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Finding work on an oil patch?

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herm0016 said:
I work in the field. It's hard, stressful and the days are long. Money is great. It's hard to get out once you are in as well. There are great opportunities to see the world as you move up. Do it. I don't regret it. I am trying to find a job close to home though.
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lol weld county?
 
You can become a military contractor to drive trucks in dangerous countries. Also very dangerous but the pay is about the same.
 
i did it for a summer when i was in my early 20's....... it was hard work, long hours, and for the company i worked for the pay wasn't that great... 18 bucks an hour...... Texas..


it's not bad.....texas girls LOVE oilfield men too...
 
pay is decent enough, but not insane, considering you're in BFE and working long shifts. Pay is more normal for educated, more normal hour jobs... if that makes sense.

Of course its $3k a month to live in someone's garage or a sea can, too.

and you're surrounded by albertans and newfoundlanders... :awe:
 
Born2bwire said:
Nothing makes you enjoy the office quite like chatting with field. We look forward to spending our weekend fishing!
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!e look forward to days off! Whenever they come. current schedule is work and lot and maybe some days off. It's nice having almost a month at a time off though.
 
You can make the same money working in the gold mines in Northern Nevada out of Elko. While rent is high, you can live a travel trailer or a RV fairly cheap and the food and beer is cheap. Also you only work like a slave six days a week.
 
OCGuy said:
3k? The taco place pays 15/hr.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/28/pf/north_dakota_jobs/
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Is that supposed to be good money or something?

My point was basically that you can live somewhere else in Canada with much lower rent, and make at least $10 (the lowest minimum wage, as much as $12 or 13 in some provinces) making tacos instead of $15, and come out way ahead.

Which is why oil boom areas have a hard time filling service jobs. Most people don't want to live in BFE, pay Vancouver priced rent, and still only make a little over minimum wage at a fast food joint.

I think they pay closer to $20 in fort mac, but still, who is gonna work for that when they can do some field related work for $30?
 
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Go work up at the Oil Sands up in Canukistan. They pay about 200k/year after taxes, pay all of your expenses (food, room, board, etc). The only drawback is there's absolutely nothing to do up there and most folks get burnt out after a year or end up addicted to drugs or alcohol.
 
If I were to do it, I'd probably do it for like 5ish years then move to something else. Tough job, no life, and the chemicals and stuff you are exposed to are probably really bad in the long term if exposure is too long. Though the longer you can tough it out the more money you will make. Live like you make 50k, and invest/save the rest.

Though I think these jobs tend to be like 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off, or something like that. If that's the case, you can still have quite a good life given you get all that time off but when you're on the job you don't have much life as the shifts are probably very long and you are probably away from home. I have a shiftwork job where I work lot of 12 hour shifts, but get lot of time off. 160h 4-week periods, basically. So the more 12's I work the more time off I get. I would have a lot of trouble having to go back to 8*5.
 
SunnyD said:
Go work up at the Oil Sands up in Canukistan. They pay about 200k/year after taxes, pay all of your expenses (food, room, board, etc). The only drawback is there's absolutely nothing to do up there and most folks get burnt out after a year or end up addicted to drugs or alcohol.
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Are you talking about manual labor positions, or are you talking about highly skilled positions?

Its difficult to fathom a bottom rung unskilled laborer making $200k. It sounds like an engineer would be in position to make this much money and not a laborer.
 
I lived in West Texas for years and I work in the industry.

The best jobs are not working on the rigs. Those jobs are dangerous, with long hours, in the worst conditions..

The good jobs are the CDL truck drivers that haul around the pipes, chemicals, etc. You get to be in an air-conditioned cab most of the day and unlike many trucking jobs you get to come home at night.

The really good jobs are managing these people, or being in a support role in a nice comfortable office. Then you get oil pay and oil security without the roughneck lifestyle. But unless you are highly educated (or a woman) you need to neck a little to get there or no one will respect you.
 
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Korea74 said:
Are you talking about manual labor positions, or are you talking about highly skilled positions?

Its difficult to fathom a bottom rung unskilled laborer making $200k. It sounds like an engineer would be in position to make this much money and not a laborer.
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It is basically hazard pay. Oh and you have to work like 16 hour days for two weeks in a row or something.

The engineers sometimes make less, but they get to sit in an office and click on a computer a lot of the time.
 
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