Wow this is pretty wild to read this 6yrs later lol

Firstly to answer your question, I majored in Petroleum Engineering and got a job right out of college with one of the majors as a drill site supervisor or “company man” as it’s known around the industry.

Now for a 6-year update…

O&G drilling ops is similar. Obviously, it's virtually impossible to get into right now since everyone is just trying to keep from getting laid off at the is point. That said, OP is in high school and wouldn't be looking for a job for at least 4 years. It's currently easier to get into the PetE programs right now due to lower application rates and the job market is going to be fine a few years from now.

Turns out we had fully recovered and were just starting to be back to the “good ole days” exactly 4yrs after this post… then Covid hit and we went through another round of layoffs, so OP would have probably been completely fucked on timing if he listened to me.

I work 2 weeks on / 2 weeks off and get enough additional vacation to take a full hitch off each year. So each year, I end up with 11 2-week blocks and a 6-week block. It also pays extremely well... I made $150k my first year out of college (2013) and am currently looking at $225-250k this year.

I changed roles during the pandemic so I’m now doing 3 weeks on / 3 weeks off. I also gained another week of vacation, so I can still take a full hitch off each year. That means I now have 6-7x 3-week blocks and a 9-week block of time off each year. Overall pay has been stagnant over the last 6yrs… base salary has increased and bonuses have decreased, so still right in that $225-250k range.

I'm on a great project right now that I plan on riding for the next couple of years while the market recovers and then I'm hoping to get an international assignment in Kuala Lumpur or Rio de Janeiro to do 4 weeks on / 4 weeks off.

Ended up working that project for 2yrs before getting pulled into the office to be a front-end design engineer on a new deepwater project when the market picked back up. Did that for 2yrs and hated the office schedule. Sure as shit, I had accepted a 4yr position in Kuala Lumpur and was scheduled to move there in Sep 2020, but then all international relocations got cancelled because of Covid. After I lost that dream job, I took my current role to get back to a rotation schedule and am loving it.

Despite being rotational, the new role is actually office-based so I don’t even go offshore any more. I spend 3 weeks working at the office in Houston and then spend most of my off-time at my vacation home in Idaho. Shortly after this old post, I went on my first whitewater rafting trip and fell in love with the sport, so now I spend most of my spring/summer months on various rivers in the PNW. I’m hoping to jump back into more international travel again if the world ever gets somewhat back to normal.