Dream job: Ship’s pilot
Every year, thousands of ships pass through the Kiel Canal, making pilots indispensable guides for safe passage. Gerald Immens is one of them. He is living his dream job, which is a little different from many other jobs. Why? He reveals all here.
Kiel Marketing: What is a pilot’s day-to-day work like?
Gerald Immens: From the very start, the job of a pilot presents one of the greatest challenges: the lack of a fixed daily routine. It’s comparable to the way a taxi rank at a railway station operates. Our pilots are effectively on call at all times. When there are lots of ships arriving, we’re on duty round the clock; when things are quieter, we spend longer periods at home. This means that working hours can vary greatly from one pilot to another. If we have hundreds of ships to look after, it might mean I’m only on duty once a day. If there are only 50 ships, we experience a summer lull and I have one day on duty followed by a day off. So it can happen that I come home and say to my wife: ‘I’m going to have a quick lie down, because I’ll be needed again soon.’ The problem with our job is that the notice period before a call-out can be extremely short.
So you need to be very flexible.
The work of a control officer requires exceptional flexibility. Patience and a calm demeanour are essential, but they reward you with a very fulfilling career. What I particularly like about my job is that I’m not sitting at a desk every day from 8 am to 4 pm, and that I never know in advance what to expect on the phone or when I’ll be called out on duty. Every day brings a new surprise. I meet all sorts of people from different countries, and that’s exactly what I love about my job: the constantly changing situations and the diversity of the encounters.
What was the largest ship you have ever escorted?
My grandmother, who lived to be over 100, always had a rather unique perspective on things. Whenever she heard about a cruise ship, she’d ask curiously, ‘Have you been on one? Was it difficult?’ She never realised that it’s not the size that matters. The oldest, most dilapidated cargo ships are gruelling work, whilst cruise ships are usually less so.