[jarhead]

I work on the engineering side of the industry. I was a rig welder for about 8 years. I got tired of the 110* and 5* weather. If it rains, you can't work. If you dont work, you don't make any money. I decided to take some more schooling and earned a total of 5 associates degrees.
I'm not the type to go to a four year school. I have no attention span if i'm not interested in what i'm supposed to be learning. Anywho, I have been designing drilling rigs since 1988 and will continue to do so.
Great working conditions, you don't have to own your own rig since the company you work for supplies everything. Depending on the software you use, the pay starts at around $30 per hour up to $80 per hour. Again, depending on software and experience. The best part.. NO UNIONS!! It takes a while to figger what it is that you like, after you do that, then you need to find the part of the country/world where you can make a good living. I moved from Tulsa to Houston and doubled my wage, doing the same thing. Good luck

 

[jarhead]

Yup, oilfield scum here. Had too many different job titles over the years. I'm an onshore drilling engineer now in Norway. Doubled my wage by moving here from what I was doing before I was unemployed, but also everything here costs 2x to 3x as much, and taxes are insane... So I probably will not make much money over here to bring back home.

Hey Vic, nice to hear from ya. Other than the overpriced everything, how is Norway? I've applied at a company that is Norwegian owned and if I get the yob, I may be working in Stavanger for a while. Another yob I applied for would be in Edinberg. Either one would be fine after the summer is over. :texas:

 

[jarhead]

Hey Mike! I am loving it here to be honest, it's a great place to live and work. It is much closer to being like home then you'd ever think. Weather-wise it is much better for me than my last job was in California. It was too dang hot in the Central Valley for me... which means it might be too cold here for you. But it's really not that bad, sort of like Seattle as far as the winters here go, and summers are sort of like Anchorage, so it's a decent combination.

The cost of everything is the major concern, and biggest thing I hate about it here. Taxes are also pretty insane, 35% right off the top for my income bracket, that ramps up even more once I start making more money. Finding familiar foods has not been as hard as I was lead to believe, so you will be able to get by with not much trouble if you're a typical American eater like me. Traffic can be pretty bad too, small, narrow roads with not much thought put into the layout with lots of aggressive drivers on them. There are lots of American cars here, there is a huge following for American cars and culture, much more than anyone would think.

Be sure to check out Halliburton.jobbs website at http://www.halliburton.no/newsread/index.aspx?nodeid=5110 English language is a button on top right side. You really don't need to know any English to live here, the oilfield jobs require English speakers, and pretty much everyone knows some English and can get by, which helps a lot. I am probably taking advantage of that too much, or maybe relying on it too much is a better way to put it, I really should learn some Norwegian.

Other major companies to check out if you really are interested in working over here are Statoil, ConocoPhillips, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes Inteq, etc... Actually, I guess if you can think of a major oilfield company they are probably over here in some capacity.

If you're really interested in a change of pace I think you'd like it here. :beer:

I thought all the Norwegian you needed to know was "yaw" and "Yaw, shore!" Hmm, I'll give Halliburton a shot. I applied at Cameron Iron Works for the sub-sea dept. designing trees and manifolds to be sreviced by ROV's. hope something comes up soon. Can you hunt ober there?