Qualifications for a job can be confusing, especially when they seem impossible to meet!

Nowadays everyone wants 5 years of related experience for an entry-level job. It leaves you thinking, “Your company was supposed to be my related experience!”

And even if they expect you to have been in the industry for two decades, you best believe they’re not willing to pay you more than 50 cents above minimum wage!

But this user had an even more confusing experience with qualifications when a coworker “technically” wasn’t qualified for his promotion, but was qualified for a job two promotions above him!

Check it out!

Sorry Boss I’m not qualified

In the merchant marines there are licensing and credential requirements that determine what capacity you can work at.

It boils down to, the more time and experience you have, the higher you can sail. Sometimes you also have to take a test to upgrade your license or rating.

At my current company they have promotion boards once per year. Everyone has a permanent rating that determines the minimum they can sail as.

But if you have the license, you can get temporarily promoted to a higher job with a higher salary until you either leave that ship, or the person you were temp working for returns.

And OP said this rule came into play when one engineer on his ship was in line for a promotion…

On my ship several years ago there was a Third Assistant Engineer. This guy was working as a third but already had his second assistant’s license.

When he arrived he had just completed the tests to upgrade to First Assistant Engineer but was waiting on his new license to come.

In the engine department the highest is Chief Engineer, then First Assistant, Second, and so on.

This engineer had put in his promotion package to advance to Second assistant engineer permanently but he failed to be promoted.

Specifically, the company told him he was “not qualified” for promotion to Second engineer. This meant he couldn’t be permanently promoted to second, but he could get temp jobs.

So when the boss needed someone to cover the second engineer’s shift, this employee said that unfortunately, he wasn’t “qualified!”

Several months after he got onboard, the Chief Engineer (CHENG) wanted to give the second leave for a month or two.

So the second engineer would leave for 30 or 60 days, then come back. To do his job, he wanted the Third to fill in in the meantime.

The third said, nope sorry no can do, you see I’m not qualified, according to our employer.

But you know what he was “qualified” for? First engineer!

What the CHENG didn’t know was that the First engineer had to leave for some reason 30 days after the second was due to leave.

The second did not hold a First Engineer license – but the third did!

The first engineer left and there was no one on land to replace him – so the third engineer, whose license had come in since then, skipped right over two levels and became the new First!

He said, you people said I’m only not qualified for Second, you didn’t say anything about First.

Sometimes bureaucracy really does get in the way of progress! A man couldn’t do the job he had been trained in because “technically” he wasn’t qualified? Give me a break!

Reddit was quick to share their own stories of ridiculous promotions, with this user saying sometimes all you have to do is apply!

This user said she she had a lot of respect for OP, and anyone who else who chooses to live a life at sea!

And finally, this user said that while he got a job as a project manager, he technically couldn’t have qualified for any job below him because he didn’t have a degree!

Boom! Now that’s some satisfying revenge!

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.