Post: #1

Just curious if there are either any professionals out here who have given up that sort of job just because they got tired of it?

What did you do? Did you eventually go back? Did you not eventually get bored just diving and chasing tail? Jobs like doctor just don't seem like the kind where you can screw off for 5 months a year to go learn surfing, come back for 6, then leave for 4. I somewhat enjoy my job (field petroleum engineer), money and benifits are great, but the lifestyle and hours are insane, quality of life is non-exisistant, and it's the classic case of I'm rich because i rarely have a chance to spend my money.

I have a ton of stuff I'd like to do (Dive master, African safari, few months Muay Thai etc) but then what? Go do something similar, only to get bored again in a few years and repeat?

On the other side, are there people with jobs a lot more flexible (trades, etc), which lets them take 4-5 months off at a time, and they can get right back into it. What's the end game for you guys? I'm in a field job now, fastly approaching 30, and well I'm not 23 any more. I'm already feeling it. 20-40 hours straight work isn't as easy as it once was...

I guess my question is, is there any reconciliation for people like doctors or lawyers, who enjoy their work, but are happy living a simple life, and who realize there's a lot more to life than 100 hour work weeks?

Put another way, I didn't become an engineer because I like hard work and wanted to accomplish great things. I became an engineer because I was under the impression if I worked my ass off and paid my dues young, I'd have a job that paid the bills but gave more free time.

Post: #2

Actually doctors eventually go into practice and get a lot of time off. Most DES I know work 4days a week and take 1 month off acyear. That being said most ers don't have trouble finding chicks and have no desire traveling around looking to bang 3rd world chicks. They have nothing to prove. They can afford the Eliot spritzer route when they want fantasy fulfillment.

Post: #3

There are definitely options. And I think you have more options than Doctors and Lawyers (especially Lawyers).

-Contract work. Engineers can do contract work right? If you have a speciality you could take 3-6 month contracts at a time, work your magic, then get out and do something exotic. Im pretty sure you're well positioned to do this as Petroleum Engineer actually; and you could take positions in different countries presumably. (It kind of seems like the perfect job for contract work in many ways!). I know at least one person who did 6 months on a rig as an engineer, got in and got out and saved alot of cash.

BTW, Im not sure there's much wrong with the "work a couple of years, take time off" model. It's OK to live a cyclical lifestyle like that, in fact many people do it deliberately. You might find after a few months of teaching english or muay thai or safari that you're a new person, ready to come back to engineering with a new perspective. Life never works out according to some nice neat plan you had in your twenties before you knew much about the real world.

There's also options for parlaying your skillset into related jobs that better fit your requirements for free time. Even if your existing job doesnt lend itself well to contract work, Im sure you could make your own job.

The more marketing/business/sales skills you can learn and couple with your direct domain experience as a petroleum engineer, the more you can position yourself as a consultant or freelance marketer and make your own rules. There are ex-engineers who became marketing consultants for the sorts of tech firms they used to work for, helping them market and sell their solutions B2B. They are highly sought after because pure marketing people often can't grasp the complex technical products/solutions well enough to market them properly to technology buyers, so someone with the technical chops AND marketing ability is in high demand. You'd probably have more work on your plate than you knew what to do with, and could pick and choose.

Post: #4

Seadog, you are basically in better position than 99% of people in the US and Canada with your expat job.

In the US, the top 1% of households make 380k+ per year, and you by yourself are probably saving more than a vast majority of these households. If you can push yourself to keep saving until you get to a set goal (let's say around 1 million dollars), you would be able to take a lower paying job at a much better location or just travel full time with a passive income stream if you want to relax.

Post: #5

I was working a tech job for 10 years and just kind of left and sold my house because I didn't want to work there or live there anymore. Had a bit of savings and sold my condo and I'm just surviving off that now. Most of the money I made I put into my mortgage.
I don't really have an endgame plan. I keep pushing my trip longer and longer and the more I do I think the harder it is going to be to live a life working for 8+ hours a day again.

Post: #6

I recommend reading the book Vagabonding. It's explain the philosophy of long term travel and how to go about it.

Post: #7

Can you do contract work? Work 6 months to a year then take a mini retirement for however long? The money is usually better in this if its available in your career field.

Post: #8

(06-15-2013 09:45 AM)Seadog Wrote:  On the other side, are there people with jobs a lot more flexible (trades, etc), which lets them take 4-5 months off at a time, and they can get right back into it. What's the end game for you guys? I'm in a field job now, fastly approaching 30, and well I'm not 23 any more. I'm already feeling it. 20-40 hours straight work isn't as easy as it once was...

That's my life in a nutshell although I'm not sure what my end game is, I thought I would have that figured out by now at the age of 30 but I don't. Oh well, I'll just keep doing what I've been doing the last couple of years, working 4-6 months each year and traveling the rest, it could be worse. I have a condo which I dump money on and a nice union pension that does well, I invest a little in other areas and the rest goes to partying and traveling. I haven't owned a vehicle in two years, the most expensive thing I own is my Iphone, when I'm' working in Canada, my monthly expenses are about $400-500 (cell phone, smokes, booze gym, etc.) Basically that's how I can afford to travel, by keeping my expenses very low.

I don't see myself doing exactly what I'm doing for too much longer, 5 years max but luckily with my trades background I can easily move into another gig, maybe management or some kind of 40 hour/week gig, we'll see what happens.

Post: #9

Contract work isn't really the kind you can do for my specific job. You basically need to do this role through a company, because we have things like explosives/radiation and if I'm not an employee, makes all those things almost impossible for joe blow to get on his own.

I can appreciate that I'm better off that the majority of people, that's why I feel like an ass for not being satisfied. I know there are a good number of people that would trade places with me. At the same time, one of my best friends made me Godfather to his daughter, what's the price on only seeing that kid once a year? Of your health going down because you don't have access to a gym? Or female contact other than coworkers (and sometimes period - I haven't even seen a women in 12 days and counting currently) for 7-8 months a year? One of my friends in Veitnam, he works offshore for like 5 weeks at a time, then has a little bit of time on land. He has two young girls, what's missing them grow up worth? Especially if you're already in financially great shape (But not Fuck-You money) It feels almost like I did life in reverse order. Through out university and twenties people normally spend everything, have a blast, and not much to show for it. I did the opposite, had some good times, but played the diligent role, did well in school, got a well paying job which allowed me to still travel, but demanded a sacrifice of a normal life with normal toys. Now that I've been responsible, I feel like I'm missing out on exactly that normal life.

As some of the other oil people commented too in another thread, I think I'm ruined for a regular life. Regular people work because they need the pay check. If I had a normal job, the second some nerd started going on about nonsense that typical SWPL go on about at work, I would be gone. That's if I didn't get fired for racial/sexual or whatever other forms of harassment are out there first which is par the course at work. So on that hand, that part of me says stick with this.

Post: #10

I totally get what you're saying. I'm a lawyer, make decent cash, but would love to take some time off and do other things. However, as a lawyer, my options appear much more limited than yours as an engineer. My practice is very localized in that I can't pick up, move to another state, much less country, and expect to be able to do the same thing. So, what do I do? I've thought about teaching english, but I just don't know if I would find it challenging enough to give up my current job (and I'm not knocking any english teachers on here, that's just me).

Petroleum engineers do appear to be employable world wide, but I'm no expert in that, you would know much more than me. If your options for world wide work truelly are limited, then I suggest you save, invest, and try to build a passive income stream so that once you decide to pack it in, you have some cash to support you.

Post: #11

Seadog, maybe it's time to make a change then! There must certainly be related fields that have better work-life balance.

I dont know much about petroleum engineering but presumably a field job is a position at one point in the chain of very closely related jobs?

I know that for scientists involved in oil or mining, there are three layers of work - the exploration field guys on the rigs/mines with hours like yours, the intermediate guys at a processing center that is still abroad but in a city near the rig/mine, and then the interpreters/analysers back at headquarters in the home country. You'd need some retraining but it wouldn't take too long, and field experience is always seen as invaluable by people in an office role further down the stream.

Obviously engineering isnt the same, but Im sure there are chains of closely related jobs like these, surely it wouldn't be too hard to move away from field work?

There's always a way to pivot your skillset. You've got to look for solutions. If you're at all interested in marketing/business, then you DEFINITELY have options. Guys coming from technical background who develop marketing skills are always massively in demand.

Or hell could be an international teacher and teach science or maths, in english, to english-speaking students. Get 3 months off per year, get a western wage and work in an exotic country. Start researching your options.

Post: #12

Seadog can't you get a 28/28 gig somewhere, Rigzone has lots of postings?

Post: #13

Don't feel too bad, seadog. I have several friends in finance who preached "$10 million and I'm out" and of the few that actually had 10 bucks liquid, only one gave it up. Chalk it up to human nature, never being satisfied with what you have.

Post: #14

Dentist here. Same dilemna. I call it the golden handcuffs.

Post: #15

I had a lucrative marketing gig back in Miami Beach. I was working from home, making decent money and chillin' on the beach pretty much daily. I had already traveled while working. Spent a glorious month in Medellín, Colombia and when I came back to Miami, I bought a one-way ticket to Bangkok.

About 2 days after I bought my ticket, one of the partners of the company called me up and told me they're consolidating their resources to focus on their startup which was starting to do really well. In other words they were letting me go.

I didn't really have much money saved up and I had this ticket to Thailand. So I decided fuck it, and just came out here anyway. Ever since then I've been pretty much scrambling, hustling like you wouldn't believe and building my dating advice business in between taking on the odd client to keep afloat.

Even though I had a comfortable job and life in Miami Beach, it was mundane and routine and unchallenging. Coming out here with virtually nothing in my pockets and testing my resourcefulness has caused me to come into my own as a man. No plan B, no asking other people for money. Just self-reliance and hustle. It was truly a blessing in disguise.

If you have some money saved up Seadog, I suggest you look into Internet Marketing. A lot of the guys on the forum work all over the world anywhere with a WIFI connection, have no set hours, and do something they're passionate about. And make good money. Like any business, online marketing is difficult and has a steep learning curve but if you're a petroleum engineer, I'm sure you can handle it!

Good luck!

Post: #16

Petroleum engineer, especially for offshore work, is one of the most lucrative and flexible fields there is.

I've been in "post-conflict" international development work. Basically war-zone civilian advisory work. It paid well, but not "fuck you" well. It left some baggage, too.

I'm between jobs now. Maybe I'll get another one, maybe not. I would not recommend it as a career - too hard to break into, and it will not pay what it's been paying the last ten years. I only got into it because of the wars.

With the military pension, I'm set for life as long as I watch my spending a little.

I'm doing the world tour myself now, but I've been going from 4-star hotels to rooming houses over the last months.

Post: #17

A few solutions I can think of - I have seen all these things happen IRL:

1) Shift work. 10-10, 14-14, maybe even 28-28 (not as common). I know it's more difficult for engineers to get these shift positions (damn oil companies always want you around to be responsible if some disaster happens...), but I've seen them out there.

2) Job hopping every 2-3 years with a 4 months vacation in between. Completely acceptable "professionally", especially early in one's career.

3) Leave of absense from your job. Once you've had a solid 5-10 years experience in the oil industry you probably have quite a bit more leverage than you realize. Winding down your current role, taking Nov-May off, then coming back into a new role is not unheard of.

4) Work 60 hours a week for 10 years, save your money, and retire mid 30s. Personally this is the solution I'm working on. Starting from 0, you can easily have 1m-1.5m saved in 10 years. Be willing to stretch that another 5 years and you'll have 2-3m at age 40.

I know it's a bit of a lifestyle sacrifice in the present, but just remember: it's all about the money. Seriously. When you're 40 and have a 300k retirement fund and 200k in home equity, and spent 80% of your money on expensive, silly shit, you'll be right back here asking how to make your lifestyle balance work. Just save 60-70% of your income instead (spending ~30k/year) and you'll have the above mentioned millions much sooner than you think, and the OPs question will become moot.

Post: #18

(06-23-2013 07:47 AM)Sp5 Wrote:  Petroleum engineer, especially for offshore work, is one of the most lucrative and flexible fields there is.

That's what I understood too. Surely the OP has lots of options with that skillset.

Post: #19

(06-23-2013 04:53 AM)VincentVinturi Wrote:  I had a lucrative marketing gig back in Miami Beach. I was working from home, making decent money and chillin' on the beach pretty much daily. I had already traveled while working. Spent a glorious month in Medellín, Colombia and when I came back to Miami, I bought a one-way ticket to Bangkok.

About 2 days after I bought my ticket, one of the partners of the company called me up and told me they're consolidating their resources to focus on their startup which was starting to do really well. In other words they were letting me go.

I didn't really have much money saved up and I had this ticket to Thailand. So I decided fuck it, and just came out here anyway. Ever since then I've been pretty much scrambling, hustling like you wouldn't believe and building my dating advice business in between taking on the odd client to keep afloat.

Even though I had a comfortable job and life in Miami Beach, it was mundane and routine and unchallenging. Coming out here with virtually nothing in my pockets and testing my resourcefulness has caused me to come into my own as a man. No plan B, no asking other people for money. Just self-reliance and hustle. It was truly a blessing in disguise.

If you have some money saved up Seadog, I suggest you look into Internet Marketing. A lot of the guys on the forum work all over the world anywhere with a WIFI connection, have no set hours, and do something they're passionate about. And make good money. Like any business, online marketing is difficult and has a steep learning curve but if you're a petroleum engineer, I'm sure you can handle it!

Good luck!

Post: #20

I have been thinking a lot about this as well lately. I don't want to live in Austin anymore. I want to see the world.

The tough question is: What do I do when I get back? How do I explain an absence of one year or more? I might just say that I took time off to spend with my mother.

Post: #21

I always go back to Australia every year to catch up with friends and family.
I don't regret leaving the professional life behind too much. Ultimately, nothing really changed back home. Friends bought new cars, salaries went up, cost of living went up, but the experience of going somewhere where you know nothing and building yourself a life from scratch is rather challenging and rewarding. Sure, sometimes I have low points where I think the cushy life back home is more attractive, but some things are only available to be experienced once you left the creature comforts of home.

Post: #22

(07-31-2017 01:01 AM)puckerman Wrote:  I have been thinking a lot about this as well lately. I don't want to live in Austin anymore. I want to see the world.

The tough question is: What do I do when I get back? How do I explain an absence of one year or more? I might just say that I took time off to spend with my mother.

Just lie on your resumé. Either family reasons or else a fake job. Its like cheating on a girlfriend: as long as you do it smartly you'll never get caught.