Welcome to Glamour's weekly column, How I Got My Job, featuring one woman with an amazing job, and the real route to get it. Looking for career inspo? For this week's instalment, captain Kate McCue shares her CV...
Who? Kate McCue, 37.
What? First female US captain of a cruise ship. She is responsible for Celebrity Summit, a 91,000-ton, 965-foot ship, which sails between the eastern United States and Bermuda.
The CV:
My parents took me on a cruise to the Bahamas, aged 12, and, seduced by the glamour of travelling to exotic destinations, I fell in love with the idea of working on a ship. I wasnât an overly ambitious student â achieving mostly B grades â but my goal was always to attend
maritime university.
The ratio of male to female students was 15 to one, something theyâre still trying to balance. I also took a celestial navigation course. Every summer we went on a training cruise to get experience, travelling to amazing places like Easter Island.
After university, I started as a third mate with Disney Cruise Line. It was an entry-level position, assisting the first officer with the driving of the ship, inspecting safety equipment and helping plan voyages. For a first job, it was well paid â no living costs. I worked three months on and two off, sailing mostly around the Caribbean.
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I joined here as a second officer â it was a bigger company with more room for promotion. I was never bored â one day Iâd be sailing to Alaska; the next, Australia, with regular opportunities to go ashore. In 2004, I progressed to first officer and had to drive the ship for eight hours a day. It needs a high level of concentration (there can be a lot of shipping traffic), so you break it into two four-hour shifts with eight hoursâ rest in between. The scariest moment was having to rescue some refugees from Cuba.
Every time you complete 365 days of sailing, you go to college to upgrade your licence. Here I got my Chief Mate and Masterâs Licence (it enables you to take over control of the ship, should you need to).
I returned to work as chief officer, the most experienced first officer on the ship. I was responsible for helping train the crew in the use of lifeboats, and ship maintenance. In 2011, I was promoted to staff captain â second in command. My main areas of expertise were safety, security and making sure the ship looked beautiful. I was also like a headmaster â if any of the 900-strong crew had problems, theyâd come to me.
I was contacted by Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, the president and CEO of Celebrity Cruises, who asked me to apply for the job of captain. Iâm now in charge of the ship. Guests can be surprised to learn their captain is a woman, but thereâs never been any negativity. The best part of the job is meeting so many diverse people. The hardest thing is remembering the names of 2,000 new guests!
Figure out what you love doing and find a way to make money from it. Iâm passionate about my job, and my husband (a ship engineer) and I will often go on a cruise on our time off.
Life is a marathon, not a sprint. Work hard, persevere and be patient. Youâll get there.
Change is good. Embrace it, or get left behind. Iâm always shaking things up based on customer feedback.
