Offshore Drilling Rig Jobs - How to Find Work on Offshore Drilling Platforms

Offshore drilling rig jobs pay well. Even last year, in 2009, when the economy was its worst (of the recession), the price of oil did not drop below $60 per barrel. Now, as the economy is recovering from the recession, the price of oil is heading back up. This, of course, is due to fundamentals. Demand for oil remains strong because the developing countries, especially India and China, are still forging ahead with their industrial programs. Their economies are still growing, their citizens are becoming more prosperous and demanding more luxuries. All of these are things which need oil for energy. Obviously, this is good news for you if you are looking for jobs on offshore drilling platforms.

Getting work with an offshore drilling contractor is not exactly rocket science. It mainly requires persistence and guts. The more job applications you send out, the more interviews you will be called for, the greater your chances of getting hired. Of course, the big question is how do you find all those offshore drilling job vacancies?

The most basic methods that everyone uses are - register with a recruitment agency in the oil industry; look on job boards like Monster, Yahoo Jobs, Career Builder and Hot Jobs; and look at newspaper job advertisements. These are not bad methods, it is just that by the time the job vacancies meander their way through the bureaucracies of the Human Resources department, it may already be filled by those with insider contacts.

That brings up an important question - how do you find an offshore drilling rig job before it appears in an advertisement? The simplest way is to look for all the small offshore drilling contractors who do the work for the large offshore drilling companies like Halliburton, Schlumberger, Transocean, etc. Most of these small oil service companies tend to cluster around two types of places - the headquarters of the larger companies that subcontract to them; and around the area where the offshore oil rigs are located (in the US, these would be the Gulf Coast states of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas).

Basically speaking, if you are not staying in one of these places, you are at a disadvantage when looking for a job on an oil platform. If you live there, then you have access to many more resources, including local newspapers where jobs are advertised; the bars, diners and eating spots where the hiring managers and HR of these small oil companies have their lunch and dinner; and last but not least the local phone directories.

Let's look at these one by one. Job ads in the papers are not a particularly good way to look for a vacancy, especially for a national daily. Ads in such newspapers are very expensive and a small company is not likely to use them. However, ads in small local (town and state) papers are cheaper and more likely to be used.

The next method is to hang around all those diners, bars and eating spots where the staff of the small oil rig companies spend their time out of the office. Why? Because people talk. Co-workers go for lunch together. When they are busy, they work overtime and go for dinner together. They talk to each other at mealtimes. They complain, they gossip, they flap their lips and wag their tongues. When they do not have enough people to drill for oil, they will talk and you will hear of it if you keep your ears open. Yes, it is rude to eavesdrop on other people's conversations. But so what? Who cares if it gets you a job?

The last method, using the local phone directories, needs guts. You will need to look up the addresses and phone numbers of the small oil firms. This is also a good way to find out which diners to eat your lunches at, i.e. go to the diners and restaurants near the offices of these companies. Anyway, getting back to the phone book - once you have the phone numbers of the companies, call them up to enquire about oil drilling job vacancies. Some of them will just hang up on you. Many will say "No" in one form or another, sometimes rudely, sometimes politely. You will hear a lot of rejections, and it takes guts to continue on despite everything. But the most important point is this - if there is a vacancy open, you will be one of the first to find it, possibly even before it gets advertised.

These are the three secrets of how you find offshore drilling rig jobs before they are advertised. Unfortunately, you need to be on location to use these methods. This often means that you need to move. Just remember this - sometimes oil companies in one part of the state will be firing workers just as companies in another part of the same state are hiring new workers. If you spend a few months in one place and all you hear is news of doom and gloom, move to a new place. Move until you find someplace that is booming.

If you are looking for offshore drilling employment, learn more by visiting http://oilrigjobs.calvinmarketing.com/blog/.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

IODP-Integrated Ocean Drilling Program

Black Gold Blogger

When The World Goes To War

A war is possibly the last thing anybody would want to live to experience. The world has already been a witness to several wars. As students, we have studied different wars and how the people during those times have lived. War times are definitely not good times.

Recently, different parts in the world have gone to war. We see different war footages on television and notice how the number of casualties exponentially rises up. Although almost everybody realize that there are no victors in wars, we can’t seem to totally eliminate the prospect of having to go to war.

Somebody famous once said, if we want peace, we have to prepare for war. But as mere civilians, we don’t have that much power to largely make a difference during war times. The most we could probably do is to prepare ourselves, if in case war breaks out suddenly.

Just like in preparing for natural calamities, we need to stock as much food and water as possible. Equally important are pieces of cloth that we could use to cover our mouth and nose, and sunglasses for our eyes as protection against dust particles brought about by bombings and the like.

On a larger scale, the government planning to involve in a war should have prepared emergency underground facilities. These facilities would contain grain silos and medical stockpiles. Civilians and injured soldiers are usually housed in one of these underground facilities.

Large cities in the United States have several underground centers that they could use during war emergency situations. Examples of these are the underground facilities near major railroads.

Aside from gun and ammo, the government should also equip themselves with machineries such as truck transportable bridges, mobile refineries, mobile decontamination services, and water purification systems. Other amenities such as petroleum supply are especially reserved for times of war.

Of course, the government will have to organize effective cooperation between its different civil services. The police, healthcare service, fire service and other public utility providers are expected to work together to ensure that civilians get as much protection as possible. Sometimes, able bodies might be requested to undergo special training programs to help protect the rest of the civilians.

War is such a large scale event that as individuals and small communities, we could only do so much. Most of the preparations involved are left to the national government and international security institutions. As citizens, we will be left with no choice but to follow where the government leads us in times of war. Collective effort is very important for survival.

Probably the most effective way of preparing for war is to disseminate information effectively and rapidly. Information on self-protection should be disseminated to the public. Concerned international authorities will alof high technology, which greatly affects how the world goes to war, preparing for war is getting more and more complicated. We already have nuclear, chemical and biological weapons which can wipe out a continent within a few minutes. High walled palaces made of stone which used to protect early civilizations from war are not enough anymore with the severity of the damage which these weapons can cause.

because so be able to benefit from information sharing. A large pool of information resources will be helpful for both parties, and would allow them to hopefully come into an agreement even before war could eventually break out.