Being the crew’s eyes on the deck as a deckhand

Konstantin began his career in a commercial fleet, working mostly on crude oil and gas tankers in the Indian ocean and in African countries. After this, Konstantin started his career with Atlas Professionals. He still remembers the day when he applied for the vacancy of Deckhand. “It was a very good and sunny day,” Konstantin recalls. “Browsing on job websites, I found a vacancy on the Atlas Professionals website. I clicked on the apply button and uploaded my CV directly.”

Konstantin was happy and surprised to see that within a day he was contacted by a very professional personnel coordinator, who provided him with all the necessary information about the project and answered all his questions. After a couple of days, he found out he was selected for the job and received his contract. He smiles: “I hope to stay with Atlas for many-many years.”

Deckhands are general laborers on a ship, performing the day-to-day duties that keep the vessel clean and running. Working back-to-back on either a night or day rotation, the first hour of his shift always starts the same for Konstantin. “We familiarize ourselves with the plan for the day and the approximate schedule of actions for this shift,” he explains. Afterwards, Konstantin always does a security round to make sure that everything is running smoothly and safely.

Konstantin believes the phrase ‘you are my eyes on the deck’ describes his responsibilities as a Deckhand better than any list. “You can be the most experienced Master in the world and a great professional on the bridge, but without a proper lookout on the deck and a highly motivated deckhand, your work will be much harder,” he says. He encourages people in the industry to use a more hands-on, experience-based approach. “You can spend a lot of time thinking about what can possibly go wrong. But do not just sit in the office with your computer and with risk assessment forms. Be part of the process in real life, not in your dreams,” says Konstantin.

One of the things Konstantin loves about his job is being part of meaningful development projects. “It makes me proud to get the opportunity to be part of dredging and construction projects that have a social impact on the world and are very important for next generations. After the project, I can say: I was there. We did it!” Konstantin says proudly. “And I also believe that stories about these projects will be much more interesting for my daughter, than stories about delivering oil or gas to a port.”

Konstantin is very ambitious and has plans to further his career and to become an HSE supervisor. For other people who aspire a career in HSE, he has some final, inspiring words: “Theory is very good, but do not forget, please, that theory is only part of success. Practice, and by this, I mean true experience, is also very important.”