2014 was a great year in recruitment and the number of job orders was almost back to the level of 2008. As we all know, yachts are getting bigger and in 2014 the number of jobs we recruited for 70-metre plus yachts increased by 64% from 2013.

Many of these jobs were for officers and engineers with commercial unlimited licences and those of you with both merchant and yachting experience have a bright future ahead as the shortage of talent will become more acute. Yet, many good officers and engineers with unlimited licences but zero yachting experience are struggling to get a foot in the door of the yachting industry because often clients require previous yachting experience. We predict that in 2015 and beyond, new doors will open and that certainly a new generation of talented merchant personnel will enter the industry with great success

We also witnessed captains with the 3000gt Master Licence going back to study towards their OOW unlimited license and above in order to gain access to jobs on the biggest yachts in the industry. In general, those of you prepared to invest in your future by acquiring new skills and participating in further courses to expand your knowledge base, will get ahead in the industry. Chefs and crew chefs certainly learned that too in 2014 as moving forward they need to get assessed in order to obtain their ship's cook certificate allowing them to cater for 10 crew or more on commercial yachts.

Superyachtintelligence.com tells us that there are 411 yachts under construction in 2015, 111 are over 50 metres, 73 are over 60 metres, 49 are over 70 metres and 15 are over 100 metres!

There are thus plenty of work opportunities and to fine-tune your interview skills, check out the video here…