Less Is More: How Crewlinker Shows Your Value at a Glance

Your resume has probably at least two pages. These are filled with an overload of information about your nautical career. Do operators and crewing agencies want to know all this? Sorry for your effort and time, but frankly no. Chances are that your resume isn't even read and disappears in the mailbox. To convince employers, you need to communicate your most relevant work experience completely, clearly and quickly.

“Make your CV not too long”, says Jolie Seleba, consultant at TOS Netherlands, a crewing agency in the maritime and offshore industry. “Employers in the maritime sector quickly scan your resume and then move on to the other one.” They are simply unwilling and do not have the time to go through large chunks of text and detailed information. Even if you meet the required profile for the sea job.

Instead, they want to see at a glance what you have to offer them. What kind of job at sea are you looking for? And what are your qualifications and completed sea projects that match the offshore job opportunity? That's what your potential employer is interested in. Moreover, you should not lose sight of your own goal, which is to show that you are suitable for your target sea job.

So, make the right parts of your career as a seafarer stand out. Crewlinker helps you with that. Various functionalities ensure that the value you have to offer will not be overlooked. In short, we provide the right first impression. Below we explain the tools for you:

1. Highlighted sea services

The first thing employers see is your overview page. This contains your highlighted sea services, in other words, your most important work experience. Actually, this page is your ‘business card’. Employers only want to see the sea services that match the sea job you are looking for. They show whether you fit the job opportunity. You obviously want to convey to them that you are the perfect candidate for the position!

Your task is to put the three most important sea projects on your overview page. You will see that they are neatly next to each other. We know which related information employers want to know in the first instance. Such as which vessels are involved, the duties you have fulfilled, and how long you have been working on board. If desired, employers can easily click through for more information.

2. Complete the profile

Very important for the best first impression is to have a complete resume. Incorrect or missing information can cost you your job at sea. First, you come across as sloppy and not serious. Second, operators and crewing agencies do not have the time and inclination to ask for further explanation. Third, there is a risk that you will not be found or will not receive matching sea job offers.

You probably unconsciously mention incomplete or inaccurate details sometimes. Maybe you don't know what employers actually want to know, so you just write down what comes up in your mind. Or you didn’t have time to update your resume. Don't worry, that's not crazy at all. Completing your resume is harder than it looks. Your advantage is that our Crewlinker team knows how to keep your profile complete.

We have already pre-selected the information you need to fill in. We even complete some boxes for you, by using a database and our algorithm. If you give us the IMO numbers or vessel names, we fill in the operators, technical data, and vessel photos. That saves time, doesn't it? Which means more hours for yourself and with friends and family.

Besides, we preselect, based on your sea services, the expected obtained certificates for you. Furthermore, you receive messages in order to remind you to update certain certificates if needed. This is part of what we call ‘document management’ - Crewlinker stores, tracks, and organizes your certificates, appraisals and, soon, your visa and passport.

The idea is that you will have everything you need for a sea job application. That's great for you because you have everything clearly arranged in one 'online map' and you don't have to send your documents separately to operators and crewing agencies. The same argument goes for employers. They can find your full package online in a few clicks. That speeds up the application procedure.

To help you, we created a checklist on your account with the tasks you still have to fulfill to complete your profile. Based on how much you have entered, you will receive a completion score from 0 to 100. Fill in your personal details, sea services, education, and expiry dates and documents of your certificates. The higher your profile score, the higher you appear in the search results.

3. Additional project tags

Another feature that contributes to the best first impression is the 'additional project tags'. They replace the free-form description, i.e. the option to write extensive texts about yourself and your sea services. Again, operators and crewing agencies don't have the time and desire to read large texts. Instead, use (a combination of) keywords or abbreviations that tell a little more about the sea project that you have finished.

The tags make your profile complete and compact at once. Some examples are: 'offshore', 'Dp2', 'drilling', and 'cable routing'. Important is that you use English words and not native ones. Operators and crewing agencies understand English, and more importantly, they search for you on Crewlinker via English tags. It would be a shame if you don't appear in their search results due to the wrong use of your tags.

4. Tight layout

Fourth, your Crewlinker profile offers a sleek layout. As you can see, we mainly use the colors yellow, blue, and turquoise. These are recognizable for the maritime sector. For the rest, your profile has a white background, with an alternately gray and black font. The clear and not-too-busy tones make your profile look pleasant and well-ordered.

In addition, we make your resume visual by automatically adding photos of vessels and the associated flags. Your sea services, certificates, and education are tightly framed, containing the most important information in bold or not. In this way, employers know where they have to look. They can see at a glance what your maritime career looks like.

Easy to use

To make sure that our functionalities are easy to use, we added small question marks next to the most important ones. By hovering your mouse over it, you get an explanation of how to use them. We’ve made the texts and design as straightforward as possible. Soon, we offer a roadmap that allows you to follow the steps you need to take for completing your profile.

In short, your Crewlinker-profile ensures more quality of your resume with less quantity. We help you to make your profile more manageable and clear, and, not the least importantly, be found in the first place! Your opportunities in the maritime and offshore sectors are increased while the amount of text, pages, and effort is reduced.

You only have to bring your unique self and follow the steps. We will do the rest. If you have any further questions or difficulties concerning your profile, check out our guide on how to make a Crewlinker profile. Or , you can always ask our team via hello@crewlinker.com. Our aim is to make Crewlinker more user-friendly and valuable for you. Your input is very important to reach that goal.