How to write a deckhand CV that gets you daywork

Captains and mates don't read CVs — they scan them. If yours doesn't answer three questions in ten seconds, it goes in the pile.

The three questions

• Can you legally work? Nationality, visas (B1/B2, Schengen) and your ENG1 must be visible near the top.
• Are you safe on deck? STCW Basic Safety Training is the minimum ticket. List it with the exact year.
• Will guests and crew like you? A short, specific profile beats a page of adjectives.

Five mistakes that get CVs binned

1. No photo, or a nightclub photo. Use a clean head-and-shoulders shot in a polo.
2. Vessel names without sizes. "M/Y Lady A (52m)" tells a mate exactly what deck programme you've handled.
3. Listing duties instead of results — "washed down" vs "delivered exterior wash-downs to charter standard on 14 back-to-back charters".
4. Burying your certs at the bottom of page two.
5. Two pages when one will do. Junior deckhands should almost always be one page.

The fastest fix

Upload your current CV and our AI rewrites it into the exact structure captains expect — vessels, sea time, certs and visas in the right order, on one clean page.