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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 2,172
Campfire Regular
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OP
Campfire Regular
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 2,172 |
I am interested in working in the oil fields in the Prudhoe Bay area. I have applied for many jobs up there over the past several months but so far have not been hired. Networking is often the best way to find employment so I thought I might as well reach out to this forum to see if any of you had any ideas or contacts for me. I am currently unemployed and things are dire so any help would be immensely appreciated. Thanks kindly, Rufous.
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Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 396
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 396 |
What kind of experience do you have in the oil patch?
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 32,065
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 32,065 |
Try my growing up state of North Dakota... it's booming. Prudhoe/North Slope is currently a dying area. Pretty darned good hunting and fishing in NODAK as well, tho not as exotic as Alaska. Darned near as cold, too. 
The only true cost of having a dog is its death.
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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 2,172
Campfire Regular
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OP
Campfire Regular
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 2,172 |
I am not interested in moving to North Dakota. One of the major advantages as I see it of working the North Slope of AK is the 2 weeks off at a time. I have property and it would give me a chance to get projects done on it as well as actually do some hunting. I have a Bachelor of Science degree from Univ Cal at Davis in winemaking and as a winemaker I have not had much chance to do extensive hunting in the fall. I have no oil field experience but am mechanically inclined, smart, educated, am used to working with a repairing equipment and pumping liquid from tank to tank through hoses etc. I have strong math skills and 25 years of forklift experience.
I also acquired my unrestricted Class A CDL with Hazmat, tanker and doubles/triples endorsements this past winter and drove doubles for 6 weeks hauling straw bales. Anyway if anyone can give me some leads it would be a big help.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 5,828
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 5,828 |
You have no experience in oil field work, and you will refuse to go were the jobs are North Dakota to get the experience. Well let me tell you something you are shooting yourself in the foot right out of the gate. Look I spent 26 years flying as a Bush Pilot in Alaska. When I started I didn't even meet the flight time requirements. So I just went to were I could get work at my experience level, From the time I finished flight school till I got hired to fly in Alaska, 10 years had passed. I had almost 7000 hours in the logbook at the time. The bottom line is that you want to work in the Oil Industry, then take jobs in area's that you really don't want to go to for a while to get the field experience you need. As far as Alaska goes its a pretty tight bunch when it comes to hire, they will always look inside before going out side. Just mailing a resume will not work in most cases. I will tell you I left Alaska in 2006 to take care of some personal matters, The wind up I got roped into something I didn't want to do, even at my experience level, being out side has posed a bunch of problems in trying to secure employment where I want to be the State of Alaska. The flying part of the economy is in the toilet, so I look every were, I found some short term stuff but its not good out there. I think you are just going to have to suck it up for a bit till you can get what you want.
"Any idiot can face a crisis,it's the day-to-day living that wears you out."
Anton Chekhov
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 57,474
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 57,474 |
If you are as picky as you seem to be, then being un employed at times will just be part of your life.
Best of luck! And the above is not negative, if you can afford to wait for what you want, there is nothing at all wrong with that.
We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 965
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 965 |
There are plenty of jobs in the ND oil patch that are 2 weeks on 2 weeks off. However, don't bother coming out here unless you have a thick skin and are willing to work. Nobody out there will care about your wine making capabilities unless you start making shine'.
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 15,356
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 15,356 |
I know a fellow who lives in fairbanks ...works in ND... 4 on 1 off ... on his 1 week he fly's back to fbks .....on "their" dime to boot.
Last edited by atvalaska; 08/22/13.
I work harder than a ugly stripper....
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 5,040
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 5,040 |
I say go to ND, as the jobs are there. I met a gentleman here in Anchorage this summer, that works on the slope and is moving his family from Wasilla, to Oklahoma. Said he is keeping his job, but looking for a different one. He told me the 2 weeks on/2 weeks off is really a dream. He works 6-8 weeks on, and 2 weeks off if that lucky. I do know of a couple of guys that are electricians on the slope that work 3 on/3 off, but it took them a few years to get that schedule.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 21,317
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 21,317 |
There's no way you're going to get a 2 and 2 with no experience, no relevent skills and no connections. There is plenty of competition for the 2 and 2 jobs with people that are highly skilled with years and decades of relevent experience. As noted, not everyone on the slope works a 2 and 2. Most low experience jobs work something like a 4 and 2 or 6 and 3 schedule.
As suggested, go to N-Dak and gain relevent experience. If you're not willing to bust your butt and do what it takes, you will not fit in at any oil field in any part of the world.
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Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 8,893
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 8,893 |
My understanding is that many of the manual labor/low technical skill jobs on The Slope go to Natives?
With a CDL, the OP should be able to land a job in NoDak with no problem.
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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 2,172
Campfire Regular
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OP
Campfire Regular
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 2,172 |
Gents, I am not a child needing you all to run my life. There are significant reasons that I do not want to move to North Dakota. Perhaps I can look into 2 weeks on/off in ND but I do not want to move there. I see and have applied to many jobs in the Prudhoe Bay area so I am surprised to hear some of you indicate that it is dead up there.
Why is it easier to get experience in ND than in AK? That seems odd to me and I would like to know why both areas would not hire inexperienced workers.
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Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 3,856
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 3,856 |
Not what you know, but whom you know
The slope is all about the buddy system
I retired from the Johns Manville asbestos pop tart factory in ‘59, and still never made the connection.—-Slumlord
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 21,317
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 21,317 |
Simply put ND is booming and they can't hire enough people, so their standards are low and they are desperate to hire bodies and make them billable.
Production on the slope has been delining, and its a conglomeration of old oil fields that are more expensive to opperate due to higher maintenance costs. The oil companies do everything they can to reduce the number of people on the slope. I forget the number they use on indirects, but it's something like every body on the slope costs them $200/day when they figure the in the cost of flighing people up, housing them and feeding them. So even a menial job is going to cost them $100k a year.
Contractors are constantly getting jerked around by the oil companies, and having somebody that knows nothing getting hurt or busting company stuff can cost them their contract. i.e. they have to fire everyone who works for them and that company might never get any more work ont the slope. They have a huge incentive to hire people that won't f up. Camp life isn't for everyone, again no experience means it's not worth the risk to them.
These aren't exactly the best times for someone who is unemployed and not highly skilled to be picky. Excellent advice was given on how to gain the skills needed to have a crack at getting a slope gig. Oil booms don't last forever, so if you are at all interested in gaining the requisit skill, and more emportantly any sort of employment, head east to No-dak.
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 15,676
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 15,676 |
Stay in Worshington. We'ere closed.
![[Linked Image from i.pinimg.com]](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/b6/d8/98b6d863a5f722b551cd8e1440bd2bd4.jpg) Z
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Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 23,402
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 23,402 |
You might be a bit better off leaving that wine making degree off your resume...(grin)
Best of luck to you.
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 6,868
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 6,868 |
Kinda like when we were looking for a new mechanic and some bodies resume came through as a sandwich technician came through. The word tech was there. I shoulda hired him, microwave pizza sucks at lunch. Oh the guy had a previous job at subway.
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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 20,683
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 20,683 |
Simply put ND is booming and they can't hire enough people, so their standards are low and they are desperate to hire bodies and make them billable.
Production on the slope has been delining, and its a conglomeration of old oil fields that are more expensive to opperate due to higher maintenance costs. The oil companies do everything they can to reduce the number of people on the slope. I forget the number they use on indirects, but it's something like every body on the slope costs them $200/day when they figure the in the cost of flighing people up, housing them and feeding them. So even a menial job is going to cost them $100k a year.
Contractors are constantly getting jerked around by the oil companies, and having somebody that knows nothing getting hurt or busting company stuff can cost them their contract. i.e. they have to fire everyone who works for them and that company might never get any more work ont the slope. They have a huge incentive to hire people that won't f up. Camp life isn't for everyone, again no experience means it's not worth the risk to them.
These aren't exactly the best times for someone who is unemployed and not highly skilled to be picky. Excellent advice was given on how to gain the skills needed to have a crack at getting a slope gig. Oil booms don't last forever, so if you are at all interested in gaining the requisit skill, and more emportantly any sort of employment, head east to No-dak. best synopsis on the subject, but I wish the OP good luck. NoDak, is what AK was in the early mid 70's and again in the 80's after slowing down in the late 70's. ime odds are slim you'll get a job on the North Slope, and really bad odds for the 2 & 2 gig. you'll know when/if it changes by all the guys posting here about being overrun with DSMF'ers. know it's not what you want to hear, but believe that to be pretty accurate.
I'm pretty certain when we sing our anthem and mention the land of the free, the original intent didn't mean cell phones, food stamps and birth control.
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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 2,172
Campfire Regular
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OP
Campfire Regular
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 2,172 |
I start with Sanjel working in North Dakota this coming Wednesday as an entry level fracer. I do appreciate the perspective of those of you in the know. Not sure why wine making should be a laughable career, especially since those of you laughing at me clearly have no idea of my experiences. Anyway I am going for it in No Dak with the hopes of eventually transitioning to the North Slope. All the jobs on the North Slope that I have applied to are advertised as 2 weeks on/ 2 weeks off. Are they lying about the schedule? My job in No Dak will be 15 days on/ 6 days off. Hope they are honest about that.
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Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 5,838
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 5,838 |
No they are not lying. Many of the jobs are two on/two off but it depends on the contractor. Some are 3 on/1 off, 3 on/3 off, and some are here for 6 months at a time. It depends on the project, the contractor and the mission requirements. And all schedules are subject to change. I'm holding over a week on this hitch to make the schedule come out right with some of the new hires.
I wish you well with your new job. You have a lot of skills to bring to the table but are entering a new field. Learn lots, take advice from the guys that have been there a while. Some of them will be rough around the edges but most are great guys with good hearts. A thick skin is a valuable thing in an oil field. Best of luck to you.
Mart
Chronographs, bore scopes and pattern boards have broke a lot of hearts.
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