Career Counsel

Top Tips For Getting Off-shore Jobs

2010-03-30T00:22:00.000+01:00

Interest in offshore oil jobs and offshore gas jobs is increasing. The oil and gas industry has proved its resilience during the recent economic downturn and demonstrated its loyalty to its workforce by opting to freeze wages rather than streamline jobs. As a result, the emerging recovery is providing new opportunities for those looking for offshore jobs. However, with the increase in opportunity comes an increase in the competition. What is the best way to maximize your chances of being seen for an offshore job?

Which Job?

Interest in offshore oil jobs and offshore gas jobs is increasing. The oil and gas industry has proved its resilience during the recent economic downturn and demonstrated its loyalty to its workforce by opting to freeze wages rather than streamline jobs. As a result, the emerging recovery is providing new opportunities for those looking for offshore jobs. However, with the increase in opportunity comes an increase in the competition. What is the best way to maximize your chances of being seen for an offshore job?

Which Job?

Firstly, consider which job suits your skills set. Roustabout jobs are perfect for those looking for a change in direction or for those who are just beginning in the employment market. Roustabout jobs require no formal qualifications and offer excellent rates of pay, along with the opportunity to see the world whilst living as part of a tight-knit community dedicated to ensuring the smooth operation of an oil rig. However, if you are already skilled in certain aspects of the oil industry such as drilling, then you might want to try and climb the ladder, perhaps looking for offshore drilling jobs with more responsibility and increased earnings potential. In essence, the best policy is to do a little research about the type of job you think you are suitable for before applying. There is plenty of general information available on the Internet or you could even contact the Human Resources departments of the companies you are interested in working for directly, even if they are not advertising vacancies publicly. They can tell you of any vacancies that might be available and bring you up to date on the specific requirements for those posts.

Presentation is All

The first contact you have with the person who has the power to employ you is through your CV, so you must ensure that your CV creates the best first impression possible. As with most things, it's the details that count; ensuring that every aspect of your CV is perfectly presented can help your chances of getting an interview. Many companies accept CVs in email form, although you must be prepared to send a ‘hard copy' - or CV printed on paper - to those who require it. In this event, you should consider using the services of a professional CV editor or use a computer with word processing software such as Microsoft Word. Not only does this allow you to choose your fonts, but there are also useful facilities, such as Spellchecker to ensure that all your spelling and grammar is correct. However your email is sent, it is important that your CV is concise and to the point. Employers are not hiring you for your opinions; they are only interested in your capabilities, skills, qualifications and, where relevant, your experience. Make sure that all your contact information is absolutely correct and that you are specific in other fields such as your employment history. There is no need to go into too much detail about your previous employment; you simply need to state your job title and perhaps list the responsibilities it entailed. If you are emailing your CV, you might first want to email it to a friend and get them to print it out to double check that it remains in the format you sent it. If you are sending a hard copy by post, then send it in a stiff backed A4 envelope, as folding a CV can cause ink to crack and smudge on the opposite surface.

The Next Step

If all goes well and you are called for an interview, then is the time to research your potential employer thoroughly. It is a positive sign if you appear interested and informed about the company you want to work for. The important thing to remember in any interview is that they are not trying to catch you out; employers simply want to assess your suitability for the job in hand.

Career Tips to getting fast Promotion In your Company

2009-09-11T13:29:00.000+01:00

Tips to getting fast Promotion In your Company
This is one questions most employee have always asked. Join me in this journey as I bring to you tips that will help skyrocket your promotion in a couple of months if not weeks.
PLAN
This involves answering these two questions and successfully providing answers to the.m
1. Where Are You and Why Are You There?
2. Where Do You Want To Be and How Do You Get There?
How to get promoted? First you will need to have a reference point. Ask yourself, where are you now? And why are you there? Is there any key strength that has brought you where you are now that you can continue to leverage for the next promotion? Are there any weaknesses that you really need to correct before the next promotion is possible? These questions, while simple are strategic. It allows you to check your strengths and weaknesses. It forces you to access what has worked and what will work to get you promoted.

You obviously need to have an objective and a plan. Just saying that you want to get promoted is not enough. You need to be clear on your next position. Is it a promotion to a different department or a different branch? Write this down.
Now that you have written this down, how do you plan to get that promotion? Develop a plan for to achieve that objective. If you are lucky, you can even work this out with your immediate boss. Most bosses do not promise that promotion at such discussions but at the very least you get an idea of what are the expectations.
3. MIND YOUR ATTITUDE
You must be passionate about your work and be ready to to explore every opportunity to bring solutions to every corporate problem.
People who get promoted are those that have a sense of pride in their work. And they take pride in their work. They are driven by genuine enthusiasm and desire to do their best no matter how small the job. They believe in themselves and they believe in the bigger goals of their unit or department and company. How to get promoted? Ask yourself; do you conduct yourself wit pride passion and belief.
4. Back it Up with Skills/Knowledge, Direction and Action
Having pride, passion and belief is only part of how to get promoted. It must be

Rare Gem's Tool for Job Success

2009-09-11T11:24:00.000+01:00

Every career highflyer has a unique tool guarantee his success. Here is a few of the tips you need to be ahead of your contemporary in this competitive edge.

The 5 effective work habits are:

1. Practice VOlunteerism
One of the best ways to signal that you are a keen learner and are not afraid of hard work is to volunteer for assignments. Especially assignments that no one seems interested to do. However, before that do assess your own skills and knowledge to see if you can confidently accomplish it. If you are confident in completing the task in full and perfection, go ahead and volunteer for it.

However, do remember one thing. Under promise and over deliver on the assignment you volunteered. Do not be too confident that you turn a perfect opportunity into mess. Once you start the project, see it till the end. You would be seen as someone who is courageous enough to take on additional assignments. You would also be seen as someone who follows through in your work. This is the first habit you need to internalize.

2. Keep a Nice looking Face
I am sure we have all heard this often enough. Be nice to people regardless of their rank and designation. It sounds philosophical but when you are nice to people they go out of their way to help you. And being new in an organization you would never know what sort of help you would need. Colleagues often like to work with nice talented people. When you have this effective work habit you increase the chances of people wanting you to work on their team.

Being nice to people is just common courtesy. There is nothing extra ordinary about this particular habit that you need special skills. A smile in the morning and a “Good Morning” is a good start. In this day and age, people working in pressurized environments often use stress as an excuse when they blow up. Is this necessary? Nice is often reciprocated by nice. In fact, it can lower your stress level.

3. Apply the Law of Prioritization
We all love to start work on things that are close to our hearts. However, often these may not be the most urgent and important in our list of tasks in the workplace. When you select things you are more interested in rather than work that is more important or urgent, you lower your chances of success.

Have a list of things to do according to its strategic importance to your company. Know your role in completing the tasks at hand in order to achieve that corporate goal. When you prioritize your work, you are more productive and that increases your chances of career success.

4. Keep The A++ Attitude
As someone new in the working world it is very easy to feel down because you are new. You are not used to the work system. You have new people to deal with and people in the working world who behave very differently from school. It takes a lot of getting used to. There will be office politics to deal with regardless of how little.

Be above all these and stay positive in the face of challenges. When you are positive you remain focused on your goals. You make better decisions and therefore become more productive.

5. Highlight The Solutions In The Problems
The last effective work habit of the five effective work habits is to bring solutions each time you highlight a problem to your boss or management. You need to remember that when you bring problems and not solutions, it is often construed as complaining.

To avoid that label, offer solutions. A range of possible solutions also indicates to your boss that you have thought this through before approaching him/her with a problem. Have in mind a recommended solution amongst those you suggested.

These are the common denominator of every career highflyer. Do you want to bee enrolled in this Club? Then adopt this habit

How to choose a career

2009-09-10T12:22:00.000+01:00

If you are to choose between a job and a career, what will be your choice? If you are choose between a certificate and a skill, what choice will you make? If you are to choose between experience and money, what will you go for? To some, jobs in Nigeria will do, while for other jobs in Canada will do. It is funny to note that many young people are oblivious of what it takes to stay ahead of their contemporay in their quest for career advancement, neither are they aware of the considerations to adopt for a blissful career future.

You need a career first, then a job!
A "job" is a position held by an individual in a company. whether a driver, cleaner, messenger,it is a position. Anybody can find a job, but takes time to find a career, and develop it to have a high market value.

It is on this note that I bring to you this advice: CHOOSE CAREER!

1. Follow your passion.
Your passion is a reflection of your values.What's really important to you? What turns you on? What do you like to do so much that you would almost feel guilty getting paid to do it? These questions are designed to help you get at one of the key elements in career choice: values. Your values are the emotional anchor of all that you do. Satisfying careers are built upon the notion of a high correspondence between one's personal values and the work they will be doing. Begin your career search by sorting out your values and writing them down as clearly and succinctly as you can.

2. Evaluate and Identify your skills and talents.
A skill is something you've learned to do. A talent is something you've been born with, or at least that you seem naturally qualified to do. It's important to recognize the difference between the two. You may be skilled at something and still not find it interesting. Chances are, however, if you are naturally talented at something, there will be a correspondence between that particular talent and your values. Put another way: you are more apt to enjoy doing what you do well naturally than what you have simply been taught to do.

3. Identify what is high on your priorityand activity list or preferences.
From early on, we approach the world with certain personal preferences--how we perceive others, how we think and make decisions, whether we prefer concepts over people or vice versa, and the extent to which we are comfortable with uncertainty in our lives. For many, these preferences operate at a subconscious level, but they strongly influence the way we function with others. Some questions may help: Do you regard yourself as highly intuitive? Are you outgoing or reserved? When faced with a decision, do you rely primarily on facts or feelings? Your answers to these questions can tell you much about the kinds of work you will find interesting and challenging. One way of sorting this all out is by taking the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator a self-assessing instrument that helps clarify these issues. If you haven't taken it in the past year, or at all, I strongly recommend that you take it and include your results in your career deliberations.

4. Experiment.
There's no substitute for experience, the more the better. It's probably safe to say that nearly every career looks vastly different from the outside than from within. If you're new to the job market or if you are considering a career change, get out and talk to people who are actually doing it. Take a job in the field or industry and see for yourself if it's really all you thought it would be. And don't rely on a single authority or work experience. Within the bounds of the area you've picked, try to get as much and as varied experience as you can. If you're committed to finding out about a certain career, you may want to consider volunteering in order to gain work experience. That way, you'll be able to test out whether it fits your values and preferences. If you aren't getting paid to do it, chances are you won't stay with it unless you like it.

5. Adopt strict professionalism.
In this high tech information world, there is an incredible pressure to specialize, to know more and more about less and less. That's dangerous, because it increases your chances of being obsolescent immensely. Many people lose their jobs and scuttle their careers because they have gradually developed tunnel vision about who and what they are and what their capabilities are. The old debate over specialist versus generalist is being tempered by a new term: the generalist/specialist. That's the individual who has been able to grasp the large picture while, at the same time, becoming expert on several of its parts. That's what becoming broadly literate is all about. Learn as much as you can about what interests you and about the jobs and careers your're considering--not just what those involved are currently doing, but about where the industry or profession is heading.

6. Don't settle for money first, but a career personality.
If you're at the top of your class graduating summa cum laude, you may be able to combine both in a single package, but for most new entrants into the workforce, it's a matter of priorities. A good way of sizing up several opportunities is to ask yourself: "Which position will offer me the best chance of becoming excellent at what I do?" And that may not be the one that pays the highest initial salary.

Doing this will place you on strong footing in your career. Iwish you the best in your career.