Able Seaman Overview

There are certain skills that many able seamen have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed customer-service skills, hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity.

When it comes to the most important skills required to be an able seaman, we found that a lot of resumes listed 14.8% of able seamen included cargo operations, while 9.9% of resumes included deck equipment, and 9.3% of resumes included general maintenance. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.

If you're interested in becoming an able seaman, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 32.0% of able seamen have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 4.0% of able seamen have master's degrees. Even though some able seamen have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an able seaman. When we researched the most common majors for an able seaman, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on able seaman resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.

You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an able seaman. In fact, many able seaman jobs require experience in a role such as ordinary seaman. Meanwhile, many able seamen also have previous career experience in roles such as deckhand or mate.