AIDA Cruises offers attractive job opportunities for qualified and motivated staff members and managers – irrespective of whether they work on board a ship or in an office on land. We open up a wide range of opportunities and prospects for both career changers and recent graduates.
Open-mindedness, respect and teamwork between people of diverse nationalities are deep-seated principles in our company. What makes AIDA so interesting as an employer is the opportunity to work in an international team and the exceptional career prospects. The roles available are as diverse as the range of responsibilities. They range, for example, from navigation and marine engineering to hotel work, gastronomy, entertainment and guest hospitality on board the AIDA ships, as well as IT, Human Resources management, sales, marketing or finance and controlling at our onshore facilities. This leaves space for a wide range of job profiles and apprenticeships.
At the end of the business year, on November 30, 2018 we employed around 11,500 members of staff from more than 50 countries, 9,800 of which work aboard our ships and 1,400 are land-based. The majority of our crew hails from Germany and the European Union (33.3 percent) and the Philippines (36.7 percent), followed by India (14.3 percent) and Indonesia (9.7 percent). We are also becoming more international on land. 90 percent of our employees come from Germany, 4.6 percent from Italy and 1.2 percent from the United Kingdom and Austria. They are all united by a common goal: to give our guests the most enjoyable time of the year during their vacation on board the AIDA fleet.
We promote equality
AIDA supports women in STEM occupations. We would like to motivate them to discover the professional opportunities in the cruise industry because diversity and variety are an enrichment for us. We already have 18 young female officers holding their own on the bridges of our thirteen AIDA ships. They are well on the way follow the footsteps of Germany’s first female cruise ship captain, Nicole Langosch. Five of them have already reached the rank of First Officer or Staff Captain. Women also occupy management positions below deck. In spring 2019, a woman was appointed to the position of Chief Electrician Officer for the first time on an AIDA ship.
Women are making an important contribution to our company’s success in many areas on board our ships and on shore, and hold senior positions. In 2011 the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the United Nations declared June 25 as the Day of the Seafarer. In 2019, the key theme of this day was equality. We seized this opportunity to once again honor the dedication of our female employees on board with a vast range of different activities.
We are committed to diversity and inclusion
WE ARE COLORFUL. This is one of our company’s key values - both on land and at sea. In a broader sense of the word, COLORFUL stands for diversity and inclusion, without which AIDA would not be so successful.
We are open-minded, very quality-conscious and are convinced that cultural diversity enriches our company. Learning from one another is no mere lip service at AIDA, but is in fact a core component of our AIDA Values. As a multinational company with employees hailing from more than 50 countries, diversity is a natural part of our professional life - and a huge enrichment. It is for this reason that we joined the ‘Charter der Vielfalt’ (Diversity Charter) initiative. Through this participation, we are expressly proclaiming our commitment to respect all of our employees as equal, regardless of gender, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, ideology or age. We moreover respect the unique cultural features of our colleagues’ country of origin and take their needs into account.
More at CarnCorp Commitment
Fairness is of the utmost importance at AIDA
Should an employee notice a breach of our values, he or she is able to approach their superior, their employee representative or a person of trust. The HR Manager, who is part of the ship’s council, supports human resources work on board our ships and also provides advice regarding questions on labor law. Every employee can also make use of the Compliance Hotline, anonymously if desired, at all times. We examine the incidents reported to us conscientiously and enact labor law measures as required in line with our zero-tolerance policy. We have joined the "Fair Company" initiative of karriere.de and have carried the corresponding seal of quality since 2010.
Excellent prospects for a successful career
An exciting and varied scope of responsibilities and attractive working conditions with exceptional career prospects - we offer all of this to our qualified staff members and managers. At the same time we also want to open up new prospects for recent graduates. In 2018 we were able to welcome a total of 336 new employees on land and 3,529 on board our fleet. With each new ship that AIDA Cruises brings into service, we also create around 2,000 new jobs on land and at sea. In doing so we create attractive employment and life prospects.
We place reliance on good and comprehensive training both for our prospective sales team members in the tourism management, event management and office management departments and for our onboard employees too. AIDA provides every beginner with specific expertise right from the outset and allows them to gain extensive experience. It is a vital requirement for a career at AIDA to be able to combine both of these elements responsibly, in addition to having a passion for the job.
Even during the recruitment process, AIDA Cruises attaches great importance to practical relevance. Applicants can familiarize themselves in person with the world of work on board the AIDA fleet at our exclusive AIDA Career Days. These events provide the opportunity to prove one’s theoretical knowledge and practical skills in kitchens, restaurants and bars. Experiencing the AIDA feeling first hand is one objective of the new AIDA training initiative for young tourism employees. The “EXPI YOU - For apprentices, by apprentices” program gives trainees from all over Germany the opportunity to dive into the AIDA world and to get a glimpse behind the scenes.
As an employer, we have a presence on social networks including Instagram, Facebook, XING and LinkedIn. In 2018 we became the first company in Germany to start a reality documentary on Instagram called “Die Crew” (the crew), which has gained us a further 16,000 subscribers on this channel. This is where we post about our vacant positions on land and at sea and share regular glimpses into what it is like to work for AIDA. Many of these contributions come directly from our employees on land and at sea.
In the reality documentary series “Die Crew”, under the motto of “Vier Wochen, sechs Jobs, ein Ziel” (Four weeks, six jobs, one goal), six employees from the shop, spa, restaurant, kitchen, sports and activities and technology departments give insights into everyday life on the high seas and their personal bucket lists with professional private dreams.
Careers at AIDA: Vacancies
Continuous basic and advanced training
For us, well-trained, highly motivated and qualified members of staff are a guarantee for success. We work around the world to develop young talent and collaborate with renowned training centers in the Philippines, in India, Vietnam and Indonesia in order to train new colleagues.
In 2018 alone, a total of 3,200 of our employees took part in 200 training courses for recruits and established staff members, language courses and management training, some of which lasted several weeks. Furthermore, at our center for basic and advanced training, the AIDA Academy in Rostock, we combine study, training and education programs under one roof.
AIDA is a prestigious employer both in Germany and worldwide. On conclusion of their contracts, 97 percent of our employees choose to carry on working for our company. Important factors in that decision are the high level of professional education, good salaries and career opportunities. ‘Earn, learn, return’ is the motto of our training partner Magsaysay (Philippines) because, after a successful career at sea, many doors are open to our Asian colleagues for a second career on shore.
We regularly visit our partners on-site to convince ourselves of the high quality of training, as well as the compliance with both all required international standards and our own. AIDA President Felix Eichhorn paid a visit to our longstanding partner Magsaysay in Manila as recently as May 2019.
AIDA’s training and development compass provides an overview of the diversity of the training opportunities.
We go the extra mile for our employees
We offer an attractive working environment in an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect, as well as a sound work-life balance. This also includes a wide range of leisure activities and numerous reductions for our shored-based and ship-based employees.
A healthy work-life balance and being able to take a break from day-to-day work are just as important in supporting the motivation and health of our employees. To achieve this we provide support in the form of targeted packages to help keep one’s job, family and leisure time in balance.
In our AIDA4me package, employees will find offerings ranging from voyages to employee rates, on board discounts and preferential rates for sport, wellness, health and leisure activities, which also apply in companies linked to AIDA. Among the other benefits of the AIDA 4me package are an occupational employer-funded pension scheme and employee bonuses.
Motivating employees for us means recognizing achievements and honoring extraordinary commitment.
As well as rewarding long periods of employment, at AIDA we also reward our employees’ outstanding achievements. On each of our ships, one employee from the various departments is chosen as the “Employee of the Month”. Individually agreed targets provide further incentives. We also reward any of our Asian crew members with a particularly good mastery of our guests’ language (German) with additional pay.
Every member of the crew, just like our guests, has the opportunity to go on shore excursions in their leisure time, to discover the most beautiful holiday destinations all over the world or to frequent almost all of the guest areas, including free access to the onboard entertainment and fitness program. The crew have their own restaurant, a bar, a sun deck, a sauna and a sports area. Our crews can enjoy free breakfast, lunch and evening meals round the clock in the crew restaurants. The selection of dishes is always freshly prepared, extremely varied and takes into account the different religious and cultural habits of the different nations represented on board.
The Speaker’s Committees, which are employee representatives freely elected by the crews on board our ships, are also able to make use of a budget put at their disposal by the company. This can be used for social purposes, for example, or for joint leisure activities.
All our ships sail exclusively under the European flag. One of the world’s leading classification societies - DNV GL - regularly checks and certifies that we comply with the highest binding international maritime labor and social standards.
