign another five contracts and still prepare for the fact that one day you won't sign another one.

For now, focus on two things.  Make some of the money you're earning today work for your future.  And keep building and maintaining the relationships you've created along the way.

Because when the day eventually comes that you think, I'm ready. I don't want another contract, you won't be starting your land life from zero.

You'll already have money working for your future and people you can reach out to, and that's a much stronger place from which to figure out what comes next.