In our harbor there is a pretty good-sized boatyard. They work on everything from recreational power cruisers and sailboats to big commercial limit seiners, gillnetters and crabbers to yachts (80-100' long) and so forth. They work on wood boats as well as the more common fiberglass, aluminum, and steel vessels. I suspect it's a pretty typical yard for one of this size so there will be similar ones all around the US coast.
They have a number of specialists on the payroll in areas like engine mechanics, electrical work, Travelift drivers and so forth. They also have some general laborers. Guys who powerwash boats as they come out of the water and act has helpers to the other employees.
From my observation the general helper work does not require a lot of experience. However, if one gets hired for one of these positions--- which may well be part time--- if one has an interest and aptitude for some more specialized aspect of boatyard work it's a great way to get one's foot in the door. Once in, one can then work their way up into what one really wants to do.
Or....... it's a great way to find out that this kind of industry is not what one really wants to be in.
The few brokers I know personally seem to have gotten into it by first getting some experience in sales. Furniture, cars, washing machines, one has to have an aptitude for making the kind of positive albeit temporary relationships with people that help convince them that the product one is selling is the product they want.
And.... one has to develop the knowledge base to be able to "present" the product in a credible manner to the customer. In other words I don't think it's enough to simply have an interest in boats. I think a person has to be motivated to learn a lot about boats in great detail--- makes, models, characteristics, attributes, and so forth. You can't sell a product to a customer, particularly an expensive product like a boat (or a house), if you don't have an intimate knowledge of the product itself and how to use it.
Another potential route might be to get a job as "dock boy" at a big charter company. Particularly a charter company that also is a boat dealer or brokerage. Cleaning boats, helping the maintenance person or people with repairs and whatnot. Basically being a "gofer."
It seems to be a hard concept for people graduating from college or entering the workforce these days, but the old rule of thumb, "start at the bottom and work your way up" still applies. Sure there are exceptions. The son of one of my directors of videgraphy graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor's degree in computer science and was promptly wooed by Amazon, Google, and Facebook. He went with Google at a starting salary of $100,000 a year with a $70,000 signing bonus. But..... this guy has been intimately involved with computers since he was a little kid and had built a reputation as an absolute whiz at things like computer programming and security by the time he finished middle school. So not your average career path.....
For the majority of folks it's get your foot in the door in a business, industry, or field you really like or think you'll like and start slogging up the path.
Interestingly, the people I've met who have achieved greatness in their fields, particularly in the industry I'm in which is aerospace, never started out with the goal of being great. They started out with a passion for their chosen interest and got so engrossed in it it was a bit of a surprise to them when one day there they were at the top.
Last year I interviewed at length a remarkable woman who started at rock bottom working in an airline reservations office in London after fleeing as a teenager the violence of Northern Ireland and who is today the CEO of one of the most successful airlines in the package tour industry. I was interviewing her because she was one of the very first people in the airline industry to make the decision to order the 787 long before it even existed.
Before interviewing her I tried to learn as much as possible about her. One of the things I read in my research was an interview she had given to the London Times (I think) about the importance of passion in one's work and how hard it is these days to find people who have the kind of passion it takes to really contribute to their and their company's success. I opened my interview by asking her to elaborate on her belief in the importance of passion and how it related to the success of her airline.
While I have never been able to express it as eloquently as she did, I have long believed that having a passion for what one does is the key to achieving success, be it running an airline, writing a book or helping other people get into boating.
The broker who found us our boat is a great example. He loves boats, particularly this particular brand, and his interest--- passion if you will--- has led him to learn and retain a huge amount of knowledge about not just this particular brand but about all sorts of boats. Most important of all, his passion for this comes through to his customers (like us). He's not just a salesman trying to make a buck or meet a quota. He genuinely loves what he does and what he sells and helping people acquire what they need to make their own dreams become a reality. This in term gives him tremendous credibility with his customers.
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