Roustabout Jobs – The Reality
Offshore roustabout jobs are hard, dirty, physical jobs. Let’s get that out of the way before go any further. If you want a job like this, you need to be prepared to get tired and dirty, to bust your ass for your paycheck. This is not a job for people who like to sit around on their butts all day.
But like many jobs that still require you to work hard and heavy, there are a lot of benefits to the work. For one thing, you can expect to make thirty to forty grand for about six months worth of work. While you’re on the rig, your room and board are going to be paid for, and the oil company will pay to fly you to and from the rig.
Roughneck – The next step
The actual benefits, as in the insurance and other perks variety, are pretty sweet, too. 
Generally, you’re going to be looking at full medical, dental and vision, with some nice retirement options thrown in there as well. Plus, since you’re only working part of the year, you’ve got plenty of time to enjoy yourself before retirement. You could call it retirement in installments.
The roustabout is generally the low man on the oil rig totem pole. You start as unskilled large, and as a result you end up doing a lot of different things. This includes, but is no means limited to, putting together pipe, moving equipment, moving pipes, cleaning the deck, scraping off rust, and painting.
Or, basically, the dirty work. Your job as a roustabout is to make it so the more senior members, the actual crew, can do their jobs. Whatever needs done that they don’t have time to is what you can expect to do. There is always, always something that needs done on an oil rig, so don’t expect to have much time available to slack off.
Some people lump roustabout and roughneck together as the same thing, but for most people, roughneck is the next step up from a roustabout. Generally, a roughneck focuses on threading drill bits together and assembling tubing, while the work of a roustabout is more general. Most roustabouts, if they decide to stay with oil rigs for any length of time, move up into being roughnecks.
Days for roustabouts are long. You can and should expect to work twelve hours a day, seven days a week while you’re on the rig. You also need to understand that since you’re out on the ocean, the weather can vary tremendously, and you’re going to have to work in all of it. It doesn’t matter if the wind is blowing and it’s raining so hard you expect Noah to float by, you have to do the work.
But if you can take it, offshore roustabout jobs can be great jobs. You form deep friendships with your coworkers, you get to travel, and you have loads of free time and lots of money to spend while you’re off. If you’re up for it, it can make for a great life.
Offshore rigs have a variety of jobs available on them, from deck positions to the actual drill crew to catering. The one thing they all have in common is lots of time off during the year and excellent pay.
The most commonly sought after positions are on the drill crew, where you’re actually working to drill for oil. Generally speaking, there are five positions on any drill crew, and you will typically work your way up through the jobs as you gain seniority and experience.
Roustabout – The bottom rung of the crew.
This is a general catch all position, where you can and will be expected to do a variety of things, from unloading supplies to filling in for the roughneck to helping paint the rig. This is an entry level job that doesn’t require any specific skills, although being in good physical condition is a necessityfrom roustabout, the roughneck is generally responsible for threading the drill and spends most of his day working directly with the drill. Most roustabouts move up to roughneck fairly quickly.
Motorhand –
This position is responsible for the care and maintenance of the various engines, pipes, pumps and other machinery that make up the rig. This is a high responsibility position and requires an amount of mechanical skill. Motorhands always start as roughnecks and generally learn on the job.
Driller – The boss of the crew.
This position is responsible for running the rig’s machinery, and generally for the rig operation while his crew is working. Most of the job consists of monitoring the drill and interpreting the information that comes from it. The job requires extensive experience in all positions and a high amount of responsibility.
Toolpusher – The overall boss of the crew on the oil rig.
The Toolpusher is responsible for the overall running of the rig, including personnel, scheduling the work and communicating with the oil company. This is a management position, but the job requires years of experience as a driller and roughneck.
The bottom rung of these positions, the roustabout, makes anywhere from $30 – 40,000 per year, for approximately six months of work. The pay increases steadily as you move up in seniority and rank, with the Toolpusher making upwards of $90,000 per year.
All of these jobs also qualify for benefits, which generally includes full insurance, as well as room and board on the rig and usually airfare to get to the oil rig. This is in addition to typically generous retirement benefits.
There are also a variety of other jobs available, although they tend to be a little harder to get into than a roustabout position. The offshore rig is basically a floating village, so there are a number of different positions related to maintenance of the rig as well cooking and cleaning.
One thing that all rig jobs have in common is a need for hard workers. If you’re good worker who can pay attention, you shouldn’t have real problems in landing one of the offshore oil rig jobs.
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