The papers that actually get you hired

I do not hire a girl because she is pretty on a sunpad. I hire her because her papers are in order, her dates make sense, and I can put her on a flight on Thursday.

STCW Basic Safety Training is not optional. ENG1 (or equivalent seafarer medical) is not optional. If you are applying without them, you are asking a chief to imagine a version of you that does not exist yet. Do the courses. Put the expiry dates on the CV. Scan the certificates as one clean PDF.

After that: a valid passport with room, a yellow fever if you might go Caribbean, and a bank account that can take a wire. I have lost good girls to a passport that expired in November and a medical that ran out mid-season.

If money is tight, do STCW first. Daywork in Antibes or Palma will often take you with that alone. ENG1 next. Then you are hireable. Everything else is polish.

Keep copies in two places: your phone, and a folder a friend can send if you lose the bag. On a boat, the bag gets lost more often than people admit.