If you are willing to face a certain amount of physical danger to earn more money, you should look at no experience jobs on oil rigs. There are few places where someone without a college education can make $50,000 a year. In fact, jobs in the oil industry have some of the highest salaries in the world, easily comparable to the sin industries of tobacco and alcohol. Here is a short list of the work available on an offshore oil rig where you can get paid the big bucks to do honest, hard, sweaty labor.
1. Roustabouts
A roustabout provides general labor, doing almost everything on board the oil rig. He is the muscle, cleaning and painting the oil rig, and carrying, storing, setting up various pieces of equipment. On more complicated jobs, for example, when carrying out certain tasks on the drill floor, he will work under the supervision of the roughneck. If you play computer strategy games, the roustabout is basically guy who does all the basic work like the peon, peasant, drone, probe, SCV and what not. For all his sweat and hard work, he takes home $45,000 to $55,000 a year, better than many white collar jobs.
2. Steward
If you have ever worked in the hospitality industry, you will know all about this job. For those who are unfamiliar, the typical duties include helping out in the kitchen, doing the laundry and cleaning the accommodations. The only difference is that you will be working on board an offshore oil instead of a hotel or cruise ship. For facing the risk of the oil platform exploding, the salary goes up to $45,000 per year.
3. Rig Welder
Image by The Library of Congress via FlickrBy Calvin LohA skilled welder in the dying manufacturing industry can easily make the transition to rig welder. Due to government regulations, rig welders need trade certification (CITB for the United Kingdom, AWS for the United States). For daring to work on top of the ocean instead of on dry land, the welder doubles his salary from $30,000 on dry land to $60,000 on the offshore platform.
