An old classmate of mine posted on facebook that a chance encounter with someone led to a long career in whatever it was that she just retired from, which is to say it's nobody's business.
That being said, someone else called chance encounters like that 'Godwinks' which may or may not be a good name for an opportunity that comes along. I'll have to give that some thought.
My career actually began with an unexpected train ride. It was just after Christmas over 20 years ago when I decided I wanted to go and visit my family a day after Christmas. I had just moved to Pittsburgh and had started working as a carpenter until a layoff just before Christmas hit.
Money was a bit tight and I had decided that I was going even if I had to hitchhike. This, of course, bothered Mrs. Pic and we decided that we could afford a train and that I could go to my parents house alone as she had other obligations in Pittsburgh.
The train ride was a hoot. Shortly after I got on I met up with a couple of ConRail guys deadheading and I got to go up in the engine and even drive the train for a bit. 9-11 was well over a decade away and things were pretty lax. The deadheaders got off along the way and I arrived in Philly where I had to change trains. One of the deadheaders had told me about the possibility of ConRail hiring. He gave me a contact to call. I put it in my wallet.
In Philly I clambered aboard a Boston bound train and noticed a group of happy go lucky guys whom I approached. There were three of them and I found out they were part of a tugboat crew. They were having a few and something told me it was time to cast a little bread on the water. I bought a round of drinks out of the few dollars I had in my pocket.
Over the drinks, I mentioned that I was a former fisherman and was out of work. One of the guys there told me that the outfit they were working for was hiring deckhands, but the money was lousy. I said I had no credentials and they replied that if they needed me they would give me a letter of intent to hire.
Simply getting a Merchant Mariner's Document was a dream. At the time it was a Catch-22 situation to get a document. You generally needed one to be hired and to get one you had to have experience. Leave it to the government to run a show like that.
The way many guys got their Z-cards back then was to hang out in a foriegn port and wait until a US flagged ship arrived and hoped it was a crewman short. A captain could hire a US citizen off the beach and when they arrived in the states the would be seaman could take his proof of service to the Coast Guard and be issued an entry level document.
The other way to get a document was to arrive at the Coast Guard REC with a letter of intent to hire. Generally this was nearly impossible because most outfits only hired people with credentials. The shot at getting a letter of intent to hire was a dream come true.
One of the guys, a mate, gave me the phone number of personel and a name of who to talk to. I wrote it down on a matchbook and parked it in my wallet.
We all got off in Boston and went our seperate ways.
A week later I was back in Pittsburgh and called the ConRail number and found out that they were not hiring. I then called the number of the tug and barge outfit and found they were hiring. I spoke with the woman that did the hiring and was told that they would send me an airline ticket for the following morning.
I instantly packed, and the following morning I was on the plane.
At their office I was interviewed and handed a letter of intent and two hours later I was at the Coast Guard REC and was issued a temporary Z-card. It would become permanant as soon as I had accumulated 90 days of sea time. The following day I shipped out and didn't get home for 5 weeks, having worked a single three-week tour and two weeks over to change my rotation to get in sync with the tug crew.
When I got home I called and wrote a number of previous employers for letters of service and they trickled in over the next couple of weeks.
A couple of days before I was to report to work I went to the Coast Guard REC with proof of previous service I had accumulated as a commercial fisherman (where a Z-card was not needed) and they accepted it toward my required 90 days and issued me a permanant document, often then called a hard card. My 90 days also permitted me to take the lifeboatman's test which I took and passed. It was my first endorsement on my Z-card.
I was now a bona-fide Ordinary seaman with a Lifeboatman's endorsement.
More letters from more previous fishing skippers trickled in and with the sea time I was accumulating it was about a year before I had both an Able Seaman (Special) and a Tankerman's endorsement on my Z-Card. Shortly after I sat for a limited Captain's license, endorsed motor steam and sail.
The AB has been since upgraded to Unlimited, any waters.
Now let's look back on this little God wink for a second.
My spouse and I have discussed this a few times over the years and we both agree on a number of things.
First, if she had come with me I would have dedicated my time to her and not met up with either the ConRail guys or the tug crew. In this particular case I was better off traveling alone because I was sort of free to reach out and meet different people.
The other thing is that simply meeting the tug crew really wasn't enough. I had to cast a little bread on the water to get back poached eggs on toast. I did this by breaking the ice and buying a round of drinks. This was action on my part. It paid dividends in the form of getting a phone number of the tug and barge outfit that was hiring.
The next thing that was my responsibility was to make the phone calls. When the ConRail phone call didn't pan out, I called the tug and barge outfit and that is where I scored a shot at employment. Getting on the plane based on nothing more than a phone conversation was a small leap of faith.
It should be carefully noted that I had a backup plan in the form of a few bucks tucked away in case there was a problem. If I did get hired and I found myself on board an unsafe vessel or a vessel full of incompetent drunks, I was to jump ship and get back home as best I could. The money was enough to hire some huckleberry to drive my and my gear to the nearest bus station and to buy a ticket home. I would simply ditch my gear if I had to. It could have been replaced.
My luck was good. The company was professional and reputable. They had an excellent safety record.In addition to that they promoted from within. Everything worked out.
Then again, you have to remember that the guys I had met on the train, while in a pretty good mood and having a small impromptu party seemed to be fairly competent. One had graduated from a maritime academy. He didn't have to work for a third rate outfit and if he was a sample of the company's employees I was probably looking for work in the right place. My instincts told me that.These guys were professionals.
While the God wink was meeting the guys that had just gotten off the tug, the rest of it was on me. Nobody was going to send me a limosine to go and get me a job.
Over the years I have met dozens of people that have had opportunity handed to them and either not recognized it or had not done their part. Most of these are not successful people.
You have to find the opportunity, which is luck, but when you find the opportunity you have to do your part. It isn't going to come to you in a neat little platter or in a pretty little box tied up in a bow. It's going to come in a disguise, and the disguise is one of opportunity. Learn how to spot it.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
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