Maritime CV advice tends to be generic. Structure your information clearly. Keep it professional. Use bullet points. This kind of guidance is not wrong. It is also not the difference between a CV that gets responses and one that does not. The difference is more specific.
**What a Crewing Manager Looks for in the First Thirty Seconds**
The rank or position the candidate is applying for. This sounds obvious. It is frequently unclear. CVs that begin with a paragraph about career goals and personal qualities make the crewing manager look harder than they should for the information that determines whether the file is relevant.
Certificate status. Whether the relevant certificates exist and whether they are valid. A crewing manager filling a tanker position looks for the tanker endorsement immediately. If it is not visible quickly they move to the next file. Putting your certificates with their expiry dates in a prominent position at the top of the document is not a cosmetic choice.
Availability date. Crewing managers are matching candidates to departure dates. A CV without a clear availability date provides no useful information for placement planning.
**The Sea Service Section**
This is where most maritime CVs lose their usefulness. The information the crewing manager needs for every contract: vessel name, vessel type, flag, gross tonnage or deadweight depending on vessel type, operator or owner name, your rank, joining date and sign-off date.
Information that is commonly missing or vague: tonnage, exact dates, flag state. Each omission requires a follow-up question. Crewing managers processing large volumes of applications follow up on files that look promising and worth the effort. Files that require basic information clarification before anything can be assessed get fewer follow-up calls.
Contract gaps matter. The gap between contracts is visible from the dates. A gap without explanation prompts a question. A gap with a brief honest explanation in a covering note, leave period, health matter, family reason, closes the question before it is asked. The explanation does not need to be detailed. It needs to exist.
**The Certificate Section**
Every certificate with the issuing authority and the expiry date. Not the certificate type only. The STCW basic safety training without the issuing flag state and without the individual module expiry dates is less useful than the full information. The GMDSS certificate without its renewal date is information that requires follow-up. Put the full details in the document and eliminate the follow-up.
Flag state recognition matters and is worth noting explicitly. If your certificate is issued by a state that requires a separate recognition endorsement from certain flag states, noting which recognition endorsements you currently hold saves the crewing manager checking this separately for each potential vessel.
**The Length Question**
One page for ratings and junior officers with fewer than five years of sea service. Two pages for officers with extensive experience. Three pages for senior officers with twenty-plus years and multiple vessel types. Beyond three pages produces diminishing returns. The crewing manager does not need the full details of every contract from fifteen years ago. The last eight to ten contracts tell the story.
What matters more than length is completeness on the recent contracts and accuracy throughout. A two-page CV with complete and accurate information on every contract beats a one-page CV that is thin on detail. A one-page CV that is clear and complete beats a three-page one that requires the reader to search for the information they need.
