How To Become A Third Officer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a third officer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a third officer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $58.19 an hour? That's $121,038 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 1% and produce 500 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreThird OfficerUS Average

Salary

8.2

Avg. Salary $121,038

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.1

Growth rate 1%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

8.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.09%

Asian 3.16%

Black or African American 7.03%

Hispanic or Latino 9.07%

Unknown 4.75%

White 74.89%

Gender

female 11.41%

male 88.59%

Age - 40.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 40.5

Stress level

9.1

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.1

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

2.3

Work life balance is very poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a third officer

Explore third officer education requirements

Most common third officer degrees

Bachelor's

77.7 %

Master's

8.3 %

Associate

6.6 %

Start to develop specific third officer skills

Skills	Percentages
Safety Equipment	46.99%
Cargo Operations	23.38%
Emergency Equipment	6.89%
USCG	5.60%
Safety Drills	4.39%

Complete relevant third officer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New third officers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a third officer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real third officer resumes.

Research third officer duties and responsibilities

Work closely with surveyors, clients and ROV supervisors to achieve safe and effective subsea operations.
Provide support and leadership to businesses and capabilities for security and safety requirements.
Perform voyage planning, chart up keep and ECDIS maintenance.
Operate at various levels including supervising and safety maintenance.

Prepare your third officer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your third officer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a third officer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable third officer resume templates

Build a professional third officer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your third officer resume.