There is big money being made in the oil and gas industry. There is also big money in recruiting workers for this industry. Unfortunately, this also means there is big money in scamming job seekers out of their hard-earned cash. It is not uncommon to hear of someone looking for drilling rig jobs being conned with a fake advertisement or job offer. So how do you know if a job advertisement or job offer is real?

The problem is that you cannot use the common sense prevailing in other industries to judge drilling rig jobs. For example, in most other industries, a job offer that is too good to be true (be it salary, working conditions or other benefits) is often a scam. However, these are exactly the main drawing points of working for drilling companies – a high salary even for physical work, high-grade quarters provided for free, work only six months out of every year, etc.

Nevertheless, knowing when an offered salary is way above industry norms can be helpful. After all, if you know that the normal salary for an experienced roustabout (with 10 to 20 years experience) is around $50,000 to $55,000 a year, and someone offers you this same amount when you have zero experience working on an oil rig, then it is likely to be a scam. So how do the other entry level oil drilling rig jobs stack up in terms of wages?

At the lowest level of salary, stewards and roustabouts earn around $45,000 to $50,000 a year. Painters and scaffolders earn slightly more because of the greater physical danger of their jobs (they have to work in high places suspended from cranes). Those with useful trade skills, e.g. welders, mechanics and electricians, can expect to earn $60,000. A radio operator, a medic (registered nurse), or a cook can also expect to earn something in that region.

Except for the steward and roustabout, these wages are for those with some job experience on land in another industry but not on an offshore oil rig. You will have noticed that offshore drilling rigs work pays roughly double the salary of an equivalent job in another industry. You should also note that salaries for drilling rig employment are more strongly tied to the price of oil rather than the actual state of the economy. For example, during the worst of the recession in 2009, there was still hiring going on because the price of oil remained relatively high (above $60 per barrel). In contrast, although the economy was in full boom in the Roaring 80′s, the oil industry was laying off thousands of workers because of the low price of oil (around $10 per barrel).

When hunting for drilling rig jobs, one must be careful not to get conned by a fake job offer. One way is to be wary of wages that are too good to be true. But the oil and gas industry lives by its own rules, and common sense in other industries do not necessarily apply. You need to learn the typical wages offered for drilling rigs work.