Career in Naval Architecture

Keep learning, never stop

Ad Hoc stated this best of all... Think about the marine industry, where your knowledge from school places you, and how those skills are not only transferrable, but bring value to potential employers.

I personally know a number of employers who would jump at the chance to hire a NA with some engineering skills / experience. Same in reverse, of companies who would love an engineer with some naval architect experience.

The industry is broad, and there are many different directions your profession can take you. Sales, building, design, and yes, the science and day-to-day routine stuff. Different market segments: defense, commercial, racing.

When it comes down to it, though, you not only need to provide enough value for a company to hire you, but you need to sell yourself into a position. This is where Ad Hoc's advice is so important: Learn, learn, learn, and never stop learning. Get a foot in the door into the industry, beyond just showing a diploma.

 

One of my interns from a long time ago went from naval architecture to cargo brokering (at Baltic House, no less) after a few years of doing tanker structural stuff at an oil major. I don't know how interesting it is, but he makes a huge amount of money, and lives in a very expensive neighborhood in London.

Could be worse career paths.

 

As part of the thoughts re routine work, at one point the design office I was working at in Seattle was doing an inclining experiment and the related stability workup/booklet about twice a week. Not exactly new stuff, the naval architecture equivalent of cleaning teeth for a dentist. However ther was someting interesting in every job; at one point I called my father (who had been a merchant marine officer after WWII) and let him know that I had had the chance to use traditional deck cargo gear, just as he had used, on one small freighter (to move the weights). A small, but fun item, since there are almost no ships that still have boom and vang systems instead of hydraulic cranes.

Learned a lot about practical ship design by walking around in the vessels (during the deadweight survey) with my eyes open listening to the crew as well.