As US economy starts to recover from the crisis there is an upswing in the number of offshore jobs vacancies announced and a number of people that would like to work offshore. In other words, there is a significant increase on both sides: offshore jobs demand side and supply side. As more offshore jobs are announced, each applicant gains particular importance, since this industry has always experienced difficulty filling those positions that it provides.

It is noteworthy that offshore jobs are highly attractive in terms of salaries and working periods. An entry-level offshore job usually offers $50,000-$60,000 and this is only the beginning, because offshore workers enjoy frequent and generous salary rises, besides that offshore employees work only for six months a year. This makes offshore jobs even more attractive.

How hard is working offshore? The answer is: it is quite hard. You need to work even under bad weather conditions, stay away from your family and friends for weeks and sometimes even for months. You may even get an body injury. Working offshore means that you must have good health and you should be psychologically normal. Otherwise you may find it difficult and even depressing working under such conditions. Despite these circumstances, if you ask my opinion, whether working offshore is hard or not, I would answer that it depends on what kind of person you are. Some people find them hard, while others (including myself) believe that they are exciting and adventurous. The fact is that offshore jobs are indeed for strong people that like adventures.

Is it easy to get promoted in the offshore jobs industry?As in any other industry, if your employer sees that you fulfill your duties well and you are a reliable person then you have a really good chance to get promoted with parallel increase in remuneration.

Where can I find offshore jobs vacancies? Offshore industry is quite specific. Offshore employers rarely announce their vacancies on the popular job websites. Therefore, applicants usually have to search offshore employer’s e-mail addresses on the internet and send them their CVs. This process is highly time-consuming and tiring.

What I recommend you to do is to use services that Rigworker.com website offers. Under free membership this site helps you to draw up your CV in a way that offshore employers want to see it and then publish it on the Rigworker.com website on a separate page. Under Premium (paid) membership Rigworker.com allows you to send your CV to more than 1,200 offshore employers. Their list and contact information is continuously updated to exclude dead e-mail addresses. What you have to do is:

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New graduates seeking for offshore oil jobs often face various problems on the offshore jobs market. Things that entrants are primarily looking for are jobs with good initial salary offering, opportunities to rise quickly, develop expertise and experience and easily move up across career vertical. Employers in this field such as offshore oil rigs set certain standards and rules of conduct for their employees, since these companies are working on a oil extraction that is highly sophisticated task and therefore their employees must possess high level of experience and expertise for working at the offshore oil rig. So for graduates leaving high schools or even universities and colleges looking for offshore oil jobs can shorten time period required to rise in their career and experience by selecting the right initial job.

It is important to realize that offshore oil jobs seekers are usually guided by their short term objectives and these objectives considerable differ from person to person. In other words what applicants want from their first jobs are different for one person and different for another. Some are concerned with high initial salary. In this case getting a job at at the oil rig , where he / she has to work continuously for weeks and even for months may be a good idea. Other graduates seeking offshore oil jobs want to have an opportunity to get experience.

One more important issue to consider while choosing offshore oil jobs is an opportunity to develop career and move upwards across career vertical. The new entrant that starts his/her career at large offshore oil rig has good chance to develop expertise quickly and become a professional in local, regional and state levels. At smaller companies developing career and upward mobility is much more difficult, since there are really very few positions between lowest grade employee and it is physically impossible to move higher.

Another important factor while deciding over offshore oil jobs is the nature of the job an applicant is eager accept. This is about what type of job the employee finds enjoyable. A person may be willing to work directly win the oil extraction and find this opportunity highly attractive and exciting. On the other hand other people may avoid working directly in the oil extraction and apply for an offshore catering jobs that do not involve “direct contact with oil” and is considered to be part of additional services that oil rigs provide for their workers.

I guess if you were lured by the title of this article it means that you already know what Roustabout Jobs and offshore jobs in general mean and probably you are even thinking of finding one. I will explain to you how can you successfully find them, but before that let me shortly tell you what does Roustabout Jobs mean, in case you lack that knowledge or at least you are not sure what it actually encompasses.

A Roustabout Job is an entry-level offshore job position on oil rigs. It is pretty difficult and physically consuming as one has to paint, clean the rig or even mix the drilling mud, move the equipment all over the rig etc. Indeed it sounds really “dirty” job but do not forget that it is an entry-level position and it is paid well (around $50.000-60.000 a year). It is also suitable for those who do not posses qualifications such as being an engineer or a technician but still want to get an offshore job. The bottom-line is that education is not a determinant factor for such a job. Actually, many start working on an oil rig as a roustabout and later move to some other offshore jobs. Moreover large number of vacancies is announced every month and there is shortage of people. So no worries, the belief according to which it is more and more difficult in getting an offshore job in oil or gas industry is not completely valid. There are still many opportunities and they are waiting for you.

In addition, with the right attitude at the Roustabout Jobs and if you are hardworking the employer company will be more than glad in training you for a higher position. So, there is a real chance for advancement even if you start as a roustabout.

Now let’s talk about how you can get such an offshore job. Many people are very hesitant when reading an advertisement of a site that deals with offshore jobs positions. Believe it or not such sites do have a rich database on such opportunities. The thing that you have to do is just find the right one. I want to recommend you the Rigworker.com

Why Rigworker.com is good? Well, let me start by saying that if you become a register at this site you get your CV/resume sent to more than 1200 employer-companies activating in US and worldwide within the gas and oil industry. Actually, they help you in writing your CV for free. So if you are smart enough and want to get an offshore job as quickly as possible do not hesitate to

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If you are not convinced I recommend you to read this article to check all the benefits that this site offers.

Many people dream about moving into offshore industry and get an offshore job that pays considerably higher salary than any other onshore job of the same character would pay. In reality it is not that difficult to get an offshore job. An experience in oil extraction sector or good contacts can help in this, but if you still can not succeed with this, then you may want to get some tips.

First of all, the cheapest, simplest and less time-consuming method is to use services of an online employment agency that helps its customers to find offshore jobs. I personally recommend you to use this web site. My friend had very good experience with it. What is does, is that it helps you to prepare CV (for free) and sends your CV to up to 2,000 offshore employers around the world (premium service). You can easily choose those countries and employers you want to work for. For instance, my friend succeeded with chose offshore employers in Nigeria and consequently his CV was sent to 178 employers. Within a week he received 7 responses and eventually got hired under very favorable terms. While using this web site, it is important to ensure that your CV really “stands out from crowd”; therefore you need to spend some time modifying and developing your CV.

Secondly, to find an offshore job, you can use services of small employment agencies that are composed of current or former offshore workers that assist people to find employment opportunities in the offshore oil industry. They use their industry contacts and industry knowledge and this significantly increases the chance of getting hired, especially at an entry-level position. It is noteworthy that this method is much more expensive than the first method.

At last, do not stop at offshore employment agencies. Offshore employers try to reach large pool of potential applicants, therefore they usually post announcements about their job openings at several jobs sites. So as long as you modify your CV to meet requirements that offshore employers ask for also visit a few such sites and apply for announced vacancy directly. This will increase your chances to get employed at your offshore dream job.

Taking into consideration the tips that are put forward in this article can save you a lot of time and energy that you would otherwise spend on looking for the “starting point”; therefore use the knowledge of others and avoid the typical mistakes that offshore job seekers usually make.

Usually people refer by offshore jobs to employment opportunities in oil and gas extraction sectors. This is where workers get a great opportunity to use their physical strength and energy in real life. People usually start developing their careers in this sector by working on onshore oil fields and only after few years move to more sophisticated offshore industry. Once employees get their skills and expertise onshore, then they are eligible to move to higher-paying offshore career opportunities.

Offshore jobs applicants are required to be absolutely healthy and moreover be in excellent physical condition. In exchange these types of jobs provide much adventure and remuneration that is considerably higher than in any other industry. It is noteworthy that number of people looking for jobs in oil and gas production sector is much lower than number of people required. This also contributes to the high salaries that are available in this industry.

Entry-level offshore jobs are usually in oil production sector. By oil production people usually mean drilling and extraction of oil from the ground or from the sea.

Offshore jobs provide most of the elements of a good job: job security, exciting career and opportunity to grow. This sector is open to the individuals of any profession even to musicians, doctors and artists.

There are different rumors circulating about offshore jobs, such as employer will make you work to death. It is important to realize that working offshore is quite hard task, but if you are healthy and physically in a good condition, you shall not have any problems while working.

You should realize that offshore career is not suitable for everyone. It involves being away from home for weeks, or even for months. Oil rigs are often in the ocean, so workers sometimes have to fulfill their duties in bad weather conditions and dangerous working conditions.

On the other hand offshore jobs have some features that make them highly attractive for potential applicants: good food, clean and comfortable rooms, and good promotion opportunities.

Entry-level positions for those who do not possess any prior experience in oil extraction sector start at the salary from $40,000 to $60,000 a year (from $700 to $1,000 per week). In addition workers work only six month per year.

Applicant must be in excellent physical condition. Before hiring applicants are required to pass physical examination including X-ray. Sometimes they are even required to take drug test.

Minimum required age is 18. Average age for offshore workers is 27.

Most offshore jobs do not require prior experience in oil drilling or related industries, especially those that are entry-level ones. There are various entry-level offshore jobs available on the market and relatively low number of applicants that are going to work offshore, therefore it is quite probable that you get recruited even you have never worked at the oil rig or in the oil extraction sector at considerably higher salary than it would be available at any other sector.

Offshore jobs are more about what kind of person you are, than what you actually know and what kind of work experience you have. Offshore jobs are quite specific involving tough working conditions and being away from your family and friends for a long time. If you agree on this, with high probability you can get into this sector of the economy. All you need is to get your resume/CV to the right people in this field. If you are trying to do this, we can link you to our partner company that can deliver your CV to over 1200 offshore employers. You can access our partner on this page.

It is important to realize that offshore rigs require professionals from different spheres of activity: crane operators, maintenance staff, painters, mechanics, electricians, doctors, cooks, their assistants, storekeepers and many other additional personnel not listed here. Do not think that you are not suitable for offshore jobs, but first check out what they are seeking and decide whether you with your personality and with your skills are suitable for such job.

Besides additional personnel oil rigs require basic workers that perform basic tasks at oil rigs. To be specific most of the job seekers are looking for a job of Roustabout (also often referred as Roughneck or floorman). By this term people mean oil rig unskilled, low-skilled or semi-skilled workers working at oil rigs. It is possible to find Roustabout job even if you do not have any experience and training in this field, but do have minimum training than it increases your chances to get hired substantially.

There are number of programs that can help you get relevant training for offshore jobs and help you understand the basics of the job that you are planning to apply for. These programs last for 1-8 weeks and hiring rates for the graduates are around 97%.

Here are listed few places, where you can get relevant training:

Maritime Drilling Schools: these schools have long experience and reputation of providing their 3-week program graduates for Roughneck vacancies. Trainings include drilling issues and safety norms;

Enform: petroleum industry training company. They are in this business for 50 years and help their graduates to find employment opportunities;

PetroSkills: it was formed by consortium of oil companies and serves their needs of training technicians, engineers and other staff;

Offshore jobs are often associated with large workload and hard work under severe weather conditions. Besides offshore workers are away from their families for weeks, or even months. This makes offshore jobs quite distinct from any other sphere of activity, therefore as a compensation offshore salaries include extra premium that makes them considerably higher than salaries in any other sector of an economy.

Offshore jobs differ based on the expertise and the experience of the offshore employee and career status. Typically the annual wage for entry-level position ranges from $50,000 to $60,000. This becomes more attractive due to the fact that usually offshore employees works only for 6 months during whole year.

Weekly offshore salaries start range from $800 to $1,000. For instance, Stewarts that are considered to be lowest skilled workers earn $700-$800, while main labor earns $900-$1,100 weekly.

Offshore job openings are mostly concentrated in Canada, Nigeria and Dubai. In Canada oil rigs are mostly present on the coast of Nova Scotia. These oil rigs have frequent job opening and hire for almost all positions. Canadian offshore employers do not require prior experience in oil extraction industry or any special training.

Nigeria oil industry also has frequent offshore jobs openings. Nigerian offshore salaries are considerably higher than offshore salaries in any other country that makes this country highly attractive for offshore jobs applicants.

In USA Texas, Louisiana, Florida and Alaska are considered as offshore jobs centers. Oil rigs are concentrated in Norway, North Sea (United Kingdom), Gulf of Mexico, Kuwait, Australia and Saudi Arabia. Australia is considered to be the one of the most attractive offshore locations with very high wages and significantly low cost of living. Offshore workers often resettle to Australia, or do not come home for the prolonged period of time.

If you are trying to get hired as soon as possible, it is recommended to use services of offshore jobs locator. Usually offshore jobs locators are popular web sites that help you to link you to potential employers. Typically such web sites assist you in creating resume, suiting it to a particular employer and sending your resume to the potential employers.

Offshore jobs web sites serve as intermediaries that work directly with offshore employers and offshore jobs seekers and help them to find each other. Usually most of the services that such web sites provide are free of charge, but they do have premium services that are paid and available only to premium users.

Offshore jobs industry may be quite disappointing to many people as it is quite difficult to get employed at the offshore oil rig. Although offshore jobs are often available, some people still find it difficult to get their CV to the right place to the right people. To overcome this problem, we recommend you to visit this page and learn how to deal this problem.

What we offer is help from offshore jobs finder page Rigworker.com that can help you prepare CV in a way that offshore employers want to see it, publish on their site and send it to over 1,200 offshore employers that continuously open offshore jobs vacancies and are looking for someone like you to fill them.

In fact you can find such offshore employers yourself, but it will very tiring and even costly to look for them. Rigworker.com charges only 7 cents per employer and grants you lifetime membership to their site. So

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If you are still unsure, I recommend you to visit this page and read about this service in detail.

Usually offshore employers organize training programs for their (already hired) employees, but additional certificates can greatly increase your chances of getting employed.

The most common and demanded certifications are:

- TDG Certificate;

- First Aid Training Certification;

- H2S Alive Certification;

- WHMIS;

All offshore jobs require first aid certification from applicant, since injuries and wounds are integral part of offshore life. Injuries that may occur at the offshore oil rig are following:

- Injuries caused by dangerous chemicals;

- Injuries caused by falling;

- Injuries caused by fire;

- Injuries caused by improper use of machinery;

- Injuries caused by exhaustion;

- Injuries caused by high temperatures;

- Injuries caused by explosions;

- Injuries caused by storms and hurricanes;

Since injuries at offshore jobs are frequent, offshore employers organize specialized training for newly hired employees to training them in safety and health issues and ensure that they know how to act in case they get a serious injury.

Difficulty to Manage Finance & Banking Issues

Since offshore oil rigs are located in the open sea, workers are unable to manage their mortgage payments, car bills and other current payments. In this case you need a person, who can manage your finances and at the same time is trustworthy. This can be your wife, son or brother as long as you trust him / her.

Usually offshore jobs do not require any experience or expertise in offshore drilling and oil extraction industry. This is particularly applicable to entry level ones. A factor that distinguishes offshore jobs from other jobs is that it is characterized by many jobs and few applicants. This creates a favorable environment (in the form of higher salaries) for those who are looking for offshore employment. Under such circumstances for offshore employer each applicant gains particular value and importance; therefore in this industry you have higher chances to get employed than in any other sector.

As we mentioned in one of our older articles for offshore employers it is much more important what kind of person you are, than what experience, education, expertise or tenure you have. Employers are usually looking for honest individual, who can learn things quickly and are physically and mentally healthy. Offshore jobs are associated with hard working conditions and living far away from the people you love. If you are OK with that, then you have good chances to find high income offshore job.

To find offshore job, you need to make your CV / Resume available to the right people. This is where the hard part starts. It is difficult to get your CV to the right people, because offshore employers rarely announce vacancies on the popular jobs sites that you may be using or be aware of.

So what you need is the help of professionals, who are familiar with this field and can help you to promote yourself to offshore employers effectively. I recommend you to use services that Rigworker.com website provides:

- Under the free membership this site helps you to modify your CV in a way that offshore employers want to see it and publish it on their site;

- Under the paid membership Rigworker.com allows you to send your CV to over 1,200 offshore employers. Employer list is continuously updated and renewed to eliminate the possibility that you will come across “dead” e-mail addresses and abandoned telephone numbers;

In fact you can find offshore jobs without Rigworker.com offers you, but you will need to spend a lot of time scanning relevant sites, extracting e-mail addresses, creating the database and sending you CV to each e-mail one by one. Rigworker.com does all this instead of you. An employer receives a letter and does not have a clue that in reality it was not sent by you. Of course you need to pay certain fee for premium membership at Rigworker.com, but the good points are that per employer contact cost is 7 cents and once you buy Rigworker.com membership, you have it until the rest of your life.

The entry level requirements that offshore employers specify for offshore jobs are more about personal characteristics of an applicant, than the education, experience, expertise or training that a person has. Oil rig companies are almost always looking for new workers, because this sector has high labor turnover and supply of the labor force is much lower than the demand. That is why to attract workers to the industry, offshore employers offer considerably higher salaries than any other industry can offer. To be more specific entry level position in offshore industry pays $50,000-60,000 that is quite attractive nowadays.

The common myth about offshore jobs is that people think of offshore workers as people who are directly working on oil drilling and extraction. This is not true, because offshore oil rigs also require large number of additional personnel, such as engineers, electrical engineers, cooks, doctors, etc. This creates opportunities for individuals of different professions to work offshore.

As we already mentioned above offshore job eligibility requirements are mostly about your personality, but still there are few things that offshore employers ask from applicants:

Health Requirements: offshore employers require from applicants to be in good physical and mental condition, since offshore jobs are usually associated with hard work under harsh weather conditions. Before hiring employers ask from offshore jobs applicants appropriate confirmation of their good healthy condition. This is usually report of full physical examination and X-ray. Sometimes applicants are even asked to submit drug test;

Age Requirements: applicants must be at least 18 years old. There is no upper threshold, but the average age of offshore workers is 27;

Experience Requirements: having good experience is regarded to be an advantage in any industry. In this sense offshore industry is not an exception. If you have good experience, you have higher chances to get hired, but if you do not have any experience at all, you still have a good chance to get employed at entry level offshore jobs. If you work hard and gain experience, you have good chance to get promoted;

Education Requirements: usually offshore employers do seek for any educational background in applicants. They are more interested in your ability to learn things easily and quickly. However there are some jobs that do require basic educational background. Such jobs are controller, engineer, etc. For rest of the offshore jobs employers usually hire people and organize for them training programs to develop their knowledge and expertise;

About the author: Elliot Clark is a writer, scholar and freelancer. Author of number of papers on offshore industry and employment. Visit his Facebook Page