Also called: Roughneck, Oilfield Hand
Does the heavy, hands-on work at drilling sites and oil fields: hauling pipe, cleaning, and maintaining equipment.
You might spend a 12-hour shift connecting pipe on the rig floor, painting tanks, or digging. Hard, dirty, and outdoors, but it's the classic starting point for oilfield careers.
Long shifts and overtime raise actual earnings.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
No formal education, about 0 years after high school. No formal education; safety training on the job.
Ways in: On-the-job training. Training cost: Get paid while you train.
Growing about average (about 3% over 10 years).
Medium risk for 10 years. Some heavy lifting is automated on modern rigs, but much field labor stays manual; oil price swings matter more.
Age 18+. One way to start: Apply to oilfield service companies or drilling contractors in an oil region First: SafeLand or RigPass safety orientation (one day), H2S awareness and a drug test
Classes: Shop class, Weight training.
Official data: O*NET occupation 47-5071.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.