Mustachian Employment ideas?

[reverend]

So being laid off, moving from Denver to San Antonio, I find myself unemployed (I do desktop support/jr. systems admin stuff) and jobs here are scarce.  Now, I am real good at what I do, and I don't come across as a creepy whackjob when I interview, so I am considering a possible career change.   In the past, I've gotten the job I interviewed for except ONE time.

Alas, I am thinking of skilled trades. The oil business maybe?  I like making money and the more I make, the quicker I can work to relieve boredom as opposed to I-have-to-pay-bills.
Electrician? I do have a bit of a fear of zapping myself, but new construction electrical would be relatively safe. :)  Plumbing?

I am pretty handy with mechanical things and fix my own cars/motorcycles, wire my own home (network and electrical) and do my own plumbing, so I think it would be a crappy slave-position for a year until I can show that I'm not useless. It would also be nice to do real work with real physical results instead of a keyboard jockey.

I would love some sort of 2-weeks-on and 2-weeks-off deal like the oil guys tend to do, and if I were off-shore, there's a per-diem too. It would suck to be away from home, but making good money on 6 months effective work would be great.

Ideas?  Working remotely would be ok too, or anything else off the wall and/or interesting...

[Kriegsspiel]

Why don't you move somewhere that has jobs for you?

[reverend]

Ahh, a vital piece of information.  My GF and I have done the long-distance dating for a while. When my job ended, I moved down to her part of the world. Texas wasn't on my map prior to her.  :)  I have to give it at least a couple of years here to have given the place a fair chance and convince her to give up her gig as a tenured teacher and follow me somewhere else. hehe

Why don't you move somewhere that has jobs for you?

[James]

Since you are restricted to a location, make sure you take that into account.  I'd start talking to people in town there and looking through the job listings to see what is available in the area.  What is in demand in one city might not be needed elsewhere.

I don't know about he oil business, but it does seem like a possibility.  I would assume there is information on the web, I'd look for that and then start making phone calls.  The one thing I'd take as a given is that the harder you work to find a good job the more likely you are to find one.  That often means making phone call after phone call, following every lead until they dead end, and pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone.

In the big picture I would also focus on things that have long term possibilities rather than just short term, but you can't always predict that.

[Secret Stache]

Oil and gas is booming in the shale just south of San Antonio.  If you are looking to go that direction that is a good place to start.  However, I will issue a warning that they work insane hours (80-90+ hours a week) for 30+ day stints.

If I were in your shoes I would look into opportunities in your area of expertise within that industry.  The rigs both offshore and surface need IT support and sometimes they issue lucrative contracts to those who are qualified.  As a starting point, off the top of my head, I would look locally for opportunities with Valero and Tesoro who are both headquartered out of San Antonio.

[reverend]

Thanks, that's struck me too. The problem is that I can't find *any* information on that. It's a little weird.  There are websites that will charge you to "help you find a position" which smells like a scam to me.  Valero & Tesoro have my application for whatever jobs fit already, but it's not oilfield jobs. I'd be perfect for an E-van in the field (I think) but again, I can't find anyone who works in the oil industry and my google-fu must be broken because all I seem to find is the scam-looking stuff.

It may be that it's just a very "hands-on" industry where there isn't any advertising done (for my sort of position). A little discouraging, but at some point I'll run in to someone at the grocery store or something... :)

[Arbor33]

Network marketing is a pretty lucrative business down Texas way. Don't let the idea scare you though. The concept is quite heavily supported by Robert Kiyosaki, Warren Buffet, and Donald Trump. Specifically, I'm thinking of Ambit Energy which the latter personally endorses.

I'm involved with Ambit part time and I'll tell you this. It does have a generous compensation plan, but it's not a get rich quick scheme. The real beauty of the energy industry is that you sign someone up once. From there on out, you get paid on something that someone habitually uses and subconsciously purchases. There's no stock to keep or packages to deliver.

The link that explains the business in more detail has my personal information on it. If you'd like to watch a video about it, let me know and I can PM you the link.

Otherwise, I recommend avoiding the strenuous schedule that an oil rig demands. It could cause unnecessary stress on your relationship and sway your opinion of Texas. I'd certainly get stressed with it. I do my best to prioritize people over money and wouldn't want to risk any anger displacement.

[Secret Stache]

Search for Oil and Gas job fairs.  They have them fairly reqularly and I wouldn't rule out travelling a day to get to a job fair in Dallas or Houston either.  I wouldn't be concerned with location if you truly want to do rig work because you will be on-site for at minumum 2 weeks.  Additionally, if you are searching for rig work you need to branch out from the traditional names in oil and gas that you may be familiar with just from seeing them at the pump.  What you are looking for are service companies (i.e. Halliburton, Weatherford, Cameron, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, ect.).  Find recruitering companies and headhunters that specialize in this.  Do a search on linkedin for these recruiters and build a network of HR folks that do the searching for you.  Again I wouldn't limit myself to rig work, that should be a last resort because as stated earlier the quality of life is not worth the money in my opinion.  Plus if you end up getting a job with one of these groups and not like you can always transition to a roughneck position.

[kdms]

I would love some sort of 2-weeks-on and 2-weeks-off deal like the oil guys tend to do, and if I were off-shore, there's a per-diem too. It would suck to be away from home, but making good money on 6 months effective work would be great.

Having spent multiple years working off-shore and separated from my husband due to work schedules (we were both professional mariners not too long ago) I would not recommend it for someone who has chosen to move to a state with no jobs in order to spend more time with his girlfriend.  :)  Long-distance relationships, believe it or not (and speaking from my personal experience only, someone else may say differently), are much easier to maintain if you're land-based, simply because at least you still have land in common.  When I went to sea, it was like I dropped off the earth into a black hole for my friends and family....their lives went on, and it was up to me to try and fit into them when I came back.  Also, bear in mind that if you really are brand new to the industry there are a lot of legal requirements to working in a marine based environment, and the courses aren't cheap and quite frequently need to be renewed.  The cost is negligible compared to the pay, but it's still there. 

Not being in the US, I don't know what government department to direct you to find out what basic mariner courses you need to work offshore in US waters.  Texas A&M University is a leader in advanced marine firefighting and other specialty courses, so you may be able to find leads there on how to break into the industry.

You're right to be wary of the websites that charge a fee.....reputable mariner placement agencies will take your resume and advise you on what requirements you're missing, if any, for positions that they have available.  Maybe try googling for schools that offer marine navigation and marine engineering training; quite often they offer a rather varied selection of courses that would help you get in the door, and sometimes hold job fairs, as mentioned by Matt.

[Secret Stache]

I forgot to mention the job sites that specialize in oil and gas jobs like http://rigzone.com/

I think there are some other ones but that one comes to mind

[reverend]

Many thanks for the info.  I'll poke around and see what I can find.

I do weight the potential impact on personal life too. I am pretty sure that it would be cush to stay with the positions that I'm used to. Office jobs, usually around 40 hours/week. Air conditioned and relatively clean environments.

It would be nice to increase the income to be able to sock away more and retire sooner, but the quality of life until I get there does matter.