At OilCareers.com, the leading online jobs board for the global oil and gas industry, our objective is to provide recruiters and organisations with the best quality candidates for a variety of positions spanning the entire oil and gas supply chain.

That’s why at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston earlier this year (the world’s foremost event in the oil industry calendar and the chance to target the best talent across the sector) the OilCareers.com team decided it was a perfect opportunity to show off our creative side.

We were determined to find a way to make our booth stand out from the crowd of almost 2,000 exhibitors and reach out to the 90,000 visitors attending.

After much brainstorming we decided upon a traffic lights party concept. Popular in US youth culture and extending to UK campuses, it’s a dating game where the colour you wear or the cup you drink from, signals your intentions:

Red – not available

Yellow – could be tempted

Green – open to offers

So close is the relationship between employee and job, the traffic lights concept was entirely relevant, capturing the spirit of youth and creating something that attendees would want to get involved in.

Therefore we adapted the concept and did it the OilCareers.com way:

Red – happy in your job

Yellow – could be tempted to move – make an offer

Green – actively looking

Free soft drinks and cup sleeves (or ‘koozies’) were offered in red, amber or green reusable cups, backed up by a survey and disruptive media including three interpretive dancers dressed in red, green and amber morph suits which caused quite a stir, creating an enormous amount of attention and interest from those in attendance.

It achieved a level of engagement that was beyond even our expectations.

Not only did dwell time on the stand increase ten-fold with all members of staff having fruitful conversations with delegates, but over the course of the four days 1,500 cups were issued and the global overall traffic to OilCareers.com increased by 55% from 162,946 visits during the same week in 2011 to 251,776 in 2012 with 30,000 US visitors, up from 19,000 the previous year.

It is with this success in mind that we enter the Onrec awards, the awards ceremony for the UK online recruitment industry, in the category for The Creative Online Marketing Award By a Niche.

Wish us luck!

OilCareers.com Launches New Job Search app

The new OilCareers.com app is now available to download for free from the iTunes app Store. The app is compatible with all iPads, iPhones and iPod touches. In less than twelve months OilCareers.com has seen its mobile traffic drastically grow from 7% to 17.3% of total traffic – that’s more than 1.6 million visits.

The OilCareers.com app delivers the fundamentals of job hunting. It enables job seekers to search jobs by keywords and location, browse jobs, read job descriptions, then save favourites and email them to their inbox.

Managing Director, Mark Guest, said: “As the world’s most popular oil and gas recruitment site, we’ve spent years understanding job seeker behaviour and the job hunting process. This new app is a powerful tool for any job seeker. It has an easy to use interface giving job seekers another way to access up to 20,000 live vacancies while on the go or offshore.”

According to the Mobile Marketing Association Asia, more people in the world own a mobile phone than a toothbrush! Get downloading now. Click here to download the new OilCareers.com app.

ARE YOU RED, AMBER OR GREEN? TELL US AT GLOBAL PETROLEUM SHOW

There’s a phenomenon sweeping North American counter culture and making an impact on college campuses world wide, the traffic lights party.

Not been to one? Well there’s no need to worry as OilCareers.com is bringing its traffic lights party to Global Petroleum Show (GPS), Calgary 12-14 June 2012, booth 8054.

Hot on the heels of success at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, visitors will once again be asked to signal their career intentions and rate their job satisfaction.

Whether you are in a job, or looking for one, the traffic lights party takes a refreshing approach to your career development. The rules are really simple – all you have to do is take a drink and we will do the rest!

So how we do know what you are thinking? It’s quite easy really, as the colour of cup you take your soda in says it all….

Red – ‘I really love my job’

Amber – ‘excite me and I will consider it’

Green – ‘I could be just what you are looking for’

If a drink is not for you then take part in our interactive survey or speak to member of the team who can offer the best advice for you and your career development.

We will also be at the Global Energy Career Expo at the Calgary Telus Convention Centre on 13 and 14 June, where again you can get the benefit of expert advice and even meet some of the industries key recruitment consultants.

Recruiters – watch out for the cups as it’s the best way for you to spot potential candidates on the show floor and beyond – we have already had cups spotted at two international airports!

We look forward to seeing you at GPS and finding out what colour you really are!

cHeRries Awards 2012 

Congratulations to the winners of the cHeRries awards

OilCareers.com was delighted to sponsor and attend the fifth annual cHeRries awards, which celebrate outstanding human resources (HR), recruitment and training achievements in the north-east of Scotland. The honours were presented at a glittering ceremony, attended by almost 600 of the region’s leading HR and business communities.

At OilCareers.com, we recognise the importance of talented HR professionals and the crucial work they carry out. We pride ourselves in offering excellent customer service and work with the industry’s top employers globally to help them recruit the most talented people in the oil and gas industry.

Congratulations to all of the winners, they should be very proud of their achievements!

Sir Robert Smith Unveils New Global Head-Quarters

We were delighted to welcome Sir Robert Smith, Liberal Democrat MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, to officially open our state-of-the-art new head-quarters located in the centre of “Surf City” in Westhill. This exciting move represents a significant six figure investment for OilCareers.com.

Mark Guest, managing director of OilCareers.com, said: “The energy industry remains an exciting, innovative and vibrant sector, offering unrivalled opportunities to a diverse range of jobseekers throughout the world. Our company has continued to grow and now has more than one million registered users, with in excess of 750,000 unique visitors every month. Our global reach means we are best-placed to match jobseekers with the right role.”

“In order to meet both the demands and the expectations of our clients and to accommodate our growing workforce, we took the decision to move to new offices, helping ensure we continue to be recognised as the market leader in online recruitment within the oil and gas industry.”

Since its launch in 1999, OilCareers.com has rapidly grown to become the world’s largest online oil and gas recruitment service, providing jobseekers with an easy and effective way of searching for a new job or career across all specialisms within the international energy industry. Each year, we invest more than £1m in marketing to help our customers attract the widest possible talent pool of oil and gas candidates globally.

Happy Birthday KPSol!

Professional freelance insurance broker Kingsbridge Professional Solutions celebrates its 5^th anniversary in June.

This marks an important milestone for the company, who were recently awarded the prestigious ‘Chartered Insurance Broker’ status by the Chartered Insurance Institute.  To date, less than 100 firms have achieved Chartered status, indicating that this is a highly exclusive award reserved for the leading firms of the broking industry.

The company are a true success story in the insurance industry, having continued to grow in their 5 years of trading despite the challenging economic climate and competition from large insurers and comparison sites.  The company now employs 12 employees and helps over 6000 freelance professionals and their clients stay safe.

To celebrate, the company is offering an array of prizes to loyal customers as well as to potential customers who obtain a quote.  These prizes include hospitality tickets to a major UK golfing event, free insurance policies, iPads, Kindles and digital cameras to name a few.  The company will also be hosting a celebration event for staff to mark this special occasion and thank them for their hard work.

Well what a start to 2012 it has been. Just 2 months in and we have already opened new offices in Perth and Brisbane Australia. On top of that we launched the latest workforce survey – Global Oil and Gas WorkforceSurvey

February saw us reach the one millionth registered user of OilCareers, while January’s traffic of over 714,000 unique visits, was a new monthly record.

With around 11-15,000 new jobs posted to the site each month and some 20,000 live jobs on the site each day OilCareers.com remains the number 1 site, for both candidates and employers working in oil and gas.

OPITO’s new careers website www.myoilandgascareer.com has arrived at the right time.

Live today, the site is a one-stop-shop for information on careers within the oil and gas industry. Its launch follows a period of huge cut-backs in the public sector which have – according to the Institute of Career Guidance – rendered careers advice services virtually extinct (The Guardian, December 2011).

Continue reading “OPITO to launch new Oil & Gas Career information site” »

This exciting opportunity for both job seekers and recruiters is coming soon – 26th April 2011.

With today’s global, fast paced business world, job seekers are looking for more and more ways to connect with new career opportunities. We are both proud to host this virtual event to bring together job seekers and industry leading oil and gas companies in a new exciting environment.

Continue reading “OilCareers.com & World Oil to host Virtual Careers Event” »

Now I have your attention, I am going to immediately disappoint those of you who were hoping for hot advice on how to meet the man / woman of your dreams! However, stick with me dear reader as I may have useful advice for you anyway, and as a bonus I will include a nugget of relationship advice right at the end to reward your perseverance.

Continue reading “Dating tips for job seekers!” »