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What are your job goals, both short term and longer term?
First a little background, I became a Union laborer when I turned 18, good money, nice lifestyle and so forth. When construction went bust, I went to college at 28, and worked towards a degree in environmental science, as well as a home energy auditors certificate, and took some photo voltaic classes as well.
Short term, get out from under this debt, find something steady, and break the check to check cycle. Long term, just about the same as anyone else, I suppose. I would like to get my pensions back to growing, savings built back up, college for the kids, nice house for the wife, fishing boat for me.
Any advice from anybody would be greatly appreciated, I have been creeping on the forums since last fall, and have learned a whole bunch from you ladies and gents!
Hey Pripic, you sound exactly like me, almost exactly a year ago. Was waffling back and forth, and I actually went as far as to visit Williston and Dickinson before deciding to hold off another year and do a bit more groundwork before giving it a try. For me, the biggest barriers to making the final decision to head out were fear of leaving the old comfort zone with a decent paying seasonal job (but only 5 months a year, which wasn't cutting it, long-term financial stabilty-wise) and making sure that I've done everything possible to prepare myself to be employable and an asset to the area, not a burden on the already strained communities. After a brief check of Craigslist today, saw quite a few open RV spots, at least around Williston, and while they're expensive (to be expected) it looks like it would definitely be possible to find a place to park with hookups - that would give you a month or two and breathing room to look for an apartment if you wanted it, or shop around for a cheaper place to park the RV long term. Hope this helps you decide! Once I actually said "yep, I'm gonna do it, let's get ready", I found that it was much easier to focus and figure out what needed to be done. Heading out in a month, maybe I'll see ya out there!
Gobuffs - I'm betting your construction background will be a HUGE asset out there. Even if your long term goal is to line up something in the oilfields, with the housing market exploding in Dickinson, Williston, and everywhere in between, I would think that you'd be in pretty good shape, job-wise in the short term. When are you actually getting out there?
JaCaNd....I am heading out of Kansas City the first of March. Gonna start in Dickinson and go from there. I have given some thought to the oil fields, but it really depends on the Union construction up there...the Union hall here says there is plenty of Union work, but generally I have come to find our Hall to be full of baloney. Good Luck with your journey, hope all is safe and prosperous!
Gobuffs30 and JaCaNd, your posts are exactly why I started this thread. I agree with you, Gobuffs30, hearing others' stories really helped motivate me to think about this realistically. Being able to relate to other people in similar circumstances definitely eases the loneliness and cuts back some fear. Right now I've been talking to family and friends and mulling the decision over but, like you JaCaNd, it's still hard to let go of good weather and a decent job in a familiar place. My timeframe is a little skewed and unresolved, but it would have to happen within the next two-three months. I just left the service industry and things are starting to get tight, the clock is ticking...
If by "looking for adventure" you mean, being bored silly, while freezing your behind off, and probably living in very sketchy conditions for a lot of skrilla... Yeah, we got that.
Pripic, Glad to hear that we can be of some service! The amount of info and motivation that's come through this board has been truly amazing to me, trying to pay it forward.
As far as your timeframe is concerned, sounds just about right - from the chatter on the boards here, folks are saying that around the time that the ground starts to thaw (late Mar-early April) and stuff starts moving around again, the employment situation should take off quite a bit. Fingers crossed!
Be interested in hearing what you decide! Keep us posted
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