Many people in the oil industry have suffered from redundancy due to the falling oil price, while that is beyond the control of most us we can do our best to maintain our welfare and improve our chances of finding work.

The most important thing is to maintain a positive mental attitude, even though a lot of our colleagues might be out of work at the moment plenty of others are not and there are still opportunities to be found.

Make finding a job your job.

Set aside a part of the day 5 days a week that you devote to finding work, set up an office space at home, and set up files to record your activity, make a list of anybody and everybody who would employ you, do web searches and find the names of managers and HR people send them your CV and make follow up calls keeping a record of every time you send a CV and every conversation you have with people, it will pay off.

Use your time wisely

It is easy to slip into negative patterns, but while you have the opportunity now can be the time that you use to improve your skills, maybe it is time to get the NEBOSH or Well Control Course you had been meaning to get or finish off your degree.

Keeping up social contact is important but it is advisable to avoid overindulging in alcohol, us your time to get fit, add exercise to your daily routine, visit job fairs and network with as many people as you can.

Voluntary work, while often unpaid can look good on your CV and often help with work related skills like team leadership or counselling, as can temporary work in other trades, one upside of the oil slump is that a low oil price tends to lubricate the economy as a whole, so getting non oil and gas employment should not be too hard in the current climate.

Be flexible in which opportunities you explore, taking jobs as an interim that may have been a rung below you on the career ladder can be worthwhile in the short term if it helps pay the bills.

Manage your finances, most oil workers have come to expect the cyclical nature of the oil market and plan and save accordingly, try and avoid lavish expenses and cut down your debts to help avoid shelling out in interest charges.

Stay Healthy

Healthy people are more employable, you do not have to run a 3 hour marathon to get a job but regular exercise helps lift mood and improve motivation as well as making the offshore medical less of an issue when it comes to renewal.

Make the most of it

Enjoy your free time, unforeseen or otherwise the dip in work is a good chance to pursue your hobbies, spend time with your family, catch up with old mates, dust off the climbing boots or mountain bike, tick off the countries on your bucket list, like a lot of people I am sure one the things that attracted you to oil and gas was the time off so make the most of it, and remember the good times will return, it is inevitable that what goes down will bounce back up.