Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The Job of a Maritime Consultant ! Can Naval Architects shine in this field?

Maritime consultants are professionals who have the technical expertise to advice and suggest better trade routes and address other necessary shipping concerns to individuals and corporations engaged in the maritime sector to help them boost, advance and further their business positively.

Another important reason that maritime consultants play a very vital role in channelizing today’s shipping industry concerns is because of the various detrimental issues that have cropped up in the field of marine commercialization and marine ecosystem. Maritime consultants can, once again address these concerns by taking matters into their hands and advice the business sector about the dos and don’ts that need to be monitored and taken care of.

In today’s times, the profession of a maritime consultant has become majorly asking. Since the job entails providing expertise, it involves detailed studying and analysis of the concerned issue from the perspective of not only the concerned party but also from the perspective of the environment and any other factors which could cause a debilitating turn to the concerned issue.

Academic Requirements

In terms of educational qualifications, while there are no specific qualifications required to be a maritime consultant, there are quite a few other requirements that good and effective maritime consultants should possess. The main thing that is required is experience, because more the experience maritime consultants have the quality of their services as highly instrumental professionals will be more. Additionally, in terms of experience it would be better if a maritime consultant possesses experience not just pertaining to his native country or region but also of many nations across the world. This feature is important in the profession of maritime consultants because wider is the knowledge background of a maritime consultant, the more reliable his services will be perceived to be. Moreover, since shipping is such a business activity which encompasses oceans and seas which are spread across the globe, it is but natural that the shipping business tends to be a multinational event. And as such, it will be in the interest of maritime consultants if they have experience to deal with not just one country, but innumerable ones.

Also, when it comes to experience about many countries, it becomes equally important for maritime consultants to be fluent in multiple languages apart from English. It is a known fact that, while English is the universal denominator when it comes to languages, there are many nations and people who are not comfortable with speaking English. Therefore, it would be beneficial for maritime consultants if they are able to converse well in such regional languages and reduce the discomfort of the people, thereby garnering more appreciation for their services and expertise – not just in terms of their work and profession, but also in terms of their ease and comfort with many languages.

Conclusion

The profession of maritime consultants is unique because it caters extensively to the shipping industry with no other fields overlapping its scope and ambit. A maritime consultant needs to have the necessary patience and steadfastness to execute his job in a manner befitting the title allotted to his profession. Because, if maritime consultants falter or make a mistake, it could be that the error could be a minor one or it could be that the error is a major one. In the case of the former, rectification is possible but in the case of the latter, the aspect of rectification will be far too late. Therefore, it’s the responsibility of maritime consultants to provide the best possible advices and solutions so as to preserve not just the survival of the shipping industry but also of the ecosystem on which the industry solely depends on. The Naval Architect because of his technical expertise in the designing of ships for various market conditions, can hopefully give a go for this. However, he should not restrict his field to Naval Architecture alone, but alongside broaden his horizons to look into all aspects of the shipping sector. A professional qualification in management is an added benefit.

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