Career Advice by Randy

Recent research showed that of 2000 people interviewed, aged between 30-50 years, more than a quarter were considering a career change. A Wall Street Journal/ABC News Poll indicated that half of all Americans would choose a new line of work if they had a chance. What’s going on?

We spend 50-70% of our waking hours at work so it makes sense to do something that you enjoy and find fulfilling. Most of us have a natural desire to make a contribution and to find meaningful and purposeful work. It seems a shame to let your natural gifts, talent and passions go to waste.

Why bother?

You may have noticed that any unhappiness or frustration experienced at work can spill into other areas of our lives and can sometimes put a significant strain on relationships and health. Life becomes much more fulfilling and personally rewarding when you are engaged in work which is a natural expression of who you are.

What gets in the way?

Knowing this doesn’t on the face of it make it easy to change direction. So if you are part of the 50% who want to follow a cherished dream, what is holding you back? It could be fear of making a mistake, risking perceived financial security, concerns about the reactions of others or it may be that you are wallowing in a fur lined rut and laziness has taken over.

What steps can you take?

Get to know who you are. Understand your skills, strengths, talents and preferences and focus more on what you do well

Align your work with your values. Once you know and understand which values are most important, you can make choices and decisions which enable you to express your true self

Develop a vision of your ideal working life and get creative about achieving it

Identify role models and find out how they achieved their dreams

Get your finances in order to support any new training prog Read the rest of this entry »

With the current oil boom likely to continue into the next decade, many oil companies are desperately hiring workers for offshore employment in exploration and drilling work. In North America, Houston, Tulsa and Alberta have featured in the news in the past year. However, wherever you can find oil and gas, you will find the major players present.

The generous salaries and benefits offered by oil companies are well known. So is the hard physical work. But do you know about the offshore work schedule? Most offshore work is structured so that you work 1 week on/1 week off, or 2 weeks on/2 weeks off, etc. Quite common is 4 weeks on/4 weeks off. You may even find 6 weeks on/6 weeks off.

Not all offshore employment is on an oil rig. Quite a lot of it also happens on ships. Of course, some of the deep sea oil rigs are actually mounted on gigantic ships. You’ll find ocean-going tugs, towboats and pipeline barges deeply involved in the process of oil production.

Many of you grew up with easy communications and access to mobile phones and the internet. You have rarely been isolated from your families and friends in the past. Once you work offshore, this will no longer be the case. You will no longer have easy and unlimited contact with your friends and family for up to 6 weeks at a time. This kind of thing is often overlooked by those seeking offshore employment, but has caused a lot of strain in family relationships.

When you successfully gain offshore employment, you also need to think of your personal logistics - your mortgage payments, car payments, phone bills, etc. You’ll need to set up automatic payment arrangements with your bank, otherwise you could wind up in quite a lot of inconvenience. Don’t forget to settle things like your voluntary military service.

Offshore employment can be very rewarding. If you are willing to l Read the rest of this entry »