Welcome Yevgen to #FacesOfSeafair!
Yevgen is a Ukrainian seafarer with over 13 years of experience. His career began back in 2008 when Yevgen got his first job as an electro-technical cadet. In 2012, after completing education at Kherson State Maritime Academy, he started his first contract as an ETO. Now, many years later, Yevgen is re-educating himself to get an engineering degree.
He enjoys the challenges of work at sea and recalls the best contracts were when he got to wear many hats and share the responsibilities beyond his rank. Throughout his career, Yevgen visited all the continents except for South America. “That’s something to remember and share with grandchildren.”
Like many other seafarers we’ve had the pleasure to work with, Yevgen shares that it’s unlikely anyone dreams to be a seafarer. The ones who choose this profession will encounter many difficulties - the need to stay away from home and their families, health risks, extreme working conditions, vessel-related dangers. But with high risk comes a high reward. “If you become a seafarer in our country, you get an opportunity to earn a decent living for your family. But what’s most important - give your child a better future.”
To all aspiring ETOs, Yevgen says, “everything is in your hands, and yours only.” Sea is not the place for hand-holding. There’s no one to teach you unless you demonstrate initiative and some level of competence. The difficulty of the ETO career path is the lack of ranks between cadets and ETO. To succeed, ETOs have to be quick learners and prove themselves to be responsible colleagues. With these personal qualities and good crew - no work is unmanageable.
Yevgen joined a Seafair-crewed ship in February of 2021. He describes our partnership as “stable and honest” employment. Compared to other crewing agencies, working with Seafair has been easy and convenient as the documents exchange, interviews, and salary payments happen online. He looks forward to working with Seafair in the long term and finding new challenges at sea.