Pay in Oil Fields, Not College, Is Luring Youths in Montana

Re:Pay in Oil Fields, Not College, Is Luring Youths in Montana by rdl on Wednesday December 26, 2012 @11:14AM (#4969706)

What is wrong with going to a job like that for a year or a few years, then going to school later, with some experience working, traveling, etc. Or then picking up a trade like electrical or plumbing, either in the energy sector or elsewhere?

I used to be really disdainful of "engineering" vs. science/math/cs, but once I actually started hacking on hardware, I got a lot more interested in ee, mechanical engineering, and even chemistry, plus infrastructure (power systems, physical layers of networking, etc., and logistics).

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Re:Pay in Oil Fields, Not College, Is Luring Youths in Montana by teemingwithlife on Wednesday December 26, 2012 @12:13PM (#4969949)

This is exactly what I'm doing. I was able to score a high paying, relatively entry-level job in the South Texas oilfields and saved up quite a bit of money over the course of a year. I ended up quitting my job and enrolling in a CS program as a full-time student, which was the plan all along.

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Re:Pay in Oil Fields, Not College, Is Luring Youths in Montana by mseebach on Wednesday December 26, 2012 @12:47PM (#4970077)

There is nothing wrong with it, if it's the plan and you can stick to it. If it's not, and you're looking at dislocating your comfortable life with a spouse and a kid and one-upping the neighbor to go to college, chances are it's not going to happen, and you risk ending up stuck and miserable.

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