Samantha Kaszuba, Deck Officer Cadet – Scotland

As a deck cadet, my job responsibilities consist of Watch keeping and learning all the additional jobs of being a deck officer on a cruise ship.

My favorite part of my job is the travel and progression opportunities that are available in the industry are hard to beat.

Although I love my job, it does come with some challenges. I was overlooked all the time by pilots who would come onboard, they wouldn’t see me as an officer and would mostly always say ‘bye gentlemen’ when leaving like I wasn’t even there. You overcome this by remembering it is still new for women to be on the bridge in an officer capacity and so you know with time it’ll get better. At other times people would always check first if you understood something over the male officers which was obviously a gender thing.

One change I’d like to see in the industry is better fitting uniforms! Even the female uniform is just not flattering in most parts and has clearly been a second thought to designers or manufacturers, however, this really does influence a person’s confidence.

My advice to anyone getting into the maritime industry is just be prepared to prove your worth and that you deserve to be there because learning how to navigate as a female is no different to how a male learns.

Samantha Kaszuba, Deck Officer Cadet – Scotland