And Then Came The Internet:

The thing about the web is that it gives you INSTANT ACCESS to information you could not get otherwise. However, it is not a magical portal that will magically transform you to an offshore drilling rig in the location of your choice. As crazy as that might sound, there are people who really believe this!

In many ways the internet is taking the place of snail mail postal services. Heck, it's FREE! It does not cost you one cent to e-mail your resumé to to hundreds, even thousands of companies that are currently seeking workers on a global basis.

Go to any search engine and type in the keywords "offshore jobs", "offshore employment", "oil rig jobs", "maritime employment", etc. You will get a list of hundreds of sites that are connected to this industry in one way or another. Check em out, if they have jobs posted, then send them your resumé!

In one way that is great, but, because of the sheer numbers, it can also be rather overwhelming. Once you spend any time at all on the web you will see what I mean. What you need is a starting point, a home base you can use to expand your search.

If you are going to use the web to apply for an offshore job, it is important for you to have a current resumé and that it is a good one. For every job you see advertised online, the recruiter has to look through 100 plus resumés  per week.

As many as 75% get trashed. When recruiters initially look at those numbers of resumés, the very first thing they look for are the ones they can discard. These are the main reasons:

• Poorly defined or no definite job objective
• Resumés that say too much, they go on and on but don't actually provide anything of real value. 
• Resumés that say too little, or put the writer on the level of a beggar.
• Resumés that are written in ALL CAPS. This is like YELLING at the recruiter.
• Resumés that have spelling / grammatical errors. These are AUTOMATIC TCM's (trash can material).
• Resumés that are bland, boring, mediocre and on many occasions outright wimpy.

The whole purpose of a resumé is to get the recruiter's attention and have him call you in for an interview. There is a trick to this. This is a skill, and it is not one that is learned easily. If you are sending out dozens, possibly even hundreds of resumés and have gotten no positive responses, then it is time to stop what you are doing and take a good look at what you are doing.

Here's something else to consider:

PROBLEM: While the internet is a fast paced environment as far as communication is concerned, it in itself presents some challenges. One of these challenges is the "save as" challenge. When you write a resumé / CV, you will have to save it, and herin lies the problem. For example, you can save a resumé (text document) as as .doc, .htm, .dot, .rtf, .asc, .mcw, .wps, and on and on. Which one should you use? Keep in mind there are lots of word processing programs on the market today, just because you have the latest and greatest doesn't mean the person on the other end has the same program. If they can't open it, the next stop will be the recycle bin.

Want to see what I am talking about? Click here and here. These resumés were written by very qualified individuals who spent a great deal of time writing them. They were saved in the normal way using Windows 95 and 98. Not only did these resumés get trashed by everyone they were sent to, the guys that wrote them were never made aware of the problem, until I told them about it.  Don't let this happen to you!

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Captain Ron, My husband has been looking for offshore employment for the past 10 months. At every chance we got we sent out applications with the resumé as a .doc attachment. We very rarely got a reply. You can imagine our amazement when you told us that the attachment did not open! Most of resumés we sent out, 100 plus of them, were sent to the recycle bin and we did not even know it! We now use your online resumé and yes we have had replies, not robot mail, but actual applications for employment!!!!! Thank you Ron for all your help. Your online resumés really work, and it is nice to know they open every time all the time and don't end up in the trash. Cheers Lisa and Paul Australia

 

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In the late 60's, at the height of America's involvement in Vietnam, there was a slogan that said: "Suppose they gave a war and nobody came?" Interesting verse for sure, it certainly made me think. I've come up with an appropriate slogan for this situation. "Suppose you send out a resumé and nobody reads it?"

No matter how much time you spent writing it, no matter how good you think your resumé is, if no one reads it because they cannot open it, it will not do you the least bit of good. So, if you are using the web in your job search, it is ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE you have a resumé you know will open all the time every time. This is accomplished by using a .html resumé, also known as a web resumé. For more information on the 3 types of resumés which are required for internet job searches, go here.

Most people write their own resumé. At first it seems crazy not too, with all the programs available. I have seen thousands of resumés over the years, the good, the bad and the ugly. Most of them fall into the last two categories. People who are not professional writers do not have the skills to write a great resumé. No matter how many resumé writing programs they have, no matter how well they think they wrote it, 9 out of 10 times it's a flop.

Employees are not hired strictly on their skills or education. Motivation and the desire to do a good job go a long way. Your  resumé is your calling card, your first contact with the person that has the power to give you a job. A crappy resumé, no matter how great a person you are at what you do, projects the image of someone who will not take the effort to do the job right, and that is just the way it is.