Hey guys...

Look here if you are interested: ccg-gcc.gc.ca/College-and-Careers/college
And here if you have questions: ccg-gcc.gc.ca/College-and-Careers/Frequently-Asked-Questions

I am not sure if you have to be a Canadian citizen or not, but you need a 70% average to get in and several university science courses.

Lol right

It's basically the military so not 'just a job' with the government. I don't think living on a ship for months at a time is for most people so they probably weed those types out through some grueling process.

Not sure about Canadian coastguard, but here in the USA it's known as a good career. It has the highest rate of continual service (like 86%) of any of our armed forces.

Plus depending on your position I hear these guys get to do some really cool stuff.

I think you just need to love the water and be fine with being cold all the time.

Just go talk to a recruiter. Talk to a few of them in fact.

Damn dude I'm in Canada too and ive been kind of lost in direction. Coast Guard sounds great.

Do they really need that many people though? I'm going to look into this

CBSA might be worth looking into as well. I don't know about the Coast Guard, but I know that the government has a hard time hiring border guards because a requirement of the job is that you be willing to relocate anywhere. It's not like the teevee show where everyone works in Vancouver or Toronto, you could be placed at a highway crossing in the middle of nowhere or a port in Nunavut. It's a solid middle-class career with job security and excellent benefits.

Kek I was banned for posting links while at school to help out another Veeky Forumsness bro in this thread, thanks mods; maybe you should actually read the thread and understand the context of the thread instead of just banning me.

Anyways, does anybody know of any other schools that are in a similar style to the coast guard college? As in free tuition, guaranteed job, paid during school and co-op, etc.?

So far I'm still leaning towards this college and it sounds like a really sweet deal, but I find it hard to believe there is nothing else like this in Canada.

Hmm yeah the traveling aspect of the CBSA sounds pretty intimidating. But I'm sure it's just as well paid if not better than the coast guard job.

I've also recently spoken to somebody who works in the current position I'm looking at getting in the coast guard (Marine Engineer), so if anybody has any questions about the position I can probably answer most of them.

finished a 3-year program at college with 3.9GPA(programmer), but my in high school I got low grades for science classes. Will I need to redo the science classes for that 70% or will they let it slide since I have a diploma?

Can you finish both the engineering and the navigator training? If so, how would it work if you start with engineering first?

How is it to wear uniform 24/7? That's the only big turn off for me. Wearing the uniform, buzz cut, singing anthem every morning, marching, etc all of that seems like the army to me. Like you need someone scream at you that you're dumb. Basically, is this profession looks down on?

As with most colleges, they probably won't accept you if your prerequisites are lacking. Also, make sure you have the right prerequisites in the first place, as the requirements cover uni-level Math, uni-level Chem, uni-level Physics and either a uni-level English or French course. However, your GPA is quite impressive, and so this would definitely be something to ask the college itself but your skill in programming is, as far as I know, not very useful in a nautical position as this. I have linked their website a couple posts above and you can view their full lists of requirements or contact the school itself via email or phone.

That is a very interesting question that even I am going to have dificulty answering, simply because I have never even considered it for its daunting workload. I am leaning on that you can, but it would take a phenomenal amount of time. For example, it would take you 4 years to finish the Marine Engineer course, then you are contracted to mandatory work for 4 years in this position. After this contract, you would have to enroll again, get in again, complete another 4 years of school and be contracted for another 4 years as a Navigator on top of that. That's a total of 16 years maybe more for time inbetween enrollment.
Interpreting your question in different ways: No it is not possible to do both courses at the same time, no I highly doubt it is possible to use your time not working during your first contract to complete the second course because you would have to do a 9-10 month co-op and you would not have enough time off work to complete this co-op. There really is no benefit to you having both of these officer positions under your belt, unless you have some kind of rad plan I don't know about.

You have questions about day-to-day things? YouTube is great with that, many videos done on the college that show you life on campus both visually and auditory: youtube.com/results?search_query=canadian coast guard college

Interesting about the continual service rate, that makes me feel more comfortable about the job (assuming it is similar to the US guard) :)

Thanks.
The reason I asked about doing both programs is because it seems like you can only know how to do one thing: either sail the ship or maintain it, but why not both?(note: "know" not "do")

Why is education, food, uniform, etc are paid for? What's the catch?

What happens after 4 year contract?

After you graduate are you a navigator/engineer with 60k per annum pay forever or can you advance? What's is the typical career path?

Lots of positives are highlighted on their website about this career, but what are the minuses? Can your friend shed some light on this?

I have heard the amount of applicants they get are in the thousands and they only accept a bit over a hundred.

I am starting to regret creating this thread as I am increasing my competition with every post haha.

My friend being a Marine Engineer knows how to steer and plan courses for the ship AND the mechanical aspects of it. Ironically, the navigator knows nearly nil about the mechanics of his own ship. I would definitely look into the Marine Engineer course over the Navigation Officer course if you'd like to have a wider scope of understanding under your belt.

Lol, that's the most common question asked by my friends when I mention the college: "What's the catch?" I don't blame you, I'm still looking for a big catch myself haha. As far as I can see, the only real catch is the 4 year contract you are put into after school during which you have to work for the guard until you are allowed to attempt a move to a private sector position somewhere else with your bachelors degree and experience. As for why everything is paid for, I believe it is for making sure their students have everything they need to succeed and learn at their best capacity without worrying about anything else, or because they want to attract people who may be really well suited and experienced for the job, but who cannot commit due to the cost of education and living on campus.

After the 4 year contract you are then allowed to chase any other placement in the private sector you want, or choose to stay where you are and move up in the public sector. Idea is they don't want to train you for free, only to have you go work for a private company immediately after.

It is common and not very hardous to advance your position as a sailor/engineer. I have heard of coast guarders in the US getting promoted to making 6-figure salaries. Keep in mind this is US currency, which would be very n i c e in CAD. Although, I am not sure about the exact career path. I do not know if you go from officer, to captain, to manager, etc. I know you can get these positions, I am not sure if there some sort of set and straightforward ranking system. I will ask about that some more, that's a good question to have.

Thanks again.

Could you elaborate more on the private sector? What are some companies I could start looking at after the contract?

When you finish your contract what do you think you will do? Stay public with coast guard or go private and why?

How are the "hours"? Are you away from home for a month or more?

Considering doing this, but again I lack uni-level classes so I probably would have to take some sort of night school to get required credits?

Privater sector as in, not with the government. I have no idea what companies to look for. Zilt. I would suggest using Google to find major shipping or other nautical-related companies and look at some of their job descriptions are. Whatever you find should be pretty easy to get into as you will have 4 years of experience with ships and a bachelors degree of marine engineering.

What contract will I do? I love the government benefits. I don't know much about insurance and the such (as I don't pay it yet), but I believe they cover all your medicine and hospital bills until something like 75 years old? So definitely not leaving unless I get something really sweet in managerial positions or distinct engineering positions in the private sector. You'd have plenty of time to look for this and ask around at the college for private sector connections, I'm sure many people have left the college and found a job with the private sector 4 years later and I'm sure 6-figure salaries in this business aren't uncommon. So to answer your question, that is entirely dependent on what I can find in the private sector. Whether that's even better employee benefits, a much higher wage that nullifies any drawbacks I would have from missing benefits/pension, or just a much less stressful position.

Speaking about stress and moving onto your next question, the job is 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off. No, you are not spending this time on a ship stuffed in a dank room, but are given a pretty decent house to live in with your 3 other crew mates. Each coast guard station typically has 4 people at it, 2 officers (either Engineer or Navigation) and 2 deck hands (you don't need the college to get these general positions, but are much lower pay). Everything you guys need in that house is paid for, whether that's food, water, toiletries and other miscellaneous items. You are able to bring whatever you would like in this house, except for drugs and alcohol during those 2 weeks.

Hit word limit. You can't do anything that would impair you as you must be ready 24/7 during those 2 weeks to leap at any moment to rush to your boats and head out to whatever coordinates you have received. That being said, this rarely happens and even more rarely is there an actual big issue that poses a danger to you or other people. For example, my friend had time to go with me to a nearby restaurant while on duty because of how casual his job is, and he knows that on certain days there is usually nothing happening. It is not very often you are called in and you spend about half your time if not more just chilling at your house with your crew and making sure the ship is ready to go at any moment. He's told me how leisurely it is at times, but that he's had times where the boat had an issue at 12am and he's had to stay up till 6am just fixing it.

Alright, thanks.
Good luck man.

Yeah for sure man. Writing this shit down helps me get my bearings too so I was glad to do it.

One of my Captains at the firehall I volunteer at has been doing it for like 30 years, got a certificate signed by Stephen Harper. I'm not sure they name of his rank, but he is the highest up on a boat and makes pretty decent money.

My understanding is that the shifts are split so that you basically work 6 months of the year, so it's not that bad, he is at the hall very often so he still gets a good work / life balance.

Personally, I am working towards CBSA. Getting a Criminology degree and working for the city doing Animal Control (making $35.26 an hr, I'd look into it if your area has a strong union)