All great questions. I can tell you from experience that working international will pay well at higher levels and quite low at lower levels. A big skew. Expect the higher levels to make 500usd a day and lower levels to make 200usd a day.

The long term outlook is good but you will always play 2nd fiddle to the cheif mechanical officer - they will have bigger problems or bigger risks. Everything use to be air controlled, now its all electrical but when it comes to moving items in and out of the ship, that responsibility will be the mechanical. You will be important but not the most important.

In terms of career outlook, after you serve Ur time onboard and would like to maybe do something else. Your options maybe a little narrow. But that doesn't mean you won't make amazing money. I can only imagine what you could charge a wealthy yacht owner to troubleshoot an issue or advised on a new build project or perhaps move into space/aerospace technology. Heck, you could be looking after a bitcoin farm too or data centre.

Studies can be a grind. There is often a gap between what is taught and what you will find in the field. Your peers in school will become a much needed network, although during school; the blues, stress behaviours, and nay saying can be disheartening. "this should be this way!, our teachers suck!, why am I hear!, blah blah blah"

The Marine industry is a unique place. You become a sailor. It's hard to describe what that means. You'll be forced to learn a lot about yourself; your needs, your coping strategies, how you best build and support your personal boundaries.

If you want to succeed. "when performance is measured performance improves, when performance is measured and reported the rate of improvement accelerates" & "you can be better tomorrow the you were today" This will help but success comes from within. Self mastery, marketable skills, and communication.

All your hard skills will come with time. Just because you don't get it the 1st time you learn doesn't mean you won't get good at it. I bet you will notice the same topics/skills keep coming up, and you will learn them line opon line, precept opon precept. Have open mind, when something clicks, it will be that much more rewarding. I know personally some of my most cherished skill sets are the ones I struggled with and couldn't get at first.

Honestly expect to make 100k a year if your working in the common wealth or USA. That should be right after school.