Aberdeen offshore industry openings for beginners?
Discussion
I know this is very vague, I am just looking for suggestions really.
I have recently moved up to Aberdeenshire and would love to do something in the oil/offshore industry but i have no relevant experience apart from doing some BSAC courses years ago.
Anyone have any suggestions of short courses or a good place to start looking for entry level jobs that might actually lead somewhere?
I have spent a little time scouting around the web and i think i would really need to get myself on a foundation course or HNC in marine engineering or such like but that is two years on a full time basis and i am not a youngster anymore at 43. (A very young 43, but 43 none the less).
Currently i could fund such a course, and i understand there might be some grants/help available but i would rather be earning while i learn.
Someone has suggested i look at marine surveying as an easier way in but as far as i can see, that type of job also requires some serious training.
In my history i have done a reasonable amount of computery type stuff and also a fair amount of practical stuff I quite enjoy putting things together and taking them apart, be they electronic or mechanical but I have only ever done it at fairly basic levels as i have never really stuck at anything due to 'distractions' that are no longer part of my life.
So...in short, can anyone think of a way i can retrain fairly quickly in order to get a job that is not just a dead end driving/warehouse job?
I know i am probably dreaming, and will end up doing something that will lead nowhere as i am so old...
I have recently moved up to Aberdeenshire and would love to do something in the oil/offshore industry but i have no relevant experience apart from doing some BSAC courses years ago.
Anyone have any suggestions of short courses or a good place to start looking for entry level jobs that might actually lead somewhere?
I have spent a little time scouting around the web and i think i would really need to get myself on a foundation course or HNC in marine engineering or such like but that is two years on a full time basis and i am not a youngster anymore at 43. (A very young 43, but 43 none the less).
Currently i could fund such a course, and i understand there might be some grants/help available but i would rather be earning while i learn.
Someone has suggested i look at marine surveying as an easier way in but as far as i can see, that type of job also requires some serious training.
In my history i have done a reasonable amount of computery type stuff and also a fair amount of practical stuff I quite enjoy putting things together and taking them apart, be they electronic or mechanical but I have only ever done it at fairly basic levels as i have never really stuck at anything due to 'distractions' that are no longer part of my life.
So...in short, can anyone think of a way i can retrain fairly quickly in order to get a job that is not just a dead end driving/warehouse job?
I know i am probably dreaming, and will end up doing something that will lead nowhere as i am so old...
Mate - you're 43.
That isn't really old.
It is older than the graduates coming on stream, but then you may have some actual commercial experience and transferable skills that they lack.
There are probably a few PHers in the oil & gas business who can point you in the right direction. At least you are in/near Aberdeen; the fastest growing economy in the UK apparently.
That isn't really old.
It is older than the graduates coming on stream, but then you may have some actual commercial experience and transferable skills that they lack.
There are probably a few PHers in the oil & gas business who can point you in the right direction. At least you are in/near Aberdeen; the fastest growing economy in the UK apparently.
Its a difficult one - one way is, as you say, get a qualification that makes you valuable offshore. The other is to go out, get your offshore tickets and get your foot in the door.
Depends what you want to be doing, at 43 I assume you have a rough idea of where your talents lie and where you would be useful - unlike a lot of people who come out with "I want offshore so I get rotation and lots of cash"
Would recommend posting in the "Offshore at the moment?" thread in the Scotland forum - plenty of oil types post in there and you never know who is reading.
If I was in your shoes, I would be looking at buffing up my CV with a few gold stars - if you can get your HUET/MIST and offshore medical on there off your own back (not cheap, but puts you leagues ahead of people who don't have them) - other stuff, working at heights, banksman etc. can only help. Would then bombard every agency and company you can find looking for people - worst case is that they say no. If you happen to get lucky and find a company to put you through all the necessary stuff, all the better.
Personally, I got in with my degree, but now that I have a couple of years experience and all the relevant offshore qualifications, moving jobs (as I have just done) is much easier than getting started.
Depends what you want to be doing, at 43 I assume you have a rough idea of where your talents lie and where you would be useful - unlike a lot of people who come out with "I want offshore so I get rotation and lots of cash"
Would recommend posting in the "Offshore at the moment?" thread in the Scotland forum - plenty of oil types post in there and you never know who is reading.
If I was in your shoes, I would be looking at buffing up my CV with a few gold stars - if you can get your HUET/MIST and offshore medical on there off your own back (not cheap, but puts you leagues ahead of people who don't have them) - other stuff, working at heights, banksman etc. can only help. Would then bombard every agency and company you can find looking for people - worst case is that they say no. If you happen to get lucky and find a company to put you through all the necessary stuff, all the better.
Personally, I got in with my degree, but now that I have a couple of years experience and all the relevant offshore qualifications, moving jobs (as I have just done) is much easier than getting started.
Thanks Parsnip,
I do not necessarily want to work offshore right now, but in the 'offshore industry' and i certainly do not want to work 'at height' as i would be scared rigid
Which raises a very interesting point that i had not really given any consideration too! A lot of engineery type work even onshore is likely to involve working at height, isn't it?
Certainly everything on a rig involves being quite high up so i think i can rule out that aspect of going offshore completely and just concentrate my efforts towards ship based jobs if i wanted to go in that direction
It's amazing i had not really given that any thought even though i have seen lots of rigs, i had forgotten about my fear of heights and how that would make my incapable of doing much as both my hands
would be firmly clamped to any safety railings...
The plus point of working on ships is that i know from experience i do not suffer from sea sickness.
So, i need to be land based or ship based. That restricts my options a tad
Not doing myself any favours...
I do not necessarily want to work offshore right now, but in the 'offshore industry' and i certainly do not want to work 'at height' as i would be scared rigid
Which raises a very interesting point that i had not really given any consideration too! A lot of engineery type work even onshore is likely to involve working at height, isn't it?
Certainly everything on a rig involves being quite high up so i think i can rule out that aspect of going offshore completely and just concentrate my efforts towards ship based jobs if i wanted to go in that direction
It's amazing i had not really given that any thought even though i have seen lots of rigs, i had forgotten about my fear of heights and how that would make my incapable of doing much as both my hands
would be firmly clamped to any safety railings...
The plus point of working on ships is that i know from experience i do not suffer from sea sickness.
So, i need to be land based or ship based. That restricts my options a tad
Not doing myself any favours...
Ahh, I misread
There are plenty of jobs in the industry that aren't offshore - technician stuff, logistics, personnel etc.
Depends what you are keen on - "taking stuff apart and putting it back together" sounds like you are thinking something a wee bit technical - might be worth seeing what service companies are looking for in technicians - I think ours are HND level, but might be experience based considerations too. The company I work for has a lot of internal training so often a person is recruited not because of what they know, but on attitude etc. - there are still minimum reqs. that come in, but I don't know what they are off the top of my head.
As for the working at height thing, not everything is at height (especially onshore) and even offshore, it isn't all swinging from the rafters that some of the Discovery Channel type programs would lead you to believe - I spend most of my time in an office... Helicopters are a doddle if you don't mind being in the air - basically just a flying minibus
There are plenty of jobs in the industry that aren't offshore - technician stuff, logistics, personnel etc.
Depends what you are keen on - "taking stuff apart and putting it back together" sounds like you are thinking something a wee bit technical - might be worth seeing what service companies are looking for in technicians - I think ours are HND level, but might be experience based considerations too. The company I work for has a lot of internal training so often a person is recruited not because of what they know, but on attitude etc. - there are still minimum reqs. that come in, but I don't know what they are off the top of my head.
As for the working at height thing, not everything is at height (especially onshore) and even offshore, it isn't all swinging from the rafters that some of the Discovery Channel type programs would lead you to believe - I spend most of my time in an office... Helicopters are a doddle if you don't mind being in the air - basically just a flying minibus
I think i may need to get a 'normal' job while i do a part time HNC /D in order to get a proper job a bit further down the road..
I just wish i could get a job that gave me some exposure to the kind of industry i want to be in as it all helps!
I am still holding out for a job in the dispatch department of a company that makes sonar stuff and ROV related gizmo's and other equipment, but they seem to have gone quiet on me
Thanks for the suggestions, I have no issues with flying, so working indoors on a rig would be fine
I just wish i could get a job that gave me some exposure to the kind of industry i want to be in as it all helps!
I am still holding out for a job in the dispatch department of a company that makes sonar stuff and ROV related gizmo's and other equipment, but they seem to have gone quiet on me
Thanks for the suggestions, I have no issues with flying, so working indoors on a rig would be fine
To be honest if I was to go through it all again and didn't want to sit through years of college again, but still do something technical, I'd aim for something with a transferable skill that's always in demand, such as welding, or NDT.
If even that a bit onerous, there's even less skilled positions like scaffolders, insulators, pipe fitters etc. Hard to get into without experience though.
Service companies also have openings that are technical but don't require formal qualifications, such as boroscope tech, flushing /pigging techs, FLIR operators.
Pretty much all of these will involve standing on a scaffolding platform hanging over the side of a rig in high seas at some point though....
If even that a bit onerous, there's even less skilled positions like scaffolders, insulators, pipe fitters etc. Hard to get into without experience though.
Service companies also have openings that are technical but don't require formal qualifications, such as boroscope tech, flushing /pigging techs, FLIR operators.
Pretty much all of these will involve standing on a scaffolding platform hanging over the side of a rig in high seas at some point though....
I am going to an ROV evening at the aberdeen exhibition centre in a few weeks. I hope to be able to pick a few brains while i am there but i don't hold up much hope.
There is also a 7 week ROV tech/flying course available which would possibly put me in good stead for an entry position somewhere, but at £9k it would be a real drain on my resources with no guarantee of a job.
As i am not officially unemployed i imagine i can't get much help with training, so maybe it is for the best that i go and register as unemployed to see if there is anything they can do for me.
I am starting to get bored now too, so that is
proper motivation to get something sorted.
What is making this harder is that i don't really know what i want to be doing so it will be very easy to start going down an avenue that is not in my best interests. I am stuck between not wanting to rush into the wrong thing, but needing to get something going as it is better than doing nothing..
I am now also realising that when people are advertising 'entry level' jobs they are looking for people with degrees or a few years specific experience. Not really what i would consider entry level if you already have experience, but hey ho.
The only way is up.
There is also a 7 week ROV tech/flying course available which would possibly put me in good stead for an entry position somewhere, but at £9k it would be a real drain on my resources with no guarantee of a job.
As i am not officially unemployed i imagine i can't get much help with training, so maybe it is for the best that i go and register as unemployed to see if there is anything they can do for me.
I am starting to get bored now too, so that is
proper motivation to get something sorted.
What is making this harder is that i don't really know what i want to be doing so it will be very easy to start going down an avenue that is not in my best interests. I am stuck between not wanting to rush into the wrong thing, but needing to get something going as it is better than doing nothing..
I am now also realising that when people are advertising 'entry level' jobs they are looking for people with degrees or a few years specific experience. Not really what i would consider entry level if you already have experience, but hey ho.
The only way is up.
Edited by Shuvi McTupya on Friday 6th April 12:04
my advice, dont bother with the ROV course, its a hell of a lot of money and no guarantee off a job at the end of it.
Main way to get in would be look for either a trainee position (but they dont appear very often) or look for a base technician position, try some of the ROV manufacturers as well (sub atlantic, Schilling, Perry slingsby, seaeye) as well as the ROV companies.
Any questions on ROV stuff, give us an email, i'm unavailable from Thursday for a week but should respond pretty quickly outwise then.
Main way to get in would be look for either a trainee position (but they dont appear very often) or look for a base technician position, try some of the ROV manufacturers as well (sub atlantic, Schilling, Perry slingsby, seaeye) as well as the ROV companies.
Any questions on ROV stuff, give us an email, i'm unavailable from Thursday for a week but should respond pretty quickly outwise then.
Hi there PHers,
since I'm kind a getting bored of the things right now and the situation in my country (I'm from Latvia, if anyone know where the hell on earth that place is), plus all the people around, I'm gathering my mind on the offshore.
The question might seem stupid for some, but, what's the worst that can happen if I ask it here?
What I want to know is what's the best thing to start with, taking in consideration the fact that I've never been connected with offshore or sea at all?
My background would be mostly IT (so is my unfinished BSc), and all the work I did was closely related to managing, and working with people. Oh, and I'm already 25 (oh snap). If that matters - I can easily communicate in English, Russian and Latvian, plus some German as well (haven't been there for a while). Doing quite a lot of sports, so my physical is ok.
What I found out at the moment - is the survivex training centre, which offers their so-called "packages", just like this one: OPITO approved BOSIET + MIST plus OPITO approved Rigger or Banksman Slinger Stage 1 courses. It all goes for around a grand, which is ok, I think.
So, what do you reckon? Is that enough to get my arse into offshore? What other options should be considered? Any advices are welcome, as I'm a kind of person, who like to hear the stuff from people who really know what they're about.
Thanks in advance.
Victor.
p.s. sorry for any mistakes, haven't had any serious practice in english for quite a bit of time.
since I'm kind a getting bored of the things right now and the situation in my country (I'm from Latvia, if anyone know where the hell on earth that place is), plus all the people around, I'm gathering my mind on the offshore.
The question might seem stupid for some, but, what's the worst that can happen if I ask it here?
What I want to know is what's the best thing to start with, taking in consideration the fact that I've never been connected with offshore or sea at all?
My background would be mostly IT (so is my unfinished BSc), and all the work I did was closely related to managing, and working with people. Oh, and I'm already 25 (oh snap). If that matters - I can easily communicate in English, Russian and Latvian, plus some German as well (haven't been there for a while). Doing quite a lot of sports, so my physical is ok.
What I found out at the moment - is the survivex training centre, which offers their so-called "packages", just like this one: OPITO approved BOSIET + MIST plus OPITO approved Rigger or Banksman Slinger Stage 1 courses. It all goes for around a grand, which is ok, I think.
So, what do you reckon? Is that enough to get my arse into offshore? What other options should be considered? Any advices are welcome, as I'm a kind of person, who like to hear the stuff from people who really know what they're about.
Thanks in advance.
Victor.
p.s. sorry for any mistakes, haven't had any serious practice in english for quite a bit of time.
Edited by fizzybubbelech on Monday 25th February 12:24
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