E-Line

Alright, I have some inside information on a company looking to hire some people immediately in the Lafayette LA area. If you are a experienced Electric line Engineer, Specialist,or Operator that actually runs the job, not just a helper contact me immediately and I can give you more info. Excellent benefits and pay.

Fire Watch

Fire watch is a very important job offshore. It could save a life or many lives. That being said sometimes fire watch isn't taken as serious as it should. It's not a hard job. If you haven't done it or been around one the fire watch is a job where you watch for fire while Hot Work is being done, anything like cutting, grinding, or welding. The basic things are monitoring a gas detector for dangerous gases, having a fire hose or fire extinguisher in hand or close by, and after the hot work is done then you have to stay and monitor the area for 30 minutes. Not hard huh? A job I don't mind volunteering for. But during fire watch you must stay awake and alert where the hot work is being performed. Now as exhausting as that may sound some people find it hard to stay awake during this time. For example, while doing some work on the plus 10 ( the area about 10 feet above the water line) some cutting was being done with a cutting torch. Some pretty basic work that was approved and and a hot work permit was filled out. The fire watch we will call "Johnny" loved being fire watch because he could catch up on his sleep. Johnny and Rick put on there work vest and proceeded to the plus 1o, where the torch and fire hose was lowered down and the hose was turned on. As Rick started cutting Johnny sat down on the stairs and proceeded to lay back and "do fire watch" as he described it, the rest of us called it sleeping. Johnny was good and asleep and from what he said he was dreaming. while holding the fire hose. After everything happened that I am about to explain Johnny said that he was dreaming that Rick was on fire. So Johnny woke up out of his dream still thinking that Rick was on fire dropped the hose and pushed Rick off the platforms plus 10 and into the water. Wearing his life jacket Rick was now floating in the gulf, and Johnny picks up the fire hose and throws the end of it to Rick to pull him back to the platform. Needless to say Rick was pissed. Now all of this sounds unbelievable, and I might not have believed it either if Rick wasn't completely soaked when him and Johnny came walking back upstairs.

Back to work

Wow what roller coaster ride, not only emotionaly but physically. I was employed by one of the largest oilfield service companies for a matter of about three weeks until my former employer called me back. Now being a loyal person I do not like to jump job to job especially in todays job market but when money pays your bills and not loyalty It's time to go towards the money.So leaving a company after three weeks doesn't look so well notonly on a resume but also on me as a person. However my old employer coincidently my previous employer gave me all my seniority back along with my same pay. Not bad considering when I was caught up in the lay off hoopla the remaining emploees got paycuts. I was told the lay off was because I was low on the totem pole which was true only being there about a year. And I learned there was alot of us laid off, to many in fact that now I am back I am working my ass off. But I'm not complaining I have been on the other side of the ball. Now I understand that a few of my co-workers had stuck their necks out and wanted me to come back which I am greatful for. It's nice to have people that you don't even know all that well looking out for you. I like to think of myself as a likeable person who can get along with just about everyone and the people I don't care for I can just fake it. I am a loyal and honest person who enjoys his job and I do a good job, all qualifications that make me a good friend and employee. Now on to my physicall roller coaster ride. When I applied for the big company, I'll call Red I had to take a physical. Not to bad from the last time I remembered that I had taken a while back but this one was different. I had the typical breath and DOT urine which wasn't bad but then came to the "Work Steps". What a pain in the ass. One of the tests was to squat down and move pegs with both hands up and down the board. Easy Huh? Ya it was for the first 10 minutes. I don't know how long I did this but It seemed like forever. The other things were like carrying a tool bocc up and down stairs and basic stuff you would do day to day working offshore.

Well I know it's been a while since I blogged but a lot has happened since my last posting, So here it goes. With Gustav ravishing the Gulf of Mexico and my platform being deemed uninhabitable I was let go by my employer. Which came at a very inconvenient time since i had recently bought a new house and I needed the money. Well everybody knows how bad the job market is and I would say Louisiana is fairing a little better than other places I know. Except for me the industry seemed fairly busy. Well the day I got the dreaded phone call from my employer, who coincidentally a month or so before had told me NOT to look for another job I hit every local and Internet job board I could think of. I updated my resume on Rigzone, Monster, Carreerbuilder, and Hotjobs. Then I went to any oil field related company on the net that had a job board an searched for and sent in applications and resumes. I called contacts that I had including an old HR manager and a regional manager. It didn't help that a lot of companies had put into effect a hiring freeze. Due to oil prices plummeting, and the rig count falling.
For example the Grand Junction Colorado area rig count went from 133 to 32 and the bases began shutting down. I know Baker Atlas alone shut down not only the Casper Wyoming shop but also the Grand Junction shop which was there fastest growing shop in the Rockies. It was weird having to go to my own blog to contact a company about a job.
But I feel I was one of the lucky ones. Because after dealing with the Louisiana department of labor to get my measly 284 dollars which I had to fight for and I finally received only after I was employed again. I only went unemployed for about a month but my new job was nowhere as rewarding as my last. Not only that but I took a big pay cut.
I want to share my advice on how I was able to get a job quickly. It might not be the best way to go about getting a job but the results seem to come faster. I found a listing of companies involved in my expertise area. I have quite a bit of experience but not as much as some guys. So I went to their websites and found contact information. I usually skipped past the HR contacts and went directly to managers, and if there were multiple managers I emailed all of them. What I stated in the letter was that I did not know if they were hiring or not but if they were to take a look at my resume then they would see that I could be an asset to their company. I then attached my resume and reference letter, which is nice to have. and sent it off.
So I'm off to my new job and will post more shortly.