How to prepare your Resume / CV

I have been finding that most cruise ship Human Resource Department personnel I know, are still much more happier to receive your CV/resume the old fashioned way - through the mail. The reason is because anyone can send along a thousand emails from their laptop whilst never ever getting out of bed...copy paste, copy paste - ad nauseum.
Snail means you have composed a work of art - resume, photos, dvd if available, sourced out the correct person to receive the package and walked to a post office and paid money to ship it off.
A contact hiring person I know in Europe, receives 400 - 500 email resumes PER WEEK!! He cannot possibly read let alone answer them all. He is too busy hiring people. So, it's delete, delete, delete. He receives less than 5 by traditional mail per week, but, he reads those over a coffee.
For this approach you require up to date addresses for each person and /or line you wish to contact. The information package should be as follows:

* 1 page, neatly typed cover letter - never hand written - standard ARIAL font and use spell check!
Never write Dear sir, maddam, to whomit may concern - use the first name of the person who will be receiving this employment inquiry - Dear ______ ,
This cover letter has 3 short paragraphs only :
-1) who you are and what you want
-2) brief overview of your experience and why you are right for this position
-3) when you are available, addtional info available, you will follow up with a phone call..."thank you for your time" is how you end the letter!
Note: 3 weeks after you've mailed it, call the person from a quiet area only! Use a land line only! NO cell calls! When the receptionist/gate keeper answers the phone, you say this:
My name is ____ , and I am following up a Cruise Staff position with ______ .
Your CV/Resume should be focused and relevent to the job your are applying for:
IE If you want to be part of the Cruise Social/Staff, you will include recreational activities, theatre, team sports, summer camp employment, carnival experience, marketing and promotional work, but the most important aspect of this job? You must be comfortable with a microphone hosting events in front of hundreds or thousands of passengers! You must be absolutely over the top, cheesy, almost annoyingly so - outgoing!!!! And, look as good as you can, meaning clean cut, fresh and professional - show them your own your million dollar smile!
If you can, include a video of good quality, well edited, of any hosting experience you have. All envelopes should include professionally printed labels - never handwritten. Use a large 8 1/2 inch white or brown kraft envelope, so you do not fold any of your papers.
And don't be cheap...send it Special Delivery only!

Small ships are great too!

I had the good fortune of working onboard Seabourn Sea Goddess 2 before it because part of the Carnival Family. These small ships are not as exciting as the big ships and you may be required to perform additonal duties as the crew tends to be quite small. Also, just because the ship is high end for guests, don't expect it to be so great for the the crew. The ships are small and therefore, there is pretty much zero in the way of onboard crew facilites. If you love smaller environments, I suggest considering yacht jobs.

This website, http://www.smallshipcruises.com/ is a great site to look for the small cruise ships. As well, check out this link too! http://www.frommers.com/trip_ideas/cruise/category.cfm?catcd=LUX

What kind of ship do you want to work on?

Greetings,
We have some time so I am going to offer you up the 5 basic types of vessels you can work on.
1) Traditional BIG ships
2) Smaller, more exlusive ships, higher end of the market
3) River cruising, primarily in Asia, Europe
4) Independant cruise lines, (mainly Europe) with maybe 2-5 ships each
5) Casino ships which operate day cruises in some US states

The traditional BIG ships are the major cruise ship brands we all hear about...most are brand spanking new, 3000 plus passengers, 1500 plus crew, 50 bars, 20 pools, 9 discos, 30 restaurants, 300 shops ad naseuam. These are alot of work. I enjoy them because of the sheer volume of people onboard. And, I will admit this here only once, I like meeting all the hot single women -ok, I said it! But, you are always running to get things done. You need to have a high degree of energy, organization, patience as well as be able to find some peace and quiet - somewhere, in order to carry you through a 6 month contract - otherwise you end up like most crew...drinking yourself to sleep every night.
To learn more about these ships visit the folowing website, http://www.cruising.org/. Don't get distracted by all the links. Pay attention to the link at the bottom of the page which states Shipboard Employment. This will provide you with information about each of the major cruise lines. Read through and decide the which cruise line is suited for what you want your experience to be. Some lines cater to a party crowd - some lines are most refined and attract a more affluent guest. If you want to know what passengers think about various line and ships, go to http://www.cruisecritic.com/. Once again, don't get carried away with all the other info, you are here only to find out what people think of the various companies and their respective cruise ships. click the link at the top right called Reviews...this is the only link you need.