Getting into the IT side of the Oil & Gas Industry

[mikeyboy]

Can anyone recommend an agency that specialises in IT jobs in the Oil & Gas industry?

I prefer working overseas and the oil & gas sector provides great scope for travel. However, it appears to be a closed shop. With most roles filled by word of mouth. Need to find something to get my foot in the door.

[Pondlife]

Skillset?

[mikeyboy]

3rd Line WinTel
Windows 200x Servers, Exchange, SAN/NAS storage, various backup solutions, lots of experience migrating NT4 and Exchange 5.5
Worked in the past few years for MOD and NATO in the Middle East. Previous to that I worked on various large infrastructure projects for Fudge-It-And-Sue (Fujitsu) througout the UK.
Some project management experience but I prefer to remain a techie.

[Turion]

The CIA is looking for contractors to work in Iraq

[PAH]

I have a mate that did a stint of gas meter reading even though he's supposed to be in IT. So if all else fails it's comforting to know you can still work your way up from the bottom!

[NickNick]

Can anyone recommend an agency that specialises in IT jobs in the Oil & Gas industry?

I prefer working overseas and the oil & gas sector provides great scope for travel. However, it appears to be a closed shop. With most roles filled by word of mouth. Need to find something to get my foot in the door.

From first hand experince it provide great scope for travel to the arse end of nowhere. Land Rigs in Africa, offshore in crappy places. Then on a weekend off you get the lovely opportunity to go to town with t heother roughnecks and pay over the odds for warm beer.

If yo are serious about it, then what sort of role are you looking for?

[mikeyboy]

I am very serious about it.
I want to relocate to South Africa or Asia and a 6 on 6 off working routine would be perfect for me. Loads of expats in Asia work like this.

Since IT is my trade, I would prefer to continue with that. But I am open to starting at the bottom as a Roustabout and working my way up. (not meter reading though, thanks!)

[Tensai]

Can anyone recommend an agency that specialises in IT jobs in the Oil & Gas industry?

I prefer working overseas and the oil & gas sector provides great scope for travel. However, it appears to be a closed shop. With most roles filled by word of mouth. Need to find something to get my foot in the door.

I'm in the industry currently. Much of the IT work is done remotely from the home base, as a lot of the oil-producing countries now have strict rules regarding using local resource wherever possible. We do get to travel to other countries on an ad-hoc basis, but they're often not the nicest parts of the world - I've just finished a contract which involved a lot of time in West Africa

Orion Engineering , Abbeywood and Eaglecliff recruit to oil companies, try them. They also post the vacancies to the usual job boards as well, just use oil as the keyword and filter out the SAP stuff.

HTH

[mikeyboy]

Thanks Tensai.
Some good leads there.
I know the travel isn't normally to the most pleasant of destinations but it's the leave rotation that attracts me and perhaps the opportunity to go tax free.
Any idea of daily rates for 3rd Line Windoze guys?

[Ardesco]

From my experience the Oil & Gas industry uses SAP, Java and Oracle.

HTH