What They Don't Teach You at College: What 80+ Officers and Ratings Actually Told Us

We put a simple question to several maritime Facebook groups and LinkedIn pages over the past week: "What's the one skill they don't teach in college that every good officer needs?" More than 80 seafarers replied — cadets, Ratings, engineers, Chief Officers, Masters, across merchant navy, superyacht and offshore backgrounds.

This isn't a formal survey — it's real, unprompted answers from real people on public posts, and we're not naming anyone here. But a genuine pattern showed up across dozens of independent replies, and it's worth taking seriously precisely because nobody was prompted toward it.

The clear winner: "common sense" — but what does that actually mean?

By a wide margin, the single most repeated answer — in almost identical wording, from people who clearly don't know each other — was "common sense." It came up more than any other single answer combined.

The interesting part is what happened when people elaborated. Nobody actually defined "common sense" as an innate trait. Every elaboration pointed at something learned: knowing which tool to reach for, reading a situation before it becomes a problem, applying logic under pressure rather than just having read the manual. One respondent put it well: "common sense, and the ability to apply it." Having it and using it under pressure turned out to be two different things in the replies — several people specifically noted that plenty of people have good judgement and still don't apply it when it counts.

Respect has to be earned, not demanded

The second most common theme was respect — but almost every mention of it came with a qualifier. "Earning respect, not demanding it" was a distinct, repeated phrase. Several people specifically framed it as mutual respect, not something that flows one way down the rank structure. One respondent's list of who respect applies to was, functionally, the entire crew — Captain down to the newest rating.

Listening to people who've actually done the job

A recurring, specific complaint was junior officers who won't take advice from senior ratings or NCOs who've been doing the job for years — sometimes decades longer than the officer giving the order. "Listen, and don't automatically assume you're right" came up more than once, nearly word for word from unconnected respondents. This wasn't framed as undermining rank — it was framed as the difference between an officer people actually want to sail with and one they just tolerate.

Man management, and the human side of leadership

Compassion, resilience, empathy, humour, and the ability to communicate "in a civil manner" all appeared repeatedly, usually bundled together rather than as single answers. A few people were blunt about the alternative — one respondent simply said certain officers need "a big injection of manners." The overall picture: technical competence was almost never mentioned as the differentiator. The gap people kept pointing at was entirely about how officers treat the people working for them.

Getting hands-on, regardless of rank

A repeated sentiment, in different words from several independent respondents, was that rank shouldn't exempt anyone from the less glamorous parts of the job. "No matter how high your rank, you aren't too good to get dirty," as one reply put it plainly. Another described making a point of getting out of uniform and actually doing hands-on deck work rather than just directing it — specifically so they'd never ask a crew member to do something they hadn't done themselves.

The quieter, more specific answers worth remembering

A handful of replies were narrower and more technical — putting a hacksaw blade on the right way round, knowing which way to turn slip-joint pliers so they don't slip, reaching for the correct tool rather than forcing the wrong one. None of these are dramatic, but the pattern behind them is the same as everything else on this list: these are things assumed rather than formally taught, and the gap only becomes visible the first time someone gets it wrong in front of a more experienced colleague.

What this means for new starts

If there's one honest takeaway from 80-plus independent answers to the same question, it's this: nobody talked about exam results. The skills people actually named — applied judgement, earned respect, listening to people with more time in than you, humane leadership, and a willingness to get hands-on — are exactly the things a college syllabus struggles to test and a CV can't show. It's also, not coincidentally, close to what a Captain's honest reference actually captures that a certificate doesn't.