Permanent Passenger: My Life On A Cruise Ship

Imagine yourself sitting at home. The phone rings. You have been offered a dream job and have 48 hours to fly to Miami and board a 70,000 ton cruise ship. Your destination: the Caribbean.

Permanent Passenger: My Life On A Cruise Ship tells the adventure of a young man serving as an Assistant Cruise Director on one of the largest cruise ships in the world, Carnival Cruise Line’s M.S. Ecstasy. Witnessing rescues at sea, stowaways, and passionate romances are just some of the day to day events revealed in this humorous adventure. Discover one of the wackiest job searches ever undertaken including sending letters to over 2,000 college alumni, chasing cruise line executives into bathrooms, and transforming a dorm room into a private office with hired interns.

All aboard – this is one adventure you don’t want to miss!

Cruising for the Right Job

Every job search needs a home, a place of operation. I had no other alternative but to turn my dorm room into an office. I bought files cases, staplers, folders, markers – everything an office requires. I was opening my company with one objective: get Micha Berman a job on a cruise ship (Assistant Cruise Director was what I really wanted). I even went so far as to give my company a name: Operation Cruise Inc. There was only one way to become an expert on the cruise line industry and that was to read everything about it. I ordered every possible cruise line magazine publication and had it delivered to my dorm room. My mail began to overflow with magazines. You name it, I got it: Cruise Travel Magazine, Ocean and Cruise News, Cruise Digest Reports, and many others. After drowning myself in this material I soon begun to speak the language, able to spit out endless facts about the cruise line industry.

My room, once sparse and clean, began to overflow with boxes, papers, and all kinds of other junk. At one point, I ran out of space and turned my refrigerator into an extra filing cabinet. This proved to be very unpopular with my parents, but provided a uniquely chilled resume. The walls in my room were plastered with large white billboards with inspirational messages on them. I was mentally preparing myself for a long voyage, accepting the fact that a lot of rejection would have to come my way for there to be true success. Each “no” represented a step closer to my final destiny – a job on a cruise ship. Other crucial items were my phone and answering machine. I would leave current news in the cruise line industry on the tape each day calling it Mic’s Cruise News.

My mission was clear: I needed to be within arm’s length of an entertainment director, the person who could hire an assistant cruise director. I would do this by entering the cruise lines at a considerably higher level than human resources, scoping out as many employees in the cruise line as possible. To make contacts within the cruise lines required major networking. Indeed, networking was the heart and soul of my entire job search. I intended to work through several different channels, gathering as many contacts as I could through family, and friends. I called my largest effort Project Random. I wrote every one of my college and fraternity alumni on the whimsical chance that one of them would have connections to employees in the cruise lines. I purchased $40 alumni directories from my university and my fraternity containing thousands of names of alumni with their current jobs and addresses. Through a lot of tedious work, I created a database of all the names in my computer. The amount of labor proved too cumbersome for one person, so I hired another student to help me input the names, leaving me time to work on other parts of my search.

I would carefully tailor each letter to individual alumni. The words would emphasize our family bond and the opportunity to help a young person early in his career. Meanwhile, I also sent letters directly to the entertainment directors, keeping close watch on the dates they were sent. Every month a new batch of letters would be sent, including interesting articles or novel ideas developed for their cruise line. Along with the letters, I always included my resume. To do something radically different, I began a resume crusade, speaking to more than 20 people. One professor suggested I look at magazines and model my resume with the fashion and style of magazine advertising. I printed in boldface at the top of the paper the type of person I was. It read: “Conversationalist, Host, Actor, Creative Programmer.”

During the time of these mailings, I was always on the lookout for any type of cruise conventions. One day I received a flyer in the mail about a travel review conference in Washington D.C. Cruise line reps from all over would be within an hour of where I lived. There was no option but to be there and meet them. The fee to get into the conference was prohibitive, so I arranged to be a volunteer. I was responsible for the distribution of name tags to members of the conference. Perusing the guest list, I was delighted to see the president of The Cruise Line International Association was to give a speech. The CLIA is an organization based out of New York which serves as a type of lobby group for cruise lines.

I took special care to watch for his arrival since this one man had more than enough contacts to land me jobs in any cruise line in Miami. After about an hour most of the name tags were gone except for his. Disappointed, I began to pack up my belongings when down the hall I saw a man in a suit approaching. He was heading directly for my table. He greeted me and took his name tag. Too nervous to start any conversation, I smiled politely and before I could say anything, he was gone.

‘You stupid idiot,” I thought. The only reason I was there was to speak to him. I watched as he made his rounds, shaking hands. Time was running out. Finally, he broke free and headed for the men’s room. I dashed after Mr. CLIA and approached him at, of all places, the urinal. Of course I had the courtesy to wait until he had zipped, but after that I had no mercy. “Um, my name is Micha Berman and I am interested in getting a cruise staff position and wanted to ask your advice.” I expected a polite brush off. Slowly he turned, “Well, hello there. Great to hear such enthusiasm.” Then he offered me a golden nugget: his secretary’s name and phone number. “Call anytime,” he said. And with these words he hurried out of the washroom to deliver his speech. I wanted to give him my resume before he left and quickly remembered I had brought an article printed in the Washington Post the day before about the cruise line industry. Sticking two of my resumes in between the rolled up article, I rushed after him. “This will make good reading for the plane ride back,” I said. He accepted the newspaper and slipped it in his briefcase. That afternoon all I could do was laugh, thinking of this man reading my resume all the way back to New York.

After two months of phone calls, letter-writing and conventions, Project Random began to bear fruit. With only two months to go before graduation my mailbox began to overflow with letters from alumni. On average, I could expect more than ten pieces of mail a day. My mailing had struck a chord and although many alumni admitted they knew no one in the cruise line industry, their kindness and support were incredible. Some sent articles, others maps, some even ripped pages out of their phone books with numbers and addresses of cruise lines highlighted. Letter after letter expresses support, along with some of the alumni’s own job search anecdotes.

As it turned out, my biggest catch of all, the one that would eventually land me a job, came from a friend I had met while traveling through Europe. Early in my job search I had called Lisa to let her know that I was hoping to be in Miami to work on a cruise ship. “Oh really, my mother went to high school with the vice president of one of the largest cruise lines down here,” she mentioned casually. “You’re kidding.” “No, she eats lunch with the VP of Carnival Cruise Lines all the time.” Was I hearing this right? I gently prodded, not wanting to reveal my excitement at this amazing contact. A couple of calls later and an interview was set up. It was that simple. I knew my search was taking off when I received a call from the head of HR at one cruise line begging me to stop whatever I was doing. “I have received seven copies of your resume in the past week,” he moaned. “That’s great.” “No, I don’t think you understand,” he continued. “You must stop sending them.” I had developed many contacts in his line, and all of them were forwarding my resume to him. “Let’s set up an interview,” he suggested. We set up an interview and I promised I would call off the barrage of resumes.

After three months of hard work I had received commitment for interviews from almost all of the major cruise lines in Miami. My goal seemed closer than ever. I bought my tickets, packed my bags and off I went. Little did I know that my trip to Miami would land me four offers from cruise lines. By the time my cruise adventure was over, I would have taken more than 50 cruises covering the Caribbean, swam with hundreds of stingrays and kissed passionately under the moonlight.