How are you hunting for roustabout job vacancies? Are you just doing what everyone else does? That may be fine if you have 10 or 20 years of experience. But if not, you will get exactly the same results as all the other guys competing with you. Is this okay with you? If you want better results when looking for oil rig jobs, you will need to do more than just scan the newspapers and job boards for advertisements. You will have to think out of the box.



When you send your resume in response to an advertisement, you are potentially competing with hundreds of other job seekers also looking for roustabout job vacancies. But what if you could find a job before it got advertised? Would you be interested? The following three strategies give you the chance to do just that.

The first strategy is for you to visit every oil field to talk to the person in charge of the oil rig. Sometimes this is one single person, but there will also be cases where a large oil field has oil rigs operated by several different wildcat companies. Speak with the person in charge and ask if they have any roustabout job vacancies. You have a good chance of talking to the boss of the company itself, and if you catch him at the right time, you could find yourself starting work the very next day. Generally speaking, you will want to concentrate your efforts on regions which have a high concentration of oil fields, e.g. East Texas, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, etc. You will find a detailed local map helpful so that you can mark down the oil fields you have visited as you drive around the state.

The second strategy also involves a lot of travel. However, instead of driving around the state to visit different oil fields, you will be traveling within a town or city. You will need to get a local trade directory as well as the local yellow pages. Look for the addresses of all the oil service companies, then visit them. Sometimes you will get the boot, but sometimes you will find a good opening for an oil field job. So what happens if you still can't find any roustabout job vacancies after you have visited all the local oil service contractors? Then you just move on to the next town or city and repeat the process. You can't just be lazy and expect to find a job. For example, in March 2009 when oil workers were losing their jobs left and right in South Texas, oil fields in East Texas were still hiring more men.

The third strategy is to go make friends with oil rig workers. How? By hanging out with them when they chill out after work. Depending on the location and company, this could be a regular Friday night out with the boys. Go find out where and when they meet for drinks, become friends and listen to the complaints, stories and rumors. Your new buddy could be willing to introduce you to his boss if there is an opening in his work gang. With a good recommendation, your chances of getting hired are much better than normal. Unless you can find different groups of oil workers hanging out in the bar every night, this is not a strategy you want to rely on to find roustabout job vacancies. But it is a good supplement to the first two strategies. And it is something that can work long-term.

Unless you have a great deal of relevant working experience, looking for roustabout job vacancies the same way as everyone else will only get you mediocre results. Think out of the box, do what other job seekers are too chicken to do, and you will find yourself a no experience oil rig job much faster than anyone else.