Offshore Jobs?

[Offshore Jobs]

Hey Everyone,

I want to get a job in the offshore sector.

I have applied to almost every offshore company for position of 3/O and 2/O: I must have sent my CV over 50 times now.

Its always the same story - either I am totally ignored or they say I don't have the 'necessary experience'. I spoke to a recruitment consultant and they said I probably wouldn't even get a job on a 'standby vessel' as I don't have any offshore time.

It is impossible to get an offshore deck officer job - even after you have sailing time qualified on other ship types (I have British COC and 1.5+ years qualified sailing time).

It seems like the offshore sector is a totally different world to other parts of the industry! Is it really that different?

Has anybody else had the same experience?

[Clanky]

The offshore sector is quite different, especially for deck officers and senior engineers.

Even as a second mate you are expected to be able to drive the boat at times and as a senior engineer you get involved in cargo work.

If you register with an account I will PM you with some details, but you may have already tried, other than that I would suggest trying to get some experience on tugs as this may be seen as beneficial.

[Dosedmonkey]

HAve you tried North Star? They will employ anyone who is willing to go on there. :P

[Unregistered]

I have tried everything - it is literally impossible.

I even heard one guy who had his full MCA Masters Ticket couldn't get a job as 3/O or 2/O on offshore vessels.

It seems like the whole offshore thing is a closed game and you can't move their from cruise ships without:

a) Spending loads of money on extra courses.
b) Knowing the right people.
c) Being very lucky.
d) Being cadet on offshore vessels.

Its not fair and something should be done about this.

[Hatchorder]

Its not fair and something should be done about this.

I think you need to be careful.....

If there was a shortage of people in the offshore sector they would recruit people with the correct COC no problem at all and train them up. If there is a glut of officers and even they are struggling to get jobs then it would seem even worse if you were one of those with experience and a DP ticket.

When I was in the North Sea on Anchor Handlers in the late 80's there was a downturn and there were wall to wall moored up A/H's in Aberdeen. Many Officers left the Industry as companies flagged out to change conditions - including Maersk - but once there was an upturn then all of a sudden there was a shortage. I had been ashore for a couple of years and suddenly started getting letters offering me jobs offshore again.

I would look at your experience, see if there are missing elements, perhaps look at getting some more seatime on different classes of vessels and trying again in a year or so.

It would only be unfair if you were being discriminated against because you had the right qualifications and experience and they gave the job to someone else who was not as well qualified.

How much feedback have you had from those companies, how much did you tailor your CV, how many times did you follow an application to find out what your weaknesses were, how many times have you had someone else review your CV or even rewrite it?

Personally I think you need to keep at it, stop being negative, despite the knockbacks (they are never personal) and keep at it or go and get some more sea time before you try again.

Ian

[IFHP]

I have tried everything - it is literally impossible.

I even heard one guy who had his full MCA Masters Ticket couldn't get a job as 3/O or 2/O on offshore vessels.

It seems like the whole offshore thing is a closed game and you can't move their from cruise ships without:

a) Spending loads of money on extra courses.
b) Knowing the right people.
c) Being very lucky.
d) Being cadet on offshore vessels.

Its not fair and something should be done about this.

What should be done? Unfortunately if you don't have the right experience then it will be an uphill struggle, not an impossible one just a hard one.

I would be extremely surprised if you couldn't get a job on a standby vessel as to be honest that work isn't exactly taxing. The people that generally man those vessels are ex-fisherman who have converted their tickets whether or not you want to is a different matter - talk about groundhog day!

Take some of Ians advice as there are some valid points in it. Why are you so keen to work on supply/AHTS vessels anyway, is it the DP experience you are after? Are you from a tanker background? The reason I ask that is you could try for a job on a DP Shuttle tanker and then move off to DP from that or alternatively get a job on an FPSO where you earn considerably more money than delivering the baked beans to a platform.

[Dosedmonkey]

I think you need to be careful.....

If there was a shortage of people in the offshore sector they would recruit people with the correct COC no problem at all and train them up. If there is a glut of officers and even they are struggling to get jobs then it would seem even worse if you were one of those with experience and a DP ticket.

When I was in the North Sea on Anchor Handlers in the late 80's there was a downturn and there were wall to wall moored up A/H's in Aberdeen. Many Officers left the Industry as companies flagged out to change conditions - including Maersk - but once there was an upturn then all of a sudden there was a shortage. I had been ashore for a couple of years and suddenly started getting letters offering me jobs offshore again.

I would look at your experience, see if there are missing elements, perhaps look at getting some more seatime on different classes of vessels and trying again in a year or so.

It would only be unfair if you were being discriminated against because you had the right qualifications and experience and they gave the job to someone else who was not as well qualified.

How much feedback have you had from those companies, how much did you tailor your CV, how many times did you follow an application to find out what your weaknesses were, how many times have you had someone else review your CV or even rewrite it?

Personally I think you need to keep at it, stop being negative, despite the knockbacks (they are never personal) and keep at it or go and get some more sea time before you try again.

Ian

I would completely agree. But would like to be a realist, and point out life isn't generally fair. You got to look what cards you have in your hand, and play them well.

As Hatchorder explained, you got to look it from their perspective, if they have applicants with more relevant experience, maybe they would recruit you and not another person.

A transition from cruiseships to tugs or buoy deployment or some other specialist ship, even research vessels would stand you in good position.

However if your only going to offshore for the better money, I would highly recommend you look again at your options, Super Yachts are paying more now and with cruiseship experience you would be at the top of the list.

[EH75]

Obviously you've not had much luck but there are definitely jobs in the sector. I got a phone call about 3 weeks after I passed my orals from a well known north sea company whom I'd sent my cv to asking me to join a standby vessel at a couple of days notice. At this point I had no experience as an officer and did my cadetship deep sea on container ships. I couldn't take the job in the end because my COC hadn't arrived and they needed someone at short notice. Maybe need to get someone to look at your cv?

[laura]

I would say getting your foot in the door is extremely difficult in offshore and this is for various reasons: generally 3rd mates or DPOs are more and more mostly from the Philippines or Eastern Europe, they start as trainee DPOs and take any 'first foot in the door' jobs going, then once they qualify, they take the positions that are usually for a junior officer, however instead of working their wat up the ladder they stay pretty dormant in the position if DPO choosing low responsibility and high wages over career, thus any 'European mates' more or less begin as 2nd officers- however in order to step into this role straight off, most have been cadets in an offshore company and gained the experience that comes with it. The lack of 'entry jobs' seem to put a block in the system and leave little space for training opportunities. I would also say that even in the last few years I have noticed a huge shift in manning and offshore is starting to take the same route as deep sea with ratings and junior officers replaced by cheaper crews. My own company has flagged out 7 ships since last year with 70+ ratings and junior officers made redundant mostly on their supply vessels- not to depress anyone but this is the reality of offshore at the moment.

The other reason getting your foot in the door is so tricky is that working on a stand by vessel will not give you the experience to work supply, supply will not give you the experience to go to Anchor Handlers, and while Anchor Handlers may put you in good stead to go to construction/ DSV vessels- they are still world's apart, there is not a huge amount of movement between ship types. Even with a full DP ticket a Captain is very reluctant to employ someone who has no experience in their ship type, the whole ship is working 24hrs, little sailing time and little time for training when you're working cargo/ anchors/ crane ops 24 hours a dat even atsea. Many people assume starting off in standby will be a foot up- but often it's not. Although that isn't to disrespect those working in standby- I have 100% respect for what thy do and what they work in!

Anyway that wasn't meant to put you off, just throwing some experience in there and pointing out offshore isn't necessarily the safe bet everyone may think it is. Want to work in offshore? I would say invest in doing your basic DP ticket, it's expensive but if you're serious about it, ir's the way to go. Get a very good CV together. Try all companies: sometimes offshore companies can be more obscure than you may think- find out who owns the ships and get phoning! If going standby, does the company have other vessel types, some standby boats are literally old trawlers...

If you're determined don't give up, who have you tried? Bibby, Sealion, DOF, Vroon, Maersk, Farstad, SBS, Trico, Gulf Offshore, Stena(NMM), Swire, Fugro, Subsea 7, Technip,.. and that's just off the top of
my head...

[YoungMariner]

However if your only going to offshore for the better money, I would highly recommend you look again at your options, Super Yachts are paying more now and with cruiseship experience you would be at the top of the list.

Sadly yachts are pretty difficult to get into as well now, a lot of competition. Even that would probably require entry as a deckhand (although deckhand on yachts probably makes more then a 2/O on a container ship...)

[YoungMariner]

The standby vessels should be fairly easy to get onto, as long as you available when they want you. I personally found standby vessels to be pretty dull, I just did temp work on them as Chief Officer (moonlighting) but there is very little in the way of complications, its incredibly easy in fact. Some of the companies with standby vessels have ones that are combined Supply/Standby, which may be a backdoor route into the industry.

I'm also wanting to move offshore for various reasons and know it won't be easy. I've got my DP Basic course booked for a few weeks time and then will be taking a BOSIET course shortly afterwards. Both expensive courses, but neither will guarantee me a job as a Junior OOW in the offshore industry (even with a Masters ticket, chief mates experience and being under the age of 30).

[Unregistered]

The standby vessels should be fairly easy to get onto, as long as you available when they want you. I personally found standby vessels to be pretty dull, I just did temp work on them as Chief Officer (moonlighting) but there is very little in the way of complications, its incredibly easy in fact. Some of the companies with standby vessels have ones that are combined Supply/Standby, which may be a backdoor route into the industry.

I'm also wanting to move offshore for various reasons and know it won't be easy. I've got my DP Basic course booked for a few weeks time and then will be taking a BOSIET course shortly afterwards. Both expensive courses, but neither will guarantee me a job as a Junior OOW in the offshore industry (even with a Masters ticket, chief mates experience and being under the age of 30).

I have heard of loads of people paying for their own DP Basic Couse: ITS A COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY. Masters ticket doesn't mean sh!t for offshore work either apparently.

I just discovered you can have 'DP Basic' and the logbook without ever seeing an offshore vessel. There is a backlog of about 5000 Polish and Romanian DPO wanabees you will be competing with for the sea time: most of them would probably do it for free just to chase the 'DP' dream (sitting on your ass - watching a screen for 12 hours - for ?300 a day).

The whole thing is a massive con.

[Hatchorder]

I have heard of loads of people paying for their own DP Basic Couse: ITS A COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY. Masters ticket doesn't mean sh!t for offshore work either apparently.

I just discovered you can have 'DP Basic' and the logbook without ever seeing an offshore vessel. There is a backlog of about 5000 Polish and Romanian DPO wanabees you will be competing with for the sea time: most of them would probably do it for free just to chase the 'DP' dream (sitting on your ass - watching a screen for 12 hours - for ?300 a day).

The whole thing is a massive con.

There you go again! Sorry, but you are starting to sound like the Aussie cricket team.

The courses are expensive, many people self fund and there are many people trying to get into the industry for the money. But it is not a waste of time or a con, just difficult.



If you are that disrespectful of it, what are your motives for wanting to be there?


I was in the North Sea on A/H's for 3 companies a long time ago and it nearly was the death of me. If I was back at sea now I would go anywhere except the North Sea, or cruise ships.



I think you need to take some very good advice from those who have given it above, or change your attitude, or take up cricket!



Ian

[YoungMariner]

I have heard of loads of people paying for their own DP Basic Couse: ITS A COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY. Masters ticket doesn't mean sh!t for offshore work either apparently.

I just discovered you can have 'DP Basic' and the logbook without ever seeing an offshore vessel. There is a backlog of about 5000 Polish and Romanian DPO wanabees you will be competing with for the sea time: most of them would probably do it for free just to chase the 'DP' dream (sitting on your ass - watching a screen for 12 hours - for ?300 a day).

The whole thing is a massive con.

It's a global market, without a shadow of a doubt, and that's not just the case for our chosen career path, but its becoming the case for every job now. You have to take calculated risks in life to get ahead, and to be honest, I would actually consider going on a DP ship unpaid for 30 days to get the time in if that was legal. I'm actually hoping that some of my contacts might help me, and actually I think my Masters ticket will count against me, but you never know unless you try.

Your pessimistic attitude really isn't going to help you secure a job anywhere, nor is the ''the world owes me a living" attitude. Life is competitive, no matter what anyone tells you.


Also, if anyone is interested, I'd be happy to explain why after going from HeavyLift/Project ships to Cruise Ships and the lucrative Superyachts, I now am keen to return to the commercial world 7 years later.

[laura]

Tried to reply with quote... but not happening... YM, can I ask why BOSIET? Unless you're going to an FPSO/ rig? When people ask for BOSIET it's because they are an 'offshore' company and generally have no idea what STCW is in my experience- they are also of the opinion this 4 day course with half a day of playing with fire extinguishers is superior... but usually as long as you have survival and so forth... onboard our ships the 'marine crew' have STCW, project crew/ clients have BOSIET/ offshore survival as they often work on platforms/ rigs/FPSOs as well- it really is a grey area on what is required.

I would say Huet (Helicopter escape)/ DP if you have STCW courses is the only one to go for but again this depends on the company requirements and if you're going to a rig/ FPSO rather than a vessel? Coxswain course for stand by boats good to have as well...