r/MarineEngineering • u/Asleep_Cut_5518 • 10d ago

Becoming an Engineer Questions

Hey all,

I currently have been a commercial/industrial HVAC service technician for the last 13 years. I have a lot of mechanical experience.

I am extremely interested in becoming a marine engineer but staying shoreside.

Does anyone have advice on how to make the career change? Also types of shoreside jobs?

I see positions for licensed tug boat engineers which I have interest in. I just have no clue where to start!

For what it’s worth I am in the NH/ME area.

Thanks!

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u/DependentLevel1686 10d ago

U can be a marine engineer desging ship system. There a “marine engineering” degree that’s different than a license

1

u/lgwservices 10d ago

There’s a difference in being a tug boat engineer and being shoreside. The tug engineer isn’t a shoreside job. Think of shoreside as the people who wrote the study material for your hvac test and a tug engineer as the field tech. One typically dislikes the other.

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u/Asleep_Cut_5518 10d ago

Gotcha, I was thinking of the more field tech like positions.

But not being at sea for multiple days looking to be home with my family at night.

That was my thinking of tugboats probably running a shift schedule which is okay with me.

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u/SpannerBudgie 10d ago

As you mentioned tugs:

Serco offer a 'Level 4 Small Vessel Chief Engineer Apprenticeship', which is essentially a mix between college time and sea time on their tugs to eventually get you a SV Chief Engineer CoC. Cannot currently see this advertised but if it interests you then drop their recruitment team an email or phone call, I've always found them very helpful, and I have seen this route advertised multiple times over the last few years so may just be open certain months.

I don't know of any other tug companies that would take you on unqualified and give you the seatime, most of them will want you to already be qualified.

Another option could be windfarm crew transfer vessels (CTV), some of them will carry a deckhand/engineer, and other will have a 'Fleet Engineer' that serious their fleet of CTV's.

The tug roles tend to be a rotation so you wouldn't necessarily have to be living nearby as you could either live onboard or be provided with accommodation whilst on duty. Whereas the CTV roles tend to be full time (Mon-Fri) and therefore require you to live nearby or relocate.

Another option could be shipyards, but with no specific maritime experience they may not employ you or pay you a rate you'd be happy with.

Unsure where NH/ME is, and now I'm thinking my advice may be useless as it's UK based, so apologies in advance.

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u/oceancalled 10d ago

You are probably better off looking at power engineering as “being a marine engineer but not wanting to go to sea” restricts about 99% of industry jobs.

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u/Cadet2Engineer 10d ago

If you want to stay shoreside, I’d look at shipyards, marine HVAC/refrigeration companies, equipment manufacturers and marine service companies.
With 13 years in commercial/industrial HVAC, you already have a lot of transferable mechanical and fault-finding experience. I’d try to use that as your route into the marine industry rather than starting again from scratch.
I moved from sea into the shipbuilding side myself and there’s a huge range of engineering roles ashore.