Ship manager with a pool of over 13,000 seafarers, recruiting through its own manning offices in nine countries: Brazil, Croatia, India, South Korea, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Romania and Ukraine. Headquarters moved from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore in 2018.
I worked for Wilhelmsen Marine Personnel from 2017. They have a cadet programme, opportunities for career progression and the possibility of transferring to the gas fleet. Salaries were paid on time, no commission was charged, and expenses were covered. The crew was mainly Filipino and Indian, including most of the officers.
I worked for them offshore for two years. Everything was fine: my salary was paid on time and all expenses were reimbursed.
I worked for the company on bulk carriers. A third engineer earned around $4,000, and there was no $10,000 salary on board.
I completed a cadet contract on a gas vessel with the company and received a good appraisal. I was promised promotion during the voyage, but it did not happen. After the contract, the company stopped responding for more than six months and offered me either another cadet contract or no position at all, so I left and joined another company as a junior officer.
I worked for Wilhelmsen in 2013 with an almost entirely Indian crew, apart from another deck cadet and me as the engine cadet. The other cadet worked 15–16 hours every day and was doing more work than anyone else on the vessel. After the voyage, he suffered health problems related to the lack of rest. This experience is why, now that I am a third engineer, I try to protect cadets from being used as general-purpose workers.
I worked for Wilhelmsen at a later stage and had a similar experience. There was a heavy workload, while some crew members did very little; paperwork that should have been handled by the chief mate was left to the third mate, who also had to carry out painting and chipping work with the able seamen. I did get experience on the gas fleet, but one contract was enough to make me stop seeking assignments with such crews.
Both my relief and I joined without prior tanker experience; the office says plainly that pay will be modest at first. The bunker-vessel route pays about the same as here but gets you LNG time in ten-week contracts, and people move on to the large carriers after two or three of them. If money now matters more than the door opening, this is not your place; if the door matters, knock.
I have spent most of my career in this company across FSRU, LNG and LPG tonnage. The written terms are a starting point: juniors are listed at six-month contracts, but I sailed three-month contracts almost throughout by simply negotiating, and pay moves with experience the same way — entry for a chief officer is around 10,500 with more for a record. Juniors transfer to LNG readily. The company rewards people who speak up; those who wait to be noticed, wait.
Before joining I had spent four years with another employer on promises alone. Here the path was short: one cadet contract on an FSRU, then Third Officer on a VLGC. In my experience the company promotes quickly when you perform.