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Comment by mortuus | Hacker News Reader

Thanks for sharing, had to look the term up.

roughneck (drilling): "A low-ranking member of the drilling crew. The roughneck usually performs semiskilled and unskilled manual labor that requires continual hard work in difficult conditions for many hours. After roughnecks understand how the rig operates and demonstrates their work ethic, they may be promoted to other positions in the crew."

"This might actually refer to roughneck duties, or to one of the other crew positions, such as lead tong operator, motorman, derrickman, assistant driller or even driller."

http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/Display.cfm?Term=roughn...

Do you have experience with this? Likes/dislikes of the job?

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I have not been a roughneck, but I grew up in Edmonton, Canada at a time when several of my Gr. 12 classmates went for 3 months in the summer and earned more than their teachers did in a year.

The pay is high (my friends earned about 12k/month) but it is dirty, dangerous work. You are isolated for weeks or months at a time. Drug use is extremely common, and your safety and even life often depends on the clear thinking and detail-orientation of someone who is hungover or high or both. There will be no internet access, although there is probably a communal television with satellite access. Many workers lose much of their money gambling: you can not participant and be isolated, or participate and lose, or participate and win and risk physical interventions.

My mom wouldn't let me go. :)

Any money you don't lose gambling will just go toward the downpayment on a $100k pickup truck anyway, if the parking lots of Grande Prairie on a weekend are any indication. =)

I've never worked on the rigs, but I know many people who did. (Or equivalent jobs in the mining industry) It isn't completely unskilled labor, but the pay is very good for the skill required.

The reason everyone doesn't roughneck is that it's extremely physical, dangerous work that requires long hours and often living in company dorms away from friends and family in the literal middle of nowhere.

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