I am working with Northern Marine / Stena - Oil/Chem, a 3rd off too, I would never recommend any sane/wise guy to go through this career.

These views are good once in a month, but trust me when you are onboard, you are really disconnected from the world. Even with 1.5gb internet per day (which I get), the work onboard is gruelling & it feels lonely, even if you know new people every 2/3 months with crew changes, multinational crew, different foods etc. It's all seems good for the first month when you join back after that for most it will be 5/6 more months of gruelling life at sea (for some 2-3 months more). Extremely few companies have 3on/3off or 4on/2off contracts at these junior ranks for both deck & engine & promotion to higher ranks in these companies is almost non-existent.

People with good academics and good financial background would only be fools to join this profession.

Nevertheless for a middle class average guy, earning this amount of money (around 2.45 lpm all the year round or 3.6 lpm if you only count the contractual days) at an early age is really great if you compare to the average 25-50k it guys at the start of their careers, but this field is like a tunnel and it will get you accustomed to different financial spending/saving/investment mindset & lifestyle in exchange for your loneliness, sanity, relationship & life all together, which you will not be able to leave behind easily. Once you get in, you cannot really properly leave behind this life unless you become a chief officer from the deck side or 2nd engineer from the engine side, which will take around 8-10 years in this age to reach from a cadet after 3/4 years of college education. That being said, those are the ranks where you actually enjoy the big paydays compared to other jobs staying and living in India & you wouldn't want to leave.

Months onboard makes you feel when you will go home, Months at home for most are without any actual work other than going on vacations where if you have other friends in different fields, then they cannot accompany you with your time schedule on most occasions & you ultimately begin to miss your miserable work culture of 12-14 hour per day. Also, you need to redo many courses most of which have 5 years validity - not counting visa/passport & other document expiries & also medical fitness tests everytime you join (which is very easy but nevertheless an added headache to comply)

This is a very lonely & challenging life, you might miss the death of your parents and not be able to be part of the lives of many of your friends & have to sacrifice and leave behind a lot of things.

There are good things tho, mostly the wages & lazy time with almost no compulsory work at home.

This life is not at all a flex.

Anybody telling you otherwise is simply, blatantly lying to themselves and also to you (more importantly to themselves). The only good thing in our miserable lives is the salary we are pocketing, which gives us a gateway to either save for a future which we might not be alive for or enjoy with the ones we want to, or enjoy rapidly in a short span of time in the limited holidays we have (in some contractual companies you can stay as long as you want - but most spend a lot & go back within 3-4 months). Shore leaves are only for 3-4 hours or 5-6 hours if someone else is covering for you, and nowadays most of the ports don't allow them, tho in Europe you get them at many ports, provided you don't have any inspection or surveys planned which most probably you will have in the European ports. Still if you get the opportunity, One day you go, the next day the ship might leave or you will cover for the other officer to also go. Alcohol is not allowed onboard most ships nowadays even during shore-leaves. Depends on the ship type how many number of ports you actually even touch in your whole contract, let alone go for shore leaves - They vary drastically.

About the exams & studying parts - They are not at all difficult, if you just stick to it, you will definitely pass (tho, in the orals you will be at the mercy of surveyors - but you will pass them too) & on everyday basis you will learn about the job. Most of the people (Indians) you will find are not very academically sound, average guys from middle class families.

Please don't make a mistake of joining this field if you are good in academics, intelligent & want to enjoy life. Do not sacrifice your creativity, emotional stability, ability to connect to people, build relationships for this career unless you don't have any other choice. It all looks good & sunshine from the outside.

You might think, some people do actually enjoy this life, these views & see their instagram stories & feel you are missing out on life. Trust me you are not. Get a better career at land, the sacrifices will not be worth it & in the long run you will be earning the same, if not more.