Informational: Where to Apply

For anyone considering to come to North Dakota, it can be a monumental task to find out the specific places to apply to work.  There are some resources you can use, but it can take a lot of work to figure it out.  What I'm going to do today, is put together my own list of places I check on a regular basis.  Maybe if can help you if you are considering coming up to North Dakota.


Rigs and Drilling Companies

First I'll list the companies that operate rigs.  I'll also link to their web site if they have one.  If they don't, its on you to find a phone number or address, since it really varies depending on what part of North Dakota you are going to.  I'm putting the city each is based in as well.  These companies may have less opportunities than the larger ones I will list later, but that also comes with less competition, meaning you may have a better chance concentrating on these.

• AES Fluids - Denver, CO
• CanElson Drilling - Mohall, ND (North of Williston, near Canadian Border)
• CapStar Drilling - Casper, WY
• Cyclone Drilling, Inc. - Gillette, WY
• DHS Drilling - Casper, WY
• Ensign Energy Services - Calgary, AB, Canada
• Frontier Drilling - Roosevelt, UT
• H&P - Dickinson, ND
• Key Energy Services - Houston, TX
• KKA Drilling, LLC - Sheridan, WY
• Major Drilling - Flin Flon, Manitoba, Canada
• Nabors Industries, LLC - Houston, TX
• Nomac Drilling - Killdeer, ND
• Paramount Drilling US LLC - Dickinson, ND
• Pioneer Drilling - Williston, ND
• Precision Drilling Corporation - Calgary, AB, Canada
• Raven Drilling - Dickinson, ND
• SST Energy Corporation - Casper, WY
• Stoneham Drilling Company - Williston, ND
• Trinidad Drilling LTD - Kenmare, ND
• True Drilling LLC - Casper, WY
• Unit Corporation - Casper, WY
• White Mountain Operating - Pinedale, WY
• Xtreme Drilling - Brighton, CO

Larger Companies

These companies are a bit larger and encompass more of the entire process, including transportation of oil and gas to and from the sites.  These companies have a lot more positions to offer, including MANY CDL driver jobs (CDL A, plus tanker and Hazmat usually required with a year of experience to go with it).  The downside to applying with these companies is that you are just throwing your application onto a pile of others, so its kind of a crap shoot.  These are the companies where it really helps to keep stopping in the office or calling constantly so they get to know your name.  Anything to stand out from the crowd.  These jobs usually have better pay and benefits, so they are worth going after.

• Baker Hughes - Williston/Dickinson, ND
• Haliburton - Williston/Dickinson, ND
• Marathon Energy - Williston/Dickinson, ND
• MBI Energy Services - Belfield/Dickinson, ND
• Power Fuels - North Dakota
• Wyoming Casing - Dickinson, ND

These are most of the places I've come across personally to apply at.  Obviously there are more, and I acknowledge that.  If you know of any, let me know and I will add them to the list.  I'm also not including staffing companies.  Obviously, if you are really desparate for cash when you are out here, there are places like Walmart, McDonalds, Wendy's, and the like, all where you can get hired pretty quickly, and making some cash to extend your stay or even get you home if that is the case.

Either way, if this helps even one person find a job, or find a sense of direction out here, then its worth it.  To anyone coming out here, I just want to say be prepared.  There are a lot of people, no places to stay, and the weather is unpredictable.  Oh, and Good Luck!

Quick Update

As I post this, I see a cop in the rearview mirror slowly passing by, probably wondering what the heck I'm doing.  Funny.  I've been wondering that, too.

Not much has changed in the last week, so this post will probably be short.

We've gained roomnates.  We're up to 4 people officially in the house.  One guy is from Austin/Toronto.  Trust me, it makes sense.  Neat guy.  He made Buffalo Burritos the other nite that were pretty fantastic, as well as my first venture into Buffalo meat.  It was good.  The other guy

Still no luck on the job front.  I had an interview today, but I'm not sure how its going to go.  I'm probably going to make a trip up to Williston on Monday to apply some places and get my face in there before the trip back to Illinois.

From the intel I've been getting from people, everyone says to come back to them in mid to late June and they should be hiring, so that kind of works out.  We go back to IL for 2 weeks and then when we get back to ND, its mid to late June.  If I don't get work by the end of the 2nd trip, I'm not coming back.

I've been looking into truck driving schools.  If I can find a place that will pay me to get my CDL and give me some experience then I might do it.  I won't make a ton of money, but it will give me experience to come back up here with.

That's really it.  Not much else to update.  Oh.  Its cold.  It was like 50 today.  Last nite was unexpectedly freezing.  So I have that to look forward to.

Some people have all the luck.

They say to get what you want takes a lot of hard work, and a little bit of luck.

Exactly how much luck are we talking here?  Is it an additive effect, or is it a multiple effect?  I fear the later, which really screws me, because, as everyone knows, anything times 0 is 0.  If I have no luck, then am I fighting a futile battle?

Ok, before you get on me for finding reasons to give up, let me tell you, I'm not giving up.  I'm venting.  I'm venting because I'm frustrated.  I'm frustrated because, after 5 weeks of being out here, I still havent gotten so much as a call back for a job in the oil fields.  I guess its a "right place, right time" kind of situation, which takes a little bit of luck, which brings me right back to my point.

If I'm the kind of person that never wins at games of chance, do I have no luck, or negative luck?  I don't like to gamble anymore because I don't win (except for those few anomalies where I went home with a hundred bucks).  I don't like to play board or video games that rely heavily on chance or luck because I usually lose.  Here's a nerdy example: When running dungeons in WoW with my guild, there is only 1 other cloth wearer.  There might be 4 drops through the entire dungeon that I even qualify for and I get how many?  1 per 3 or 4 RUNS.  Ok, end nerd rant.

Basically the point I'm getting to is, I'm frustrated.  This situation is not entirely what I expected it to be.  Yes, there are jobs, yes they pay more than elsewhere, but if I had to pay for a place to live up here and everything, it wouldn't be worth it.  I'm barely scraping by as it is.

On top of that, I get to sit and watch Pete have exactly what I want, and then tell me that he is low paid by oil field standards.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not mad at Pete about it in the least, he's doing what he intended on doing and thats great, I'm proud of him.  It just frustrates the living hell out of me because I pretty much saw this coming.  As soon as he got hired on before I even left Vegas, I knew I'd be up here not finding anything.  I had that gut feeling.  And here I am.  Failing at what I feel like is my last chance to be an adult and be responsible for myself.  I can't spend the rest of my life working at places like Fast Food, or Walmart.  Its not going to cut it.  I had a plan, to get out of debt and go back to school.

But this is where I am.  This is what I have to deal with.

Some people can have their luck, and get handed jobs and promotions and transfers.  I'm not saying these people don't work hard, because I'm positive they do.  I work hard, too.  I may be lazy when it comes to my personal self, i.e. health, but when I'm hired to do a job I do it.  I could just use a little bit of help in at least getting an interview.  Could the fates tip their hats in my way, at all?

I just have to keep hy head down and keep trucking I guess.  Luck be damned.

An Update.

Greetings, from the great..uh, brown north?  What I mean is, everything here is currently covered in a thin layer of dirt/dust.  It gets quite windy here.  I mean, that would make sense because there is nothing to stop the wind from just blasting across the plains, but wow.  It gets WINDY.  I've started to notice a pattern.  It will slowly creep up in temperature to nearly 80, then it gets windy as hell for a day or 2, and suddenly its 50 again and the cycle starts all over.  Last nite was quite cold...

Yes.  I'm still in the back of the Dakota.  Yes, that means I'm still stuck working at Walmart.  Yes, I really loathe that place.  I cannot figure out how people work there for years.  Its not that its hard work, its just that its soul sucking work.  Every day is a marathon on my patience.  From unpleasant customers, to complete morons (I try to be patient with most people, but some people are in danger of forgetting to breathe, I swear), to complete pricks.

On a positive note, I did get paid yesterday.  I actually got paid more than I expected, which afforded me the chance to get a few things I wanted as oppose to needed, like new shoes (with built in gel insoles...so niiiice), sandals, and a nice dinner at Applebee's for me and Pete.  I have all my bills paid for the month and I have some money to last until my next check, so I'm in ok shape for now.

Pete seems to be figuring out his place at work, which is good.  He might be getting a work truck, which would make this a little less complicated as far as transportation goes.  No more having to wake up and go into Walmart at 6 am, even though my shift starts at 2 pm.  It frees up mornings to go searching for jobs, and it allows me to get a bit extra sleep, which, anyone that knows me can attest, I really benefit from a bit of extra sleep.

We also have a tenative date setup for our first trip back to IL.  Should be sometime at the beginning of June.  It will be nice to be surrounded by familiar people again.  Part of trying to keep myself distant from the people up here is it can get lonely from time to time.  But, it is what it is.  I'm not up here to make friends.

I've been really up and down, personally, lately.  I'm glad I have a job right now.  I'm glad I'm able to pay my bills and use my "pseudo-homeless" story to entertain people, either at work or on this blog.  A lot of people say they feel sorry for me that I have to sleep in a car.  Please, don't.  Understand, this was my choice.  I am not forced, by any means, to do this.  I could go back to IL or NV and have my own room and TV and computer and all that, but it wouldn't be MINE.  I wouldn't be having this adventure and I wouldn't be happy.  I'm still confident that coming up here was the right move, I'm just waiting for that right situation to kick in now.  I'm a firm believer that things happen certain ways for a reason, I just need to find the reason for this one.

That doesn't change the fact that part of me still worries that I'm failing in finding that reason, but I'm not sure what else to do.  If I find a place hiring, I apply.  Pete tells me the names of places all the time that I can apply to, and I do, but I haven't gotten a bite yet.  It's really incredibly frustrating sometimes.  Some people like to complain that they lose a bunch of money to taxes.  I wish I had that problem.  I'm pretty sure Pete is paying more, per check, in taxes than I make per check.  Kinda puts things into perspective there.

Nothing else has really changed.  Walmart keeps insisting I work later in the afternoon.  I'm not really happy about that, considering I had the discussion about working days with them when they hired me, but if Pete gets this truck to use, then it will be ok, since I won't have to worry about transport.

I have noticed one thing, though.  A LOT of people up here are married at my age.  I guess, that probably applies in most places, but I really notice it here, since I work directly with the public.  I notice a lot of women with wedding rings.  I'm not sure why I notice, but its something to kinda ponder.  Am I starting to get to an age where all the marriageable women are becoming more and more rare?  Eh.  I'm can't really worry about that right now.

I talked to some guys at work that are supposedly supervisors out in the oil fields.  I guess this area (Dickinson) is about to really boom this summer.  They are supposed to be issuing a TON of permits for new wells and most of them are going to be in this area.  So I guess this is the place to be.  It might make finding a job a bit easier in the coming weeks.  One could only hope.  I want to make the big bucks.  I really need a break.

That reminds me of something that happened yesterday.  I was messing around on the laptop and Pete was screwing around across the table from me and he was flipping a pen in the air.

"Whoever gets the point towards them is going to have a great financial event happen to him soon," he said.

"Luck based events never work in my favor, Pete," I told him.

Sure enough, it pointed at him.  We even re did it a couple times, but the point never favored me.  I took a lesson from that, I guess, but it seemed more like common sense.  You can't count on luck to bail you out, you have to keep working hard to get what you want.  Luck be damned.

Patience as a virtue...

So I just got done working 5 days in a row at Walmart.  Its nice to be working full time again.  It really wasn't that bad, especially given that its broken into 4, 2-hour segments per day.  The only downside is my right foot.  My heel REALLY hurts, and I know it has to do with the fact that my shoes are woefully inadequate for standing 8+ hours a day.  My heel, especially, hurts.  A lot.  So shoes will probably be purchased after my first big check.

I won't be getting much with my first check.  Mostly I will be paying up on bills and then holding onto the rest for gas/emergencies.  I really don't want to be at Walmart much longer.  Not because of the work, I kinda like talking to people and stuff.  Mostly because I came out here to be working for more than what I'm making here.  i didn't travel 1000+ miles to scrape by.  I came up here to work hard and get paid thusly, not get treated like crap by people that don't understand how their new food stamp card works, or why they can't get dog food with WIC.  I mean, if you want to pay me 20+ an hour to get treated like crap, then by all means, call me a fat slob as you throw your debit card at me, but for 9.50 an hour?  Have some decency.

I'm really happy I could find something out here as quick as I did, but I've reached a wall.  I can get paid this much in Illinois, and have a consistent "home" and my own transportation, plus the proximity of friends and family in the process.  I want more.  Yes, I'm being selfish, but I came up here for more.  I came up here in the hopes of getting 15+ an hour for 80+ hours a week, so I could do a few years, get out of debt, and regain control of my life.  Somewhere in there is a part of me that wonders if I'm supposed to be stuck like this.

I can't afford to keep thinking that way, though.  I just have to put my head down and push forward.  Keep putting in applications and hope someone calls me.  Its only a matter of time, right?  If you do the work, it will come back to you, right?

I've touted karma for awhile now, its time karma paid me back...

Oh, I've been finding out some interesting things about Williston and the area.  I guess the Walmart in Willison has gotten back to actually stocking shelves.  They are so understaffed its not funny.  I'm honestly waiting for management to start taking volunteers for day trips up there to help out.  Then again, its not like we aren't busy here.  Its very rare I don't have a line stretched out to the clothes, let alone a free moment to think.

Some Oil field people talked to me today in my like.  They were telling me that Dickinson is getting ready to explode in size this summer.  The way I interpreted it was this:  the state is about to issue a bunch more drilling permits once the spring thaw is over, and most of them are for the Dickinson and Belfield area, so by fall the Oil people expect Dickinson to start to get like Williston is now, which is chaos.

Williston is actually trying to ban living in an RV within city limits.  Seems like a "Yankee, go home" attitude to me.  A bunch of businesses showed to to a city counsel meeting to protest, saying that they would lose 80% of their workforce if they had to uproot and leave, which could kill the town.  Its nuts.

Tomorrow I have a day off, so that means its laundry day!  I have an interview as well, plus a couple places to go look for applications as well.  Maybe some rest for my aching foot, too.

Until next time.