Do oil rig workers really make $100k a year with no experience? I know they typically work 12 hour days 2 weeks on 1 week off, but it still seems too good to be true.
I'm about to turn 20, debt free, working in sales making $12/hr + commission. I wanted to start my own business, but I don't know how.to execute. So now my plan is
>work on oil rig for 1-2 years
>come back to home town with $100k-$200k in pocket
>buy some duplexes start leasing them out
>live frugally until I have about 5 units which will easily support my lifestyle
>invest more in real estate or try to start my business
Anything wrong with this plan? Do entry level rig workers really make six figures?
First thigs first, learn yourself some basic arithmetic.
If you save half of your money(which can be hard depending on your lifestyle may be VERY difficult) you may come home with 100k in 2 years.
Nobody can save 100% of their salary(taxes etc).
It is very dangerous work, not just due to the long hours.
Why not do it for one year, buy a duplex, and then go back for another year if you feel it necessary?
>>1103378
I know I wont be able to save 100%, but I've read a lot of companies provide you with living quarters and give you $50 a day for living expenses, which is more than I spend right now.
So are you familiar with working in an oil field? The pay is as good as they say?
>>1103364
>Do oil rig workers really make $100k a year with no experience?
When oil is 30 dollars a barrel they make zero. When they were dying for people maybe a greenhand could make that much, but your going to be working those days off more often than not and think 14-16 hours a day not 12.
Getting hired on as a green hand now would be a fucking miracle considering how many experienced hands are unemployed.
>>1103364
Former roughneck here. I took home substantially less than 100k starting out, and this is a rough time to be getting into the oil patch.
>>1103381
My paychecks were typically between 2k-3k biweekly with a decent rebate come tax time, but that was service rig work, if you get on drilling rigs your numbers could be different.
Decent money, but be aware that if you don't party with the crew (and that's hella expensive) you'll need to be a real asset quickly and there is a learning curve.
The pay is usually good on oil rigs and in mining (such as in my state in Australia) because you're often required to work 12 hour days in awful heat for 3 weeks straight, with 1 or 2 weeks off to go back home.
Generally you make a good amount of money because you don't have the opportunity to waste it all when you're on break.
>>1103391
Fuck man. I graduated in 2014, and a guy in my class, but different school apparently went to a field straight out of high school. Maybe he knew someone.
>work on rigs
>save money
>buy yacht, pick up pretty girl
>make youtube videos
>never work again, sail around the world
worked for this guy, sailing-lavagabonde.com
this shit is taking off, he's getting about a thousand new subscribers every two days, and over $5k per youtube video on patreon and climbing. I wish I thought of this first.
>>1103364
Why not just become an astronaut or theoretical physicist? I hear the government is hiring Presidents of the United States. Or go the hard route and shoot for oil rig worker...
>>1103398
Yea you missed the fracking boom.
If it does come back soon don't forget about the services side. You can make as much or more money working cement/n2/coil/frac. The general public always jumps to working the rigs for some reason.
If you ever wind up doing that bullshit don't allow yourself to get used to the money. Way too many of them can't pay their bills without a 3k+ check after a couple years and they get fucked hard in the busts.
>>1103408
Can't fucking believe how voyeuristic pur society has become that a guy who makes videos of himself on vacation gets hundreds of thousands of views per upload, and people fucking donate to his patreon.. I'm jealous as fuck though
>>1103414
Thanks for the good advice. I live a pretty spartan lifestyle so I don't think it should be a huge problem, but I've heard of people like that.
>>1103394
>party with the crew
Like you're expecting to fuck hookers and do blow?
>>1103394
> $2-3k for rig work.
Fuck nigger. What is wrong with you? I was making $5k every 2 weeks as a frac hand in the bakken.
>>1103394
I'm assuming the crew is wetbacks
>>1103497
What is a bakken?
>>1103364
Those jobs no longer exist with current oil prices
>>1103565
oil field around north dakota and montana border. Currently a wasteland of pop up ghost towns and man camps.
In america right now you'd never find a job as an oil rig worker.
But yes, in good times for the oil industry they pull lots of money. Some say its hard to keep based on lifestyle. Really, it boils down to don't spend your money on booze and hookers on your offweeks. Also try to live modestly. Most of those dumbasses spend all the money they make at one time to relieve them after such a long 2 weeks.
>>1103364
Not gunna happen now unless you know someone. I'm in a similar situation to you but I work construction. Constantly looking for jobs on a rig for the past couple months and gotten nothing back, we just missed the boom man.
I live in Boomtown Williston ND and this place is drying up. I was laid off and now work in a shop for 20 an hour. Fast food is still hiring for 15 but don't expect any oil jobs until the price of oil goes back up.
Youre alao on a zero hour contract so they'll let you go the minute they're struggling and you're fucked.
I worked mined in aussie for a zero hour on 150k doing SAP work. Fucking hell it was an easy job but so many guys would come and go because they were enticed by the money and demoralised by the conditions and lack of social opportunities (there were no bars on base, 10000 miles from the nearest pub) goddam they all got sick of it after a year.
I would only suggest it as a young bloke whos got nothing to do for a couple years and doesnt mind being alone
>>1103414
>The general public always jumps to working the rigs for some reason.
Its because the general public doesn't know shit about Oil and Gas. Just what they're told in the media which isn't much. I'm downstream and its great to hear everyone talk like they think they understand refinery operations.
>>1103792
that sounds like my perfect job
You can't just work on a rig with no experience, anyone who says you can is talking shit.
Roughnecking is low paid backbreaking wetback work, and badly paid.
If you are serious then get a degree in geology or mechanical engineering and then get in the industry.
Choose your product line, Drilling, Wireling, Fishing, Cementing, TRS, Mud logging, Completion, Liner hanger, or whatever, and yes then you will be earning 100k a year no problems.
I'm still working due to the fact that im not a brainless roughneck and have a couple of skill sets still in demand.
>>1103931
>>1103394
>hella
please.
>>1103931
>If you are serious then get a degree in geology or mechanical engineering and then get in the industry.
>Choose your product line, Drilling, Wireling, Fishing, Cementing, TRS, Mud logging, Completion, Liner hanger, or whatever, and yes then you will be earning 100k a year no problems.
Notice that this Caucasian didn't mention "finance and risk" because those are the skills needed by the petro engineers running shale oil companies to stay alive in the oil business. Sadly they didn't have those skills, listend to the wrong people and now they are fucked like a tied goat at an Afghanistan wedding.
A whole division of the oil and gas exploration industry is learning a hard lesson now. The skills to find oil and gas are not the skills needed to stay in the oil and gas business.
>>1103792
You know most americans are zero hour
it's called "right to work"
Not even worth thinking about right now. Oil is like IT back in 2001/2002. Too many people got in because of the money. Let things cool down a bit, let oil prices go back up and then try to get into it.
>>1104089
Guys like McClendon knew exactly what they were doing. Pumping up their wallets on the way out the door. These guys had all been through boom and bust cycles before and had no reason to believe this boom was any different.
>>1103364
I can't say how much they make but my cousin worked pol before the flood of it and he made really good money. I know oil workers on the north slope of alaska bring in over 100k easily when work is good.
>>1103364
I'd imagine that during the oil spike they made mad dosh from overtime pay
>>1104099
Then how did he allow himself to be forced out ....if he knew what he was doing? He was allegedly cherry picking deals and laughably running a so-called "hedge fund" while on the campus. His deals at the top of the market showed no knowledge of history.
>>1104114
He got the bloated salary and bonuses that came with the giant revenues and shareprice from overdrilling during the boom, then got a nice severance package when it was over, and went off to start another company without having to deal with do any of the hard work deleveraging a balance sheet at the bottom of the cycle. It all worked out great for him. He probably watched other CEOs do the same thing in the last boom cycle and decided it was his turn
>>1103364
Uhm oils dead right now bro. No ones hiring
>>1103792
Tell me more about mining in australia
>>1104100
That would be minimum required just to keep people there.
>>1104091
>it's called "right to work"
Says the retard who does have a clue what those words mean
>>1103391
>>1103394
Live in the Bakken region of North Dakota. Hands made a killing out here when oil was $120 a barrel, but that also came with either: 1> Living in crew housing like a dirt poor mexican family 2. Living in expensive company man camp housing 3. Blowing $3k a month on a 2 bedroom roach apartment, if you could have even found one. And even then, getting on a rig was hard. BUT, much like the gold rush, you could make as much or more money selling the gold miners shovels. Mechanics were taking home $35 an hour plus commission, Walmarts starting minimum wage was $17.20 an hour, etc.
Course, oil is $30 a barrel now, and bakken crude sells at a minimum $8 a barrel discount due to transport costs. Things will be better long term, but this is NOT the time to get on a rig, unless that's like, your dream job and career. If it is, maybe swing by a mining/petro school for some classes in Petroleum Engineering. No one wants to be tripping pipe there whole lives.
