Oil & Gas off shore

[sjshore]

Hi guy's

My name is Simon im 24 and like thousands of other people im looking to break into the off shore industry, I am hoping for some advice from people who are or used to be employed off shore. I am a industrial electrical technician with 7 years experience, (apprenticeship served) and have an NVQ 3 in electro technical maintenance and installation aswel as a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, am looking to book my BOISET, MIST and CompEX courses in may.
Does any one know the best route to take to get into a technicians role on a rig.

Thank you.

[samdale]

Might be easier to try and find a job at an onshore facility. Just start looking and applying. I agree that you'll stand a better chance of getting the job if you already have compex etc but there's no harm in applying. Hell if you get an onshore job, they'll pay for all the courses anyway.

Lots of people at the site I work on are ex RAF/house bashers/other industry.

Once you're in the industry its then easier to transfer if going offshore is your ultimate goal.

[Robert Burns]

Get your survival and mist done. Compex and medical aswell. Yes this is money out front but you'll get it back.

Unlike the post above very few infact i've not come across a company that will pay for you to do these what are seen as the basic course for your trade. To many guys have went offshore, hated it and never returned costing the companies money they never get back. Even onshore, its a trade standard now.

After that start sending them out. Oilcareers.com is the best place to look.

I come from being a instrument tech but now a metering engineer. Might that you some time but keep trying everything. Once you get that first trip over then thats you sorted, just be willing to miss christmas or new year or family members birthdays or other speical days. Father has done it since I was born. Missed half my life but has provided a good living for me and my family.

Edited by Robert Burns on Sunday 14th April 23:04

[sjshore]

Thanks for getting back to me and sorry for my late reply, I am still going ahead with my courses at the end of this month, do you think I would be any help to go to the agencies personally at their offices in Aberdeen? I will do practically anything to get off shore and have no ties or family to hold me back. I keep applying for Electrical and Instrument Technician jobs but haven't had a single worth while reply. Do you think I should be looking at starting somewhere else on the food chain?

Thanks.

Simon

[-Ad-]

Get socialising in Aberdeen then see if your new friends will hand out your CV.

It's not about what qualifications are on paper, but how you work with your experience, work with others and who you know.

[samdale]

sjshore said:

I keep applying for Instrument Technician jobs but haven't had a single worth while reply.

No suprise there.

I don't want to sound insulting but unless you have specific experience as an instrument tech you're unlikely to get a job as one. Instrument and electrical are very different trades. My site is looking for a new instrument tech and have had no decent applicants. Plenty of sparkys that stumble at interview, but no one who knows instrumentation.

Best of luck with it once you've got your courses done though

[QROPS]

I've been looking into starting on the rigs as a floor hand, is there any advice people here can offer? I've been looking at training courses but most of them seem to be in Canada from what I can find.

I'm also 32, is it already too late for me?

[sooperscoop]

QROPS said:

I've been looking into starting on the rigs as a floor hand, is there any advice people here can offer? I've been looking at training courses but most of them seem to be in Canada from what I can find.

I'm also 32, is it already too late for me?

32 isn't too late. I did my offshore training in Canada with a bunch of ex-Canadian Forces guys who were being put though Drilling School by the government as retraining for civilian life, and they were all sorts of ages.

[PaulG40]

G.E. seem to be always employing going off what my RAF mates seem to be transferring into/onto. Field Service Engineers, etc.

[QROPS]

sooperscoop said:

QROPS said:

I've been looking into starting on the rigs as a floor hand, is there any advice people here can offer? I've been looking at training courses but most of them seem to be in Canada from what I can find.

I'm also 32, is it already too late for me?

32 isn't too late. I did my offshore training in Canada with a bunch of ex-Canadian Forces guys who were being put though Drilling School by the government as retraining for civilian life, and they were all sorts of ages.

Interesting, the training I've looked at in Canada would literally be for a floorhand, and then I thought of doing the BOSIET course in Aberdeen. What did you go for, did you have previous experience, and did you find a job easy enough afterwards?

I was thinking maybe here

http://www.iots.ca/index.php?option=com_content&am...

Or here

http://www.aptcollege.com/courses/floorhand.html

Edited by QROPS on Tuesday 7th May 20:21

[tactical lizard]

sjshore said:

Hi guy's

My name is Simon im 24 and like thousands of other people im looking to break into the off shore industry, I am hoping for some advice from people who are or used to be employed off shore. I am a industrial electrical technician with 7 years experience, (apprenticeship served) and have an NVQ 3 in electro technical maintenance and installation aswel as a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, am looking to book my BOISET, MIST and CompEX courses in may.
Does any one know the best route to take to get into a technicians role on a rig.

Thank you.

Hi,

I have the same background as yourself apart from the degree.

It took me a good 8 months of serious looking and applying to finally get offshore,

A bit of advice, Do the BOSIET, MIST and COMPEX courses as most companies will not pay for your courses. Don't expect anyone to be interested even when you have done the courses as there is a big stigma about people with no offshore experience.

Try and find trainee rig electrician jobs, they are rare to find but should start to come up more often as companies realise that there is no one to fill job vacancies, especially with the amount of rigs and ships being built at the moment. I applied through a trainee program.

Have you looked at trainee ROV pilot/technician?, I think there is a lot of recruitment in this area at the moment, but dont expect massive pay for a few years, typically trainee rates start around the 30k mark, but if you work your way up and are lucky enough to work abroad then you can claim all your tax back, some of these companies will actually put you through the BOSIET and MIST and pay for all other training.

Look at Drilling companies and contracting companies, Do you like heights? as there is also rope access you could look at.

I must of applied for about 80+ jobs, 95% didnt get back to me, The recruitment companies were not interested because of no offshore experience.
Then after 8 months of trying and nearly giving up I got 4 interviews in one month.

It is difficult to get offshore but you just have to keep trying, go on oilcareers.com and set up email alerts for electrical jobs, you will get a daily email with the latest electrical jobs.

Good luck

[Streetrod]

As others have said get all your certs sorted out as most companies are going to expect you to have this as standard.

When it comes to job hunting it might be a wise move to avoid the major players to start with, they are getting swamped with applicants. Target the smaller service companies; you will have a better chance of getting hold of one of their internal recruiters.

Join LinkedIn and hook up with the various forums that service the offshore world, the knowledge here is invaluable. Also don’t be afraid to contact non English companies with a view to going ex-pat.

As someone said it is well worth calling GE Oil and Gas or one of their affiliate companies Vetco Gray or Granite Services. They run a number of paid training courses throughout the year, that if you pass guarantee you a job.

[sjshore]

Hi, thank you for getting back to me, I will be doing my courses in early may, I am very determined to get off shore so starting at a lower wage and lower position isn't an issue for me. I have now got an account on Linked-in and have been adding recruiters. I would love do to do a high rope access course and get on the ropes, is that even more difficult to start off in do you know? Finding small recruitment companies is always more difficult as I don't know many company names. So getting the courses and pestering the recruiters seems to be the best way to get started then. Is there any preferred companies that run the Boiset and Compex courses?

Thanks guys

[tactical lizard]

sjshore said:

Hi, thank you for getting back to me, I will be doing my courses in early may, I am very determined to get off shore so starting at a lower wage and lower position isn't an issue for me. I have now got an account on Linked-in and have been adding recruiters. I would love do to do a high rope access course and get on the ropes, is that even more difficult to start off in do you know? Finding small recruitment companies is always more difficult as I don't know many company names. So getting the courses and pestering the recruiters seems to be the best way to get started then. Is there any preferred companies that run the Boiset and Compex courses?

Thanks guys

IRATA Level 1 rope access is the course you need if you are interested in that. the job is more about installation than maintenance, depends what you want to do.
Rope access is contractor based.

Like someone said before, you are better off leaving the big companies alone like BP and shell etc as it is extremely hard to get in with them.

Look for the contractors, Look at drilling companies if you like maintenance, look on google for a list of drilling companies, here is a few to look at, KCA Deutag, Odfjell drilling, Stena Drilling, Transocean, look all the time to see if any new jobs come up as they are all building new drill rigs and ships over the next few years.

Where are you based? I went to HOTA in Hull for my courses.
The main one in Aberdeen is Survivex.