Oil Rig Jobs

Offshore oil rig jobs are hot right now, due in part to oil prices shooting up from $80 per barrel to $100 to $130 and above. Every Tom, Dick and Harry is applying for offshore oil rig jobs and competing with you for a job on an oil rig. To beat them out, you need to do everything they do and more. Here are just 3 tips for you to do, above and beyond what everyone else commonly does.

1) Look for vacancies where most of your rivals fail to see. This is what most job seekers do: They look at the web-sites of the major oil companies, search on the online job boards like Monster and they look at national and local newspaper advertisements. However, a slowly growing number of job seekers are also looking for jobs through the internet. They are patiently searching Google, Yahoo and MSN - using phrases like “oil rig jobs” and “oil drilling companies”. These canny job hunters are looking for job openings which have not been publicly advertised yet. Jobs which have just become available but are still slowly making their labyrinthine way through the depths of Human Resources. However, the internet is not the only place you can find oil company information. Why not look at the stock market? The Wilshire index lists the 5000 largest US companies. Some of them are certainly oil companies.

2) Do some detective work - find another way past HR. Do not immediately and blindly send out your job application. Do what the best salesmen and stock brokers do to scout out their best deals: Find the address of the oil company and stake it out. Where do their employees eat? Make friends with them. Find out how things really are in the company. Who are the decision makers? What are they like? You do not need to stalk the boss of the company, but maybe you can make some useful contacts who would be willing to recommend you, letting you bypass some of the bureaucratic bullshit. They do you a favour, you do them a favour. After all, it is common practice for many companies in hot sectors give their employees headhunting bonuses for finding new employees.

3) Get all your paperwork done ahead of time. Offshore oil rigs are covered under maritime law. Make sure you have some basic understanding of how this affects you. Additionally, there are often a number of certifications required before you are allowed to work. Depending on where the rig is, you may need some specialized first aid certifications (for example, Canada has state-specific first aid licenses you need to pass). Some jobs also need you to have an Offshore Survival Certificate and probably a Helicopter Underwater Escape Training (HUET) Certificate along with it. And do not forget your vaccinations. Some sites make this a requirement. Basically, find out if you need to meet all these extra requirements. Try to achieve them before you send off your job application. Or at the very least, get started on any required courses, and clearly mention that in your job application (as well as both your cover letter and resume).

Getting hired for offshore oil rig jobs is all about speed. How quickly can you short-circuit the usual job hunting and recruitment process? That is how quickly you will get yourself on board 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 the best offshore oil rig jobs.

This article on offshore oil rig jobs was also published on EzineArticles.com.