Marine Pilot
What the work is
Oversees the navigation of vessels through water channels and ports.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Navigates vessels through harbours, sounds, straits, bays, rivers, lakes or ports
- Advises the best route for safe passage of a vessel
- Provides expert knowledge of a port or waterway, including tides, water depths, local winds, currents and marine traffic
- Communicates with other vessels to prevent collision or advise of adverse conditions
- Monitors weather conditions and water currents using various instruments, such as anemometers, barometers and thermometers
- Ensures compliance with maritime laws, regulations and safety procedures
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a working vessel at a fictional regional port, with a bridge, an engine room and a deck crew. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A smooth arrival into a tight berth with the crew working together
- You find and fix an engine problem before it becomes a breakdown at sea
- A calm sunrise at sea after a night when everything ran the way it should
Hard days
- Weather closes in and plans change faster than you can communicate them
- Weeks away from home, and missing family events that cannot be moved
- A surveyor or port inspector finds a fault you hoped was not there
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 313432, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.