Looking for a job!?

Hi everyone,

A friend who just got a job in the offshore world told me about this website and it’s great!

I’ll cut to the chase…I was released from a vessel inwhich I had worked on for three years in the private yacht business due to the state of the economy. Needless to say, I’ve been meaning to make the switch to offshore and seriously entertained the thought in the last couple of years and now the situation has become a reality. Through a couple of friends that have made the transition from the “big white boats” to offshore, I decided to drive to Houma, LA from Ft. Lauderdale on Monday and seriously looked for a company that was hiring USCG 200gt masters with all of the proper cards. I’ve been a master for over 20 years and having the responsibility of a newly acquired family of a beautiful woman and a 7 year old with one more due in November, I am looking at the offshore sector to secure a position in an established company with solid benefits for a long term future. Needless to say, after going to 16 companies in the Houma, Cut Off, Golden Meadow, Galliano area of the offshore world, I was informed by each company that they aren’t hiring until the oil price reaches at least $60.00 a barrel. After three days of the same answer from the Personel Dept. of every company, I’ve decided to drive back to Florida.

I still have a positive outlook for my future with the offshore sector, but would appreciate any and all advice from all of you veterans out there…thanks for the great forums and everyone be safe out there!

Aquarius - Your experience sounds typical of the GOM right now. I did the same thing last October, and found work on crew boats.

Things started slowing down around the first of the year, and the company I work for started laying off in February. I was fortuate to last 6 months, and was advised that I have been laid off as of last Monday. The company right now has perhaps 5 out of 18 boats working.

Right now I’m back home, picking up the work that I was doing before, but plan to get back down to the GOM at some point - maybe things will pick up this summer, or maybe it will be a year.

But there have been several forum members that have found work in the past several weeks - just being in the right place at the right time.

I’m planning on keeping in touch with the company I worked for, and may make a few phone calls. But the best way is face to face contact. I’ll go back down before too long to get my BST out of the way, and will start networking there.

Good luck!

I like to have a couple of web resources to be able to connect and point people to. First is an online resume at emurse.com. Next I do the same on LinkedIN.com. Last, I set up search alerts from Indeed.com and even Craigslist.

But that’s just the web side with resources you can point to.

Water is right - face to face and being in the right place at the right time makes all the difference. You could look to see if there are any associations or organizations around you to network in too.

Good luck.

[QUOTE=boatingrob;11647]I like to have a couple of web resources to be able to connect and point people to. First is an online resume at emurse.com. Next I do the same on LinkedIN.com. Last, I set up search alerts from Indeed.com and even Craigslist.

But that’s just the web side with resources you can point to.

Water is right - face to face and being in the right place at the right time makes all the difference. You could look to see if there are any associations or organizations around you to network in too.

Good luck.[/QUOTE]
thanks guys…it [I][B]is[/B][/I] a matter of timing, as with any job thats available in any profession. But you can really read the body and face language after three companies and its not good. They all have the same expression…sad! One gentleman in Personel even took the time and highlighted a copy of the yellow page that had most of the boat companies in the area and said good luck! That was really nice of him and judging by the look on his face, he seemed more dejected than me! I think its the first time in my life that I want the oil prices to go up and stay there! Go figure!?

When oil was $25/barrel they were complaining about not being able to find people, but they kept building boats. Now they want the price to be $60/barrel before they start hiring again?
My humble opinion is: 1. Oil got over $100/ barrel and every exploration company in the world ramped up. Heck, some companies got invented over night. Every supply boat in the GOM could find work, even some that were junk.
2. The companies over built knowing the double hull rule was coming into effect in 2010 so they had to build and float the boats even if only for a little while to save construction money.
Now, the companies that have the older non DP vessels can’t find work because you can get a DP vessel at the nearly the same price. The companies with an excess of single hull DP II newbuilds are just trying to hang on until the oil price goes back up.
Some will survive others won’t. We’ve all seen this before.

Good luck finding work, may I suggest you look at brownwater towing until offshore picks up again? A lot of towing companies are looking for wheelhouse personel, do you have your towing endorsement?

Good luck