The one-page yacht CV: what actually gets read

A captain or chief stew looking to fill a slot this week will spend seconds on your CV before deciding. Optimise for those seconds. THE RULES THAT MATTER • One page. Two only if you have a decade of relevant sea time. • A clear head-and-shoulders photo, top right, professional and current. Yes, really — this industry expects it. • Position sought, availability date, and nationality/visas near the top. • Tickets listed plainly with expiry dates. • Vessels served: name or size, type, LOA, program (private/charter), your role, dates. Boat size and program tell a captain more than a paragraph of adjectives. WHAT TO CUT Objective statements. "Hardworking team player." Anything from school. Hobbies, unless genuinely relevant — dive tickets, watersports, a trade, a language. FORMAT PDF, named properly: Surname-Forename-Position.pdf. Not "CV final v3 (2).docx". It gets forwarded, and the filename is what people see in a crowded inbox. INTERVIEWS Expect a short, informal call. They are checking three things: can you do the job, will you be pleasant in a small space for months, and are you actually available. Answer the third one honestly — being unavailable when you said you were is how people end up on a private list. GOOD QUESTIONS TO ASK Rotation or permanent? Charter weeks last season? How long has the crew been aboard? That last one tells you more about a boat than anything else you'll be told. Your profile here doubles as a CV — fill it in properly and it does this job for you. What's the best or worst CV advice you were given?