I am a drill site manager. There is nothing wrong with working floor and working you way up. Business is booming and you can more up fairly quickly. Also check around, I know chevron is big on hiring military with no oilfield experience. They have military hiring events sometimes.
The material taught in college is not important, it's the skills developed. What some philosopher said 200 years ago is not important, but the ability to analyze what he said and present your views in a lucid manner develops skills such as persuasion and deductive reasoning. If no one wants to learn history, then who would want to make history? As a former Marine, do you want people to forget about you? After you left the service, your service was just the past.
JD I BEG you not to waste your 36 months of the GI bill on community college. The top public school in the nation is the same price as a local community college for us... FREE!! Why waste this invaluable opportunity on community college. You have the opportunity of being a resident of Texas which has two of the best public school in the country. Apply bro. Its FREE and you get paid an additional housing allowance. Choosing community college over universities akin to someone offering you a free new Honda Civic with free unlimited maintenance or a free new BMW M3 with free unlimited maintenance and choosing the civic.
Yeah man, don't waste an opportunity to get a college degree to work on a oil rig -- get your degree then make a decision. Working on a rig is a tough life if everything is going perfect -- the shift work is brutal -- you can't really have a normal life. Add to this the fact that you have to regularly fight off Krakens, Colossal Squid, and Hurricanes makes this an easy decision.
probably not, unless youre incredibly disciplined. get your degree first. the opportunity is always there and youll be able to get up faster and higher with a degree.
Yeah, despite my last post, I have to say that because a college degree is so valued, as much as I despise it, it's a good idea to get one if you can get it for free. That said, I don't think it's a bad idea to take a semester or two off working. You not only stop yourself from being burned out by those sometimes pointless college classes but you can save up a little money, maybe get a car, apartment and have some money saved up as a financial cushion.
Do you have to pay to attend this training program? I wasn't there and I don't know the executive directory but please be careful. There are all sorts of red flags here: the program is "backed up for months" but you met the executive directory who can get you in earlier.... "guarantee I have a job before I finish..." Again, if you've done your research and it's all legit (or you know this executive directory personally) that's excellent but if not, please be careful, do research and see if you can talk to any people who've previously attended. The training business can offer great opportunities but it can also be a huge scam as well.
When I was in college this cat made fun of me cuz he said I was broke. He dropped out high school to start working. Short story long, he is unemployed, last I heard he was working at subway pretending to be some cartel member living at home.
Do it. I would. You don't always get a chance to make this kind of money.I'll take a quote from my dad " you gotta make money while you can". If I were im your position I would work for a couple of years, save up a bunch of money, then look for something a little lighter in the same field. Remember, being gone for so long means you won't have many expenses.
'this kind of money'...what, $100k/year if you work tons of overtime? Not a ton of money any more. So working at subway is unemployed. Check.
Get a degree while you can. If there is a downturn in the o&g field you are screwed. Unemployed and no degree. At least go get a degree for a plant operator or something that will help you get into the field
I can see both sides of this... I have multiple graduate degrees and have been financially successful but I also have been lucky and got into the job market when college degrees were more rare and meant more. Now, that is not the case. The markets are saturated with post graduate degrees. In your case you are only partially done with your undergraduate education and already have lost interest. You need to be realistic, and understand that having an undergraduate education doesn't mean you are guaranteed anything. You will make more money working on a rig than you will with an undergraduate diploma. Having had to hire people with graduate degrees, and knowing how the job market is nationally, and what salaries are; I would personally suggest you work on the rig. You will cut out years of schooling and poor pay, be making more than you will after graduating college and be doing a job that is not behind a desk. 15 years ago I would say to get your degree, not now, things have changed greatly and will continue to.
Apply for an MWD or Data Engineer position; less exposure to dangers of oil-base and the dangers of the rig floor.
Why not attempt towards a degree if its free? BTW having a college degree being more common means having at least a bachelors is almost a necessity. Don't listen to those posters here JD that tell you its not a good idea to pursue a degree. I could understand their line of thinking if we had to pay our way through college and amass massive debt but we have the privilege of having all our expenses payed for? Why throw away such a valuable gift?
It appears the opinions in this thread are as far apart as my options. Valid point on the school, and the edumacation, I have until May 20th to decide. The program is legit though, I happened to meet this lady in casual conversation as I was putting new rank on my uniforms at the tailor shop. I've spoken to her and the program director (both work for Lonestar college). Maybe in a month the choice will be more clear. Thanks for the input fellas.
Transocean is always hiring military vets. They have 6 Deepwater rigs heading into the GoM over the next few months. That being said, stay in school and don't waste your GI Bill on community college. Get grants to cover the CC. Education is priceless.
And the thing is he can always go back and get it later, especially with thousands of dollars saved up. That's what sucks about us pressuring so many teens to go to school immeadiately, we act like they need to know and fugure out what they want to be at such a young age. It's almost a better idea to take a break from school (unless your goals and ambitions are realistic and crystal clear), especially if you are burned out from it, make a little money, learn what you wanna do in life and strive for that. If it requires college, then great, you can finally go study for it and have a clear view of where your going and if not then even better, as you're less likely to be swimming in debt. We need to stop pressuring kids to go to college right away, especially before they may be ready. It's not going anywhere. Be on the cutting edge, whether that means going to college or not.
Go get a mechanical engineering or engineering technology degree. You'll learn all you want about what happens on an oil rig, get to design all the equipment and make more money than all the business majors. Commodity-based jobs disappear like that, don't chase money now at a dangerous, entry-level job in the most unstable industry imaginable at the expense of lifelong, managerial level salaries and skill sets.
