So what’s not to like? You have to work hard, but you get high pay with no experience needed. Roustabout jobs are nearly ideal jobs for those who are more inclined to physical action and do not want to go to college. While they are technically menial jobs like that of laborers, it can also be argued that many office jobs do not require any more ability to think than work on board an oil rig does. Most of the work done in an office is pretty routine and can be done by anyone with a high school diploma. Most of the people working in an office never use any of the knowledge or skills they learn at college, and so they have no right to look down on physical work like that of oil rig roustabouts.

In the long run, the prospects for offshore oil rig companies are rather bright. Even during the latest recession, the price of oil did not drop below $60 per barrel. Even though the economy is said by experts to be weak but recovering, the price of oil is hovering around the $70 level. The reason for this high price is due to fundamentals.

What are these fundamentals that are keeping oil prices high (and keeping the prospects for roustabout jobs bright)? There are actually several parts to it. The first is that all the oil fields which are easy to drill (on dry land or near the shore) are running out of oil (hitting peak oil). The second is that the large oil companies have not been finding as many major new oil fields as they need to in order to keep up with the structural growth in the economy. The third reason is that the world’s economy is becoming more and more wealthy and industrialized. More and more people in Third World countries (especially India and China) are becoming rich enough to own cars and other material goods which directly or indirectly need oil.

Overall, prospects of oil rig jobs in the oil industry are bright. At least, it’s bright if you are working offshore. But who are these offshore drilling companies that are hiring? Where do you find these roustabout job vacancies? Well, two of these companies are BP and Exxon, or rather … the oil services companies that are doing the actual drilling for BP and Exxon. BP just found a new oil field in the Gulf of Mexico. Exxon found two (or three, depending on who you ask) new major deep ocean oil fields off Brazil. Of course, these are fairly new discoveries and you should not expect to see them come online for a few more years. However, there are older offshore oil fields that were discovered five or ten years ago and are only coming online now.

When looking for any job, the first and most basic step that everyone tells you to do is to check the job boards (like Monster) and the newspaper job advertisements. During good times (for the oil industry, which is a different beast altogether than a good economy), this is a good and simple strategy. It can get you a job on an offshore oil rig fast, and you don’t have to do too much work looking for a job.

The problem, of course, is that times are not always good. Even then, there are oil rig jobs available. For example, Exxon reported to their investors that they were spending $150 billion over five years (from 2009 onwards) on oil exploration and production. They were actually telling their investors that they were going to spend a lot of money right in the middle of a major recession. That means they expect to make even more money than they are going to spend. Remember that where there is money, there are always jobs.

So the second job hunting strategy is networking. Talk to everyone you know. Tell them that you are looking for roustabout vacancies on an offshore oil rig. It will be embarrassing. It will take guts. Some of the people you talk to will just laugh at you. They will tell you that there are no jobs during a recession (They are wrong. There are always jobs, you just need to know where to find them). Some of them will try to dissuade you. They will say that oil rig jobs are dangerous (It’s true, but that’s why you get paid the big bucks). Basically, talk to your family and relatives, talk to your friends, ex-classmates, ex-teachers, even talk to your barber and local grocers. The point is not that one of them will know where to find an oil rig job. The point is that one of them will know someone who knows someone who is hiring for a roustabout vacancy. Unless you are lucky, it is not easy, and it is not fast, but it is free.

The third strategy for finding roustabout vacancies is to go where all the offshore oil rig workers go. Most offshore oil rigs in a certain area share a common location where they pick up and drop off their offshore roustabouts. Men, being men, will hit the bars and pubs after work, especially when they have just finished a two week tour of duty where they are not allowed to touch a single drink. So what you want to do is make friends with the bartenders. A good bartender will know when most of these workers come in to drink. He will even know which of them can make hiring decisions. He will also know which oil services companies are hiring, and which are firing. He will be able to introduce you to Joe, who had been complaining that he had to cover for other people because they quit. He will be able to tell you to avoid Jack, who is facing a lay-off. Like the second strategy, this is something that takes time. But in bad times, if you go the extra step, you will do better than those who only do what everyone else does.

Finding roustabout vacancies at offshore oil rig companies is not rocket science. There are not many jobs which pay you $50,000 a year without needing a college degree or any specific work experience. There are always oil rig jobs … IF you know how to find them and IF you are willing to do the extra work needed to find them.

So, what is the secret to applying for an oil rig job vacancy? Well, the simple answer is – “There is no such thing.” There is no magic formula to writing a roustabout resume and cover letter. But do not despair. Do you know that there are some situations where your resume and cover letter do not even matter at all? That is not to say that you do not need to write a resume. However, there are some situations when what you put inside your resume/cover letter does not matter at all.

There are some caveats. Firstly, this applies only to entry level oil rig jobs, for example oil rig roustabouts and stewards working on offshore oil platforms. So what are these special situations where the contents of a roustabout cover letter and resume do not matter?

1. When you know the right person inside the oil drilling rig company. This would normally be the hiring manager. You just need to show him that you have the right attitude to work for him on the oil rig and he will hire you. You will still need to write a resume as a formality, but you can get away with just half-a-page of (12 points in size with double spacing) text.

2. The next situation is when the price of oil is high and oil service contractors are desperately looking for oil rig workers. The Human Resource departments will be desperately trying to make their quotas and they will often close one eye the less important requirements of the roustabout or other oil drilling rig job. In such an environment, all that they care about is that you pass the physical fitness requirements and the drug test. Little details like having to graduating high school are glossed over. No oil rig job experience, in fact no job experience at all? No problem – on the job training will be provided. As a concrete example of this case, the Canadian oil boom a few years ago saw many students leaving high school without graduating in order to work in the oil fields.

3. The third situation is during a recession when the price of oil is seriously depressed. If you do not have a great deal of relevant experience (e.g. a decade of working as a roustabout), it does not matter how well your (roustabout) resume and cover letter is written, you will not get a job interview. In such a situation, the best thing for you to do is to gain some relevant experience. But if you cannot get a job on an oil rig, what kind of job experience can you gain?

That is simple. Let us say that you are aiming for an offshore oil rig roustabout job. Relevant experience would include heavy labor and experience working on the high seas. Apart from offshore oil platforms, where else can you gain this kind of experience? Who else has this kind of experience? Think about it – sailors! Whether it is on a merchant ship, a Coast Guard cutter or a Navy frigate, a sailor has to work in bad weather doing a lot of heavy physical labor. Jobs on fishing trawlers also offer a similar kind of experience, and so do dockhand jobs at a busy port that handles cargo for shipping.

Other jobs which offer you an advantage when you look for an entry level roustabout job include the armed forces, especially the Army Engineering Corp. Working as a laborer in a construction yard or other major infrastructural project (e.g. building roads and bridges) also offer some relevant experience for the oil drilling platform that helps you to stand out from all the other job seekers who are fresh out of school. Even better, you get paid a salary while gaining experience with which to pad out your oil rig job resume.

Now, let us say that the economy has recovered and the price of oil is back to normal. Oil drilling companies are hiring again. You are applying for entry level roustabout vacancies. You actually have some relevant experience to put on your roustabout resume and cover letter. How should you write it?

Here are the steps you need to do:

1. Take out a dozen sheets of paper and jot down any experience you can think of that is even remotely relevant to working on an offshore oil rig. This is not limited to just job experience. It should include your experience in school clubs like football and even what you did on vacation like sailing a boat across the Pacific Ocean.

2. Take a short break – at least 30 minutes long – then come back and look at the results of your brainstorming. Copy down the points that make sense onto another sheet of paper.

3. Organize your experiences from Step #2 – the most relevant experience for a roustabout job on top, the least relevant and least recent at the bottom.

4. Turn on your PC and open a new Microsoft Word document. If you do not have Microsoft Word, download a free copy of OpenOffice. Just google for “OpenOffice” and you can find it. It is an open source word processing program that is free and nearly as powerful as MS-Word.

5. Try writing the first draft of your cover letter for the roustabout job. It must feature your most relevant experience and answer this question – why should the oil drilling company hire you?

6. Now you can write the first draft of your roustabout resume based on what you shortlisted in Step #3.

7. Do the first edit of the roustabout resume and cover letter you wrote in Step #5 and Step #6.

8. Fix your spelling mistakes. Even though you are applying for an entry level roustabout job, show that you do not care. You do not want to make a bad impression on the HR staff. MS-Word is very helpful here – it shows you the words that have the wrong spelling by drawing squiggly little red lines under these mis-spelled words.

9. Fix your grammar mistakes. Once again, your word processor is very helpful – it will draw squiggly little green lines under the sentences which it thinks have grammatical errors. For grammar errors, use your own judgement. You do not need to fix them all. Sometimes, you need to sacrifice grammar to make your cover letter and resume more readable.

10. Print them out and proofread both your roustabout resume and cover letter again. Make sure the font is easy to read. Normally, the default settings on the word processor work out just fine (this is normally Verdana, Helvetica or Times New Roman in 12 points).

11. If you are applying for the oil rig job through the regular mail, you are done. If you need to paste your cover letter and resume into an online job site or application form, you need to do one more step. Go on to Step #12.

12. Open Notepad in your PC. Go to Start –> Accessories –> Notepad, then copy and paste what you have typed into it. Make sure there are no weird characters showing up. If everything is fine, you can now copy and paste your roustabout resume and cover letter into the online form.

When you need to write a roustabout resume and cover letter on your own, these are the steps that you need to do. After this, the rest is up to luck, prayer and the hard work of finding and applying for more roustabout job vacancies.

You are not alone in your predicament. Many other workers and job seekers in the oil industry have the same problem. But you need to remember why you originally wanted a job in this field – the high pay. The oil industry pretty much pays double the salary of most other industries, especially to the men working in the oil fields and offshore oil rigs. Only the sin industries (like tobacco and alcohol) and finance pay as well as this. A new roustabout (whose work compares to a general laborer on land) could easily earn up to $50,000 a year while working only 6 months out of every year. Every 2 weeks he spends at work offshore earns him the next 2 weeks off.

If you have more specific trade skills, like a mechanic or electrician, you could easily get $55,000 to $65,000 a year. Someone with relevant higher education could become an engineer earning $80,000 a year working on an offshore oil rig. And none of these are management jobs. These are all positions where you do good honest work. Unlike politics or selling used cars, you will have no trouble facing yourself in the mirror every morning when you shave.

Now, the money you potentially stand to get is one important point, but are there really job vacancies? After all, you have probably heard that Schlumberger is cutting 5000 jobs. But did you know that they have a $1.77 billion order backlog? Are they really axing the workers actually doing the frontline work of fulfilling these orders? Or do you think it more likely that they are trimming the fat from the sales and finance side of their business – culling the bottom 10% to 20% of their salesmen? Of course, we also shouldn’t forget to count the retiring workers hired during the last oil boom in the 1970s.

No matter what other people say, oil drilling rig jobs still exist… IF you are willing to go where the jobs are. For example, in March ‘09 oil rigs in East Texas, Pennsylvania and West Virginia were still hiring workers. On the other hand, if you insisted on staying home with dear old Mum in South Texas, you are probably still jobless today.

Offshore, the situation is much better. Transocean is still hiring people for the new offshore oil platforms (at least for 2009 and 2010). A good 60% (worst case scenario) to 80% of offshore rigs are still working. For the overseas situation, Australia lists petroleum engineering as one of the skills shortages. Canadian oil companies are also doing relatively well. In general, they are only cutting salaries – 4% for skilled positions and 12% for entry level jobs. Those with an appetite for risk can try one of the African nations like Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana. Companies with operations in the Middle Eastern hotspots like Halliburton should still be hiring oil rig workers.

Some of you may wonder – how about long-term work? Well, despite the recession, Exxon is still spending nearly $30 billion on oil exploration and production in 2009. They also intend to spend this same amount for the next five years. They are not the only ones. Analysts from Barclays Capital Research estimate that oil companies worldwide will still spend $400 billion in 2009. As the recession ends and oil prices shoot up again, this amount will only increase. With oil companies spending so much money, you can be sure that there will be oil rig jobs.

Going forward, the International Energy Agency estimates that oil producers need to spend $20 trillion over the next 25 years to meet increasing energy demand from China and India (both economies grew more than 5% even while everyone else was in recession) as well as replace aging oil fields.

Basically, roustabout job vacancies and offshore drilling jobs still exist. An oil company may shut down a particular oil field because it is growing old and becoming too expensive to extract the oil from it, but it will expand operations in another younger oil field to make up for the drop in production. As long as you are willing to move to a different place, you should be able to get an oil drilling job.

As a job seeker, finding entry level roustabout jobs and other oil drilling rig jobs is a numbers game. You cannot just rely on advertisements in your local newspapers or free online job boards to look for work. You need to be willing to relocate to a different state. You need to be more aggressive in getting your job applications and resumes out in front of the hiring managers in oil companies and oil services contractors.

To recap, the oil drilling rig jobs are out there. But you need to step out of your comfort zone. You need to be willing to relocate to a different state or even a different country. You can’t just rely on the old ways of looking for jobs. You need to know where and how to find these entry level oil rig jobs.

RigWorker.com has been helping people get oil drilling rig jobs since 1998.

Click here to find out how we can help you get your resume/cv in front of the hiring managers for oil rig jobs.

Easy and (Practically) Free

The first way has been around for over a hundred years – looking for job advertisements in the newspaper(s). If you live in an oil town, you do not need to look beyond your local paper. If not, you may need to pick up a copy of your state and national papers. If you don’t already subscribe, your local library should have copies you can borrow.

The second way is to use the internet. There are many free job boards where you can post your resume and look for roustabout job vacancies, e.g. Monster. You can also look for the websites of the oil companies for posted vacancies. If you’re lucky, some of them may post vacancies for entry level oil rig jobs. Mostly though, you will only see executive level positions.

The third way is how network (MLM) marketers, real estate agents and some salesmen make their money – talk to friends and family. But don’t forget anyone else you may know – your old teachers, ex-classmates, your grocer, barber, church pastor, etc. Just talk to them and tell them that you are looking for a job in the oil industry. They probably won’t know of any openings, not unless you (or they) are living in an oil town. But if you try, you may hit the jackpot. Some of the people with whom you spoke may know someone who knows someone in the industry.

The first two methods of job hunting are quite easily done, so you should not spend too much time there. It’s a bit like playing the lottery, since almost everyone does them. The third way is often recommended by professional recruiters, since they know most job seekers are too shy or embarrassed to tell their friends and relatives that they are looking for a job. However, it is a very powerful method which many high-level managers and executives use to get their high-paying jobs.

A Bit Difficult and You Need to Spend Some Money

The next method to look for jobs is oil field fishing. Basically, you drive around the oil fields in your state (and maybe your neighboring states as well) and talk to the guy in charge of the oil rigs to see if they have a roustabout job for you. You need to beg, borrow or rent a car, and you need to pay for the gasoline, which is where you spend your money. Of course, if you are living far from an oil-producing region, then you’re out of luck.

This method also needs you to live in an oil town. Basically, you go door-to-door, visiting the office of each oil drilling company to look for jobs. Some of them may kick you out, some of them will tell you to go through the usual channels, but a few will talk to you and may even hire you. Your best friends here are your local trade directory and yellow pages. You can probably find them in your local library, although if you want to go faster you should buy your own copy. You may want to prioritize – call them on the phone and first visit the ones who tell you to come over. If there are no results, then you can go visit the ones who said no on the phone. Don’t give up too fast, because many people change their tunes when they see you face-to-face.

Another way is to look for where the oil workers hang out after work and make friends with them. Simply put, you go bar-hopping and talk to people. For roustabouts and workers on offshore oil rigs, you need to catch the right timing – after they end their tour (of work) but before they head home. For oil rigs on land, that depends on location and company.

Ultimately, these three methods need you to put in some effort as well as spend a little bit of money on information and travelling expenses. You may need to buy maps, yellow pages, trade directories. You may need to buy gasoline, pay for bus fares and phone bills. You may also need to buy plenty of beer. But if you live in an oil town, these are methods which work.

Easy but You Need to Spend Money

The last method of looking for roustabout job vacancies is to pay someone to mass submit your resume. It’s easy and fast for you, but it costs money – typically $50 to $100. Besides spending the money, there are some other problems:

• Some of these companies are crooks – they’ll take your money but not do anything useful
• The HR managers of some oil companies will automatically block their mailboxes unless they are actively hiring

Detractors of mass submission call it spray and pray. While this may be true, job hunting is basically a numbers game. Especially for entry level oil rig jobs, the more resumes and job applications you send out, the higher your chances of getting hired. Frankly, quality only comes in when you have experience and are looking for a high-level executive position.

Despite the risks, there are some major advantages:

• It’s easy for you.
• If you are not living in or near an oil producing region, this could be your only chance of getting a roustabout job (or any other no experience offshore oil rig jobs)
• There are many rigs (in the US) being operated by smaller companies. Many of them rely on advertisements in their local or state newspapers to look for workers. They won’t post their roustabout job vacancies in the national papers or job boards. If you only use the normal common job hunting methods, you will never find their job vacancies.
• The better mass submission companies send your resume to hundreds or even thousands of oil drilling companies. This is usually much better than what most job seekers can achieve on their own.

So, now you have 10 different ways of finding entry level roustabout job vacancies. Remember that the more oil rig job vacancies you can find, the better your chances of getting a job. So do your best to use as many of these methods as you can. Don’t listen to anyone who says there are no oil jobs available – oil companies worldwide are still spending $400 billion to drill for oil in 2009. Exxon, on its own, spends $79 million a day drilling for oil.

RigWorker.com has been helping people find oil rigs employment since 1998.

Click here to find out how we can help you get your resume/cv in front of the hiring managers for the best entry level offshore oil rig jobs.

Looking for oil rigs employment? Hunting for a job always feels like a major challenge. But the task facing newbies in the offshore oil and gas industry is especially daunting. Looking for jobs, writing your cover letter and resume, the interview process – so many tasks and so many things to go wrong. However, the truth is that you don’t need to worry. Statistically, unless an industry is dying, you will always be able to get a job. And the oil industry is still alive and kicking. It will remain so for the next few decades, unless the world suddenly manages to stop guzzling oil.

When looking for oil rigs employment, you need to keep one important point in mind. For every five interviews you attend, you should receive at least one job offer. When times are good, you could find yourself attending two interviews on Monday and both oil service contractors will call you back the next day asking you to start immediately.

The simple fact is that companies won’t call you for an interview unless they are seriously looking for people. Conducting an interview is an expensive process. Once an employer calls you for an interview, you are already halfway towards getting hired. If you attend 20 interviews and are rejected for all of them, you may want to look for a psychiatrist or therapist. Unless you lied on your resume and were found out, this kind of rejection shows that you are self-sabotaging your own interviews. You should look for professional help to cure your problem.

What if you aren’t getting any interviews? Is there something wrong with you? Not necessarily. You’ll often see many job vacancies on the popular job boards like Monster. But there are times when half of these advertisements are fake – tricks used by human resource departments to find out how many unemployed workers are available. Many employers want to find out how easily they can replace their current workers with cheaper workers.

What Are Managers Looking For?

If you want to get hired, you need to give the interviewer what he is looking for. Your attitude matters a lot. An offshore oil rig is not a big place – very often, 200 to 300 workers are squeezed into a small space in the middle of the ocean far away from civilization. You have nowhere to run from other people, and other people don’t have anywhere to run away from you. This means that no employer wants to hire a troublemaker. While you want to give the impression of being strong and tough, you don’t want to do this by bragging about how many fights you got into or won.

Just as you don’t want to be known as a troublemaker, you also don’t want to be known as a wimp. The ocean is not a forgiving mistress, and everyone on board the oil rig needs to be able to pull his own weight. When something like a sudden storm occurs, your buddies will be too busy with their own work to cover for you.

So if you are fresh from school and don’t have any relevant working history, you don’t want to tell your interviewer that you were the star dancer of your school’s award-winning ballet troupe – not even if the ballet training gave you the endurance to run a marathon and the strength to bench-press 200 pounds. The simple point is this – if many people think a particular activity is only for wimps or nerds, you don’t want it on your resume and you don’t want to tell your interviewer about it.

Your interviewer wants to hear about manly pursuits like being a quarterback or linebacker, or maybe even a scout or cadet. If you ever mention that you were the Science Club president, Newspaper Club secretary or medal-winning gymnast, you’ll be quickly bundled out of the interview room. While its not fair, perception matters a lot.

So you need to have the right attitude, but you also need to have some relevant skills. You need to ask your interviewer what he wants from you. What skills does he need you to display? In theory, this information will be in the job advertisement. In practice, if you’ve ever played the telephone game as a child, you’ll know that what the HR manager put in the advertisement is a far cry from what the interviewer wants. In any case, by asking this question, and responding with your strengths, you will make it easier for the interviewer to remember you when it’s time to choose which candidate to hire.

Just because you have never worked on an oil rig does not mean you don’t have a chance of getting hired. Do you have any ocean-going experience? Have you ever worked on your uncle’s trawler during your vacation? Have you worked as a laborer on a construction site? If you were applying for a mechanic’s job on an oil rig, did you ever build an engine from scratch for you motorcycle? Did you ever help your older brother repair and build his car’s engine? Depending on what oil rig job you are looking for, any or all of these could be relevant experience that can help you get hired. It’s certainly better than the experience of the laid-off office boy from Lehman Brothers.

If you are serious about getting hired for roustabout jobs and other offshore oil rig jobs, brainstorm your relevant experiences before your interviews. Dress neatly (ask the HR staff who called you what to wear), stay calm during the interview, and remember that most people will get at least one job offer for every five interviews they attend. Think back over every interview you finish – what did you do well, and what did you do wrong? Sit down, figure out your mistakes and do better the next time. Practice makes perfect. Remember, getting hired for oil rig roustabout jobs and offshore drilling jobs is not rocket science.

RigWorker.com has been helping people find oil rigs employment since 1998.

Click here to find out how we can help you get your resume/cv in front of the hiring managers for the best offshore oil rig jobs.

1) For every oil rig job you see advertised, 100s of people have already applied for it

Is this what you want? To chase after the same job as hundreds of other people? Unless you frequently win the lottery, your chances of getting an interview, much less be hired, are downright pathetic – especially in a recession. If you have been looking for jobs in these three places:

• Websites of large oil companies, e.g. Shell, Exxon, Transocean, etc.
• Free online job boards, e.g. Monster, Yahoo Jobs
• National and local newspaper job advertisements

Then stop wasting your time. I won’t say don’t do it, but use your time wisely. 80% of the other guys looking for offshore oil rig jobs are looking at these 3 places, so your chances of getting a job there are like buying a lottery ticket. If you seriously want to work on an oil rig, you need to look for offshore drilling jobs which have not been advertised yet. Remember – when someone leaves his job, it takes time for that fact to trigger the full response from HR. It could take months before the job vacancy is advertised in the newspaper (especially when the company is big). Here are just 4 specific ways you can use to find oil rig employment:

• The Wilshire index lists the 5000 largest US companies, the smallest of which has a market value of hundreds of millions of US Dollars. Go through the list one company at a time and carefully copy down the names and details of oil companies. You should end up with a list of 200 to 300 companies.
• Look up trade associations and business bureaus, concentrating on those which serve companies in the oil industry. Buy the membership directories they publish. Start with the groups nearest where you stay, and slowly broaden your research. These directories will contain some contact numbers and a variety of useful information on smaller companies. Shortlist the companies which deal in the oil industry.
• Almost everyone forgets or ignores the Yellow Pages these days, but they still contain some useful information. Copy down the names and contact information of companies in the oil industry.
• Tell everyone you know that you are looking for oil rig jobs. Ask your friends, family, ex-classmates, ex-teachers, your neighborhood grocer, and anyone else you have ever come into contact with. The theory of Six Degrees of Separation (proven by sociologists and other scientists through practical experiments) says that you can be connected to any other person on this planet through a chain of six people on average. In other words, the theory says that if you talk to your Uncle Adam, he talks to his golf buddy Bob, Bob speaks to his cousin Charles, Charles speaks to his barber Danny, Danny speaks to his plumber Ed, and Ed speaks to his brother-in-law Frank who may be the toolpusher (manager) who needs new workers on his oil rig. Is it easy? No, you need to talk to at least 20 or 30 people to start out with, but it gets results.
• Become a regular at the bars where oil rig workers spend their time after work (at the end of their tours). Spend time during the quiet times at the counter and make friends with the bar tender. Buy the guys at the bar a drink, make friends with them, and keep your eyes and ears open. Nurse your beer carefully and don’t let yourself get drunk. Don’t shoot your mouth off or you may as well go shoot yourself for real. By hanging out with guys who already have offshore oil rig jobs, they are more likely to tell you when there is a job opening. They are also more likely to recommend you to their boss, which offers you better chances than competing with 1000 other people for the same job on Monster. You might be doing them a favor too, because if things work out their company might pay them a recruitment bonus.

2) Too many job seekers screw themselves over by jumping the gun

Don’t be impatient. Do some research before sending your resume to the oil drilling company. Once you get a good lead on a job, visit the company, stake it out, and find out where their employees spend their time away from the office. Where do they work? Where do they go to drink after work? Try to meet them socially, take a genuine interest in them and make friends with them. Don’t interrogate them, don’t force them, listen to them and they will eventually open up to you. This is exactly what top salesmen do to make their multi-million dollar sales deals. Don’t worry, you’ll fail at first. But after you fall on your face a few times, you’ll get the hang of it. You’ll know how to find out who is the best person to speak to about the job – this is usually the supervisor or department manager who needs the worker and NOT the HR Manager. In a smaller offshore drilling company this means you will end up speaking with Mr. Bob Tools, the guy in charge of the oil rig who needs 20 roustabouts now and is asking “Why hasn’t HR sent me any people yet?”

3) Don’t wait for your prospective employer to pay for your certifications and paperwork

When oil was selling for over $140/barrel in 2008, oil companies fell over themselves to pay for your training, certifications and any other necessary paperwork. In 2009, when oil is selling for $40/barrel, the situation is different. If your resume prominently states that you already have all the needed paperwork and certifications, and you have attached certified copies of your paperwork, you will be three or four steps ahead of almost everyone else applying for the same job.

Different countries, states and provinces have different requirements, but here is a list of the needed paperwork to get you started:

• Passport
• Vaccinations
• Firefighting certification
• Medical fitness certification
• Trade certification/license recognized by the state where you will be working, e.g. welder, electrician, nurse/medic, etc.
• First aid certification
• Offshore survival training certification
• Helicopter underwater escape training certification

American youths have another shortcut into the oil industry. They should check out the US Department of Labor’s JobCorps program. This program offers special training and certification to help you get jobs with oil service companies. British ex-servicemen also have a similar program to help them get the training and certifications to work in the British oil industry.

If you want to get hired for offshore oil rig jobs, you have to follow (famous Civil War cavalry general) Nathan Bedford Forrest’s winning strategy: “to git thar fust with the most men”. In other words, to get hired for offshore drilling jobs, you need to get to the vacancies before anyone else, and you need to do it fully prepared with all necessary and relevant paperwork, certifications and recommendations. This is even more important in a recession.

Tips #1 and #2 are highly targeted ways to look for offshore oil rig jobs. They are like Warren Buffet sifting through hundreds of stocks to find the winners. On the other hand, people have also been successful using the shotgun approach – they invest in index mutual funds with hundreds and thousands of stocks. RigWorker.com sends your resume/CV to more than 1200 US and international oil companies. They have been helping people get offshore oil rig jobs since 1998.

Click here to find out how they can help you get your resume/cv in front of the hiring managers for offshore oil rig jobs.

The Good Points About Oil Rig Jobs

1. Excellent Salaries and Benefits

An oilfield job pays well – very often twice the salary in another industry. For example, rig welding jobs pay $62,000 while the same job in manufacturing only pays $30,000 (2004 statistics). Construction laborers earn $24,000 to $44,000 (in 2009) while roustabouts earn $45,000 to $55,000.

University graduates are not left out – in their 2008 meeting, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists’ April 2008 reported that graduate students (Masters and PhD degree holders) receive salaries ranging from $80,000 to $110,000. This did not include sign-up bonuses. Just five years earlier, in 2003, university graduates only earned $55,000.

2. Excellent Prospects

Whether oil sells above $100 or below $60, oil rig companies continue to hire new people. A UK report (2006) on the oil and gas industry highlighted major shortages in managers, professional and technical staff. Oil and gas companies do not have enough technicians, riggers, scaffolders and engineers.

Even in August 2008, CNN Money journalists reported that three decades of under-investment in oil rigs and personnel was leading to a shortage of experienced oil workers. Too many experienced employees are hitting their 50s and 60s. Like it or not, the oil companies need to hire people if they are to stay in business. The offshore drilling company, Noble Corporation, needs to fill 1500 openings for 5 new oil rigs. Other drilling service companies face the same problem.

Many oil fields have reached “peak oil”, that is they are past their prime. Oil companies need to find new oil fields – causing oil prospectors to be in high demand. Companies need to quickly replace their graying and retiring petroleum geologists hired in the 70s. Unfortunately for them, a trained petroleum geologist needs 4 years just to get his basic degree. After that he still needs two to five years to get his graduate specialties like Sedimentology, Geophysics or Structural Geology. Out of 20,000 undergraduates studying geology, less than 3,000 manage to graduate.

Overall, jobs in oil field won’t be disappearing anytime soon.

The Bad Points Of An Oil Rig Job

1. Lousy Hours

Oil field employment has lousy hours. A typical shift lasts 12 hours, and woe betide you if you get assigned the night shift. On top of that, you don’t have weekends, especially if you work in an offshore oil field. That’s 2 weeks of work, 12 hours a day, before you get a break. It takes a tough man to handle this schedule.

2. Marriage Breakups

Many people working in oil field jobs find their marriage in trouble due to the uncommon schedule. Many women can’t handle the reality of not seeing their husband for 14 days straight, then have to deal with him full-time for another 14 days. Unless they have fathers and brothers who also work in oilfield jobs, or live in a community of oil workers, the strain of handling jealous gossiping neighbors eventually poisons their relationship with their husband.

3. Danger

There is a good reason why an oil field job pays double – danger. Working on an oil well is dangerous compared to working in a factory or warehouse. There is the fact that the drilling rig could blow up, or the offshore oil platform could collapse or sink, not to mention that they are often popular terrorist targets, as oil workers in Third World countries can testify.

4. Inhospitable Environments

You can’t find oil in your backyard anymore. New oil fields have to be found in more and more extreme environments – Alaska, north Canada, Siberia, the North Pole and South Pole, the deep oceans. These are NOT comfortable places to work. On top of hard physical labor, you have to deal with sub-zero temperatures, gale-force winds, ice and snow. Only a masochist would enjoy this kind of environment.

Unfortunately, when it’s not freezing cold, it is hot, humid and sweaty in some African jungle, or blazingly hot like a furnace in some Arab desert.

The Ugly Things That Happen With Oil Rig Jobs

1. Scams

Wherever there is lots of money involved, there will be conmen. Oil field employment is no different – the high pay means that many job seekers become desperate. They become easy prey to conmen who promise them easy jobs, and end up paying thousands of dollars to these scammers.

A common ploy is to send you an email offering an oilfield job, but ask for your personal information, including your bank account number. To make it more genuine, the conman may conduct a telephone interview or interview you through instant messenger. Regardless, you will find yourself a victim of identity theft.

Similarly, if they ask you to send them $2000, or $5000 to facilitate your visa or some other paperwork, this is also probably a scam.

A genuine employer will never ask you to send them money. Neither will a job recruitment agency – they will be paid by the oil drilling company.

This doesn’t mean you never have to spend any money when looking for oil field employment. If you haven’t been able to find an oil field job for a while, it may be worthwhile spending $50 or so to get your resume written by a professional. Spending another $100 to hire a company to submit your resume to thousands of oil drilling service companies and contractors may also be advantageous.

2. No Place To Stay

Finding an oilfield job and getting hired is just the beginning. Unless you are a local, you may have problems finding a cheap place to stay. Many towns near a booming oil field find their property values and rentals shooting through the roof. Even if you have a caravan or mobile home, you may have difficulty finding a place to park it.

If you do not want to fritter away all your salary on a place to stay, you need to be prepared for a long commute.

3. Finding Oil Field Employment

Finding jobs in oil field are easier said than done. 80% of oil field job seekers only do these four things:

• Submit their resume to a free online job board like Monster
• Submit their resume to a recruitment agency or their local (un)employment board
• Scan newspaper advertisements
• Visit the websites of the major oil companies to look for oil vacancies

Unfortunately for them, the people who get hired are the 20% who go the extra mile:

• They let their friends and family members know that they are looking for oilfield jobs and ask for leads
• They go oil field fishing – that is to say the drive around to look for oil fields and talk to the people who manage the rigs
• They find the contact number, email or office address of the thousands of oil service contractors and ask if there are oil vacancies
• They pay specialized companies to mass submit their resumes to thousands of oil drilling companies
• They spend time where the hiring managers and oil rig workers hang out

Oil field employment pays very well, but the hours suck, and it is often too hot or too cold. On the other hand, if you are tough enough to stay the course, you could wind up retiring rich, owning your own home free and clear with your mortgage cleared off.

RigWorker.com has been helping people get oil field employment since 1998.

Click here to find out how we can help you get your resume/cv in front of the hiring managers for oilfield jobs.

• Salary
• Working conditions
• How to improve your chance of getting hired
• Where to look for jobs

Offshore Salaries vs Onshore Salaries

Starting from the bottom with zero experience, a steward can make $45,000 while the camp boss at the top makes $65,000. If you are the cook on an offshore oil rig, you can easily earn $59,000 a year.

Compare this against the industry average of $32,650 for a head chef (reported by the US Department of Labor).

• Fast food – a line cook working in Washington is paid $22,000.
• Hotels and restaurants – food preparers get an average of $12,000, assistant cooks get $20,000 while the executive (chief) chef of a 5-star restaurant gets $100,000.
• Catering/retail – the executive chef makes $45,000 while his assistants earn $20,000 to $25,000.

Offshore catering jobs certainly pay well, don’t they? Even a steward with no experience makes more money than many chefs.

Working Conditions Offshore

You’ll work the same hours as the rest of the oil rig crew – 12 hours on, 12 hours off. Normally, once you set foot on the oil rig, you won’t leave for another two weeks. After that, you get two weeks break, and then the cycle repeats itself. However, be careful to confirm this with your employer – there are cases of 4 weeks on/4 weeks off and even 6 weeks on/6 weeks off.

As a steward, you will housekeep the living areas of the oil rig and help the cook in the kitchen.

As the cook, you might find yourself feeding anywhere from 200 men to 1,000 men, depending on the size of the rig. Note that you will not have as many assistants as in a restaurant – you’ll be doing a lot more of the food preparation than usual.

Improving Your Chances Of Getting Hired

Besides the usual working experience, some of the following certifications will be useful:

• First Aid
• Offshore Survival Training
• Helicopter Underwater Escape Training (HUET)

Not every employer needs you to have all of these certificates, and those who require them may offer you training when you are hired. On the other hand, having these 3 certifications certainly gives you a leg up when HR looks at your resume.

Even if your company doesn’t force you to take these courses, you may want to pay your own way, especially the Offshore Survival and Helicopter Escape courses. Consider what happened recently (Feb 18, 2009) – the helicopter sending 18 Scottish oil rig workers to their oil platform crashed into the sea. Fortunately, no one was killed. Their survival training certainly saved them.

How To Find Offshore Catering Jobs

First, you have the usual suspects – Monster, Yahoo Jobs, etc. But for offshore catering, you can also check out UK’s Don Pedro Agency, which specializes in maritime jobs. And don’t forget to check the local newspapers if you live in the Gulf states – the offshore rigs there will advertise their openings. The employment agencies can also offer a few leads.

But always remember to look up the offshore drilling companies who operate these oil platforms. Find out how to contact them, then ask if they have any openings for offshore catering jobs. Take the initiative to do what 80% of your competitors never do, and you will greatly increase your chance of employment. With hundreds of oil services contractors operating drilling rigs, you should have no trouble finding a job.

As you can see, offshore catering jobs pay very well. Even a moderately experienced cook earns double or triple the salary of a restaurant chef on land. And if you directly contact the offshore drilling companies who operate the oil rigs, you have a pretty good chance of getting hired.

RigWorker.com has been helping people get offshore catering jobs since 1998.

Click here to find out how we can help you get your resume/cv in front of the hiring managers for offshore catering jobs.

1. Roustabout

Roustabouts are general laborers. They provide the brawn and handle most of the heavy lifting and cleaning. They mostly work on the main deck of the oil rig. When necessary, they may be asked to help the roughnecks on the drill floor. Salaries range from $45,000 to $55,000 a year. The next step up from roustabout is roughneck.

2. Steward

This is another unskilled entry level position. Stewards on oil rigs help out in the kitchen, clean up the accommodations and do the laundry. If they do their jobs right and make an effort to improve themselves, they may eventually find themselves becoming a cook or camp boss themselves. This is one of the lowest paying jobs on an oil rig, at only $45,000 per year.

3. Rig Welder

Welders carry out the day-to-day repairs on an oil rig. They also build new metalwork when necessary. When there is a big project, the oil services contractor will hire additional welders for the duration of the project to speed up its completion. Unlike roustabouts, rig welding jobs may need some form of trade certification (CITB in the UK, AWS in the US). These certifications are rigorous and need to be renewed regularly. Typical salaries are around $60,000. Compare this to the average salary in the manufacturing sector – $30,000 based on 2004 statistics.

4. Scaffolders

Scaffolders move from rig to rig as needed. Some oil companies require their scaffolders to hold a trade certification. Unlike roustabouts, their work is done high up on the oil rig. When comparing the different jobs on a rig, this is one of the more dangerous ones, which explains why they can easily earn up to $60,000 per year. Compare this to the construction industry’s rate of $7 per hour.

5. Radio Operator

Generally considered an easy and boring job, especially by those who handle the more back-breaking labor on an oil rig. On the other hand, it is a vital job, which explains the $60,000 salary.

6. Medic

Usually ex-nurses, responsible for the sick bay and medical supplies. Salary: up to $70,000.

7. RSTC (Rig Safety and Training Coordinator

Required qualities:

• Good communications
• Good organizational skills
• Computer skills
• Knowledge of offshore safety laws
• Knowledge of company policies

This post has a lot of responsibility, which explains the $80,000 salary for an entry level job. On the other hand, on some rigs, it can quickly become a mid or senior position – especially after a major accident, e.g. after the Alexander Kielland platform collapsed in 1980, or the explosion on Piper Alpha in 1988. Both were in the North Sea.

8. Mud Logger/Engineer

One of the few positions needing a university degree – usually a BSc in Chemistry. Responsible for the drilling fluids used, installing equipment and collecting samples during ongoing drilling. Their most important duty is probably to monitor the level of dangerous gasses which can cause the well to blow. This is why there are always 2 mud loggers – to cover the rig 24/7. Those who do well are quickly promoted to data engineer within a 1/2-year to 2 years. Salary? $70,000 – $80,000.

9. Storeman

Maintains the stores, orders and receives stocks. Needs to know how to use the computer. Unlike the comfortable post of an army storeman, an oil rig storeman may need to check incoming cargo even in the middle of the night. Salary: $60,000.

10. Painter

He paints the oil rig. This is not a job for someone afraid of heights. Some of those painting jobs need to be done while suspended from a harness hoisted by a crane. Considering how much iron and steel there is on an offshore oil rig, surrounded by all that salt water – there is always something which needs painting. Salary: $58,000.

11. Motorman

Helps the mechanic to maintain and repair all the machines, including the diesel generators and rig floor equipment. Like the painter, some of their repairs will be done suspended from a crane. Salary: $58,000.

12. Electrician

Maintains and repairs the electrical equipment on the oil rig. This includes changing the light bulbs. Like the painter and mechanic, some of his work will be done while hanging from a crane. Salary: $65,000.

These 12 jobs are generally considered entry level jobs on oil rigs. The roustabout and steward only needs minimal education, and does not require any kind of trade certification. The other positions need you to show some trade skill, or need a diploma (electrician) or degree (mud engineer).

RigWorker.com has been helping people get jobs on oil rigs since 1998.

Click here to find out how we can help you get your resume/cv in front of the hiring managers for offshore oil rig jobs.

The oil industry is always looking to hire qualified rig welders – the key point being “qualified”. In most cases, you will be tested on your level of skill before you are hired. Of course, it helps to be certified, whatever that means in your jurisdiction. Certainly makes it easier for your resume to get through the oil contractor’s human resources department.

In the UK, some oil companies require their welders to be certified up to “6 GR” by CITB (formerly known as City and Guilds). At this level, your welding needs to be very precise, even passing x-ray testing. In the US, much of your welding certification is not transferable between employers, and only lasts for 6 months. The exception is if you take your welding test at an accredited AWS facility.

It helps if you know someone already working as a rig welder. For one thing, he can help to recommend a job to you. For another, he can tell you what types of welding he usually does on his oil rig – what type of material, what positions, what processes, and so on and so forth. This kind of information can help you to prepare for the test.

Note that there are two main types of oil rig welding jobs. In the first type, you are permanently attached to the oil rig. Your job is to carry out repairs and build new metalwork. In the second type, you are part of a flying squad of welders. You go in when a big project needs to be finished quickly.

Be warned, most oil rig jobs (including rig welder’s jobs) are best suited to single young men. They are very physically demanding and somewhat dangerous. Many oil rigs are located somewhere difficult to reach, so oil rig workers are often out of touch with their families. Unless your girlfriend or wife is very understanding, you might find your relationship in trouble.

Rig welding jobs pay very well for what is basically blue collar work. Since many companies consider this an entry level oil rig job, you have a good chance of getting in even if you have never worked on an oil rig.

RigWorker.com has been helping people get offshore oil rig jobs since 1998.

Click here to find out how we can help you get your resume/cv in front of the hiring managers for rig welding jobs.