Due in part to oil prices shooting up from 80 dollars per barrel to 100-130 dollars and above, offshore oil rig jobs are hot right now. Lots of oil rig job seekers are applying for offshore oil rig jobs and competing with you for an offshore oil rig job with no experience. You have to do everything your competition for the offshore oil rig job do, if you want to beat them. Here are three tips for you to do, above and beyond what everyone else commonly does in order to get an offshore oil rig job /with no experience/:
1) You have to search for oil rig job vacancies where most of your rivals fail to see. This is what most offshore oil rig job seekers do: They usually search at the web-sites of the major oil rig companies, search on the online job boards like Monster and they look at national and local newspaper advertisements for the oil rig job. However, a slowly growing number of oil rig job seekers are also searching for jobs through the internet. They are patiently searching Google, Yahoo and MSN - using phrases like "offshore oil rig jobs"; and "oil drilling companies". These canny oil rig job hunters are searching for oil rig job openings that have not been publicly advertised yet. Oil rig jobs that have just become available but are still slowly making their labyrinthine way through the depths of Human Resources. Fortunately, you are not only able to search for offshore oil rig jobs in the internet but you can also find oil company information at the stock market, for example. The Wilshire index lists the largest 5000 companies in the United States. Some of them are certainly oil rig companies.
2) Try with doing some detective work - find another way past HR. Don't instantly and blindly send out your offshore oil rig job application. You must do what the best salesmen and stock brokers do to scout out their best deals: just find the address of the offshore oil rig company and stake it out. Where do their oil rig workers eat? Why not making a friendship with them? The aim is not getting the job through a praise. The aim is to find out how things really are in the the oil rig company. Who are the decision makers? What are they like? You don't need to stalk the boss of the offshore oil rig company you want to apply for, but maybe you may make some useful contacts that 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 offshore oil rig companies in hot sectors give their workers headhunting bonuses for finding new oil rig workers.
3) You must get all your paperwork done ahead of time. All the offshore oil rigs are covered under maritime law. You should first make sure you have some basic understanding of how this affects you. Furthermore, there usually are a lot of certifications required before you are allowed to work on the offshore oil rig. Depending on where the oil rig platform is, you could need some specialized 1st aid certifications (for instance, Canada has state-specific 1st aid licenses you have to pass). Some offshore oil rig jobs also need you to have an Offshore Survival Certificate and likely, a Helicopter Underwater Escape Training (HUET) Certificate along with it. And you don't have to forget your vaccinations. Some websites make this a requirement. Basically, find out if you have to meet all these extra requirements. Try to achieve them before you send off your offshore oil rig 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 you may short-circuit the usual oil rig job hunting and recruitment process? That is how quickly you are going to get yourself on board an offshore oil rig.