I am a graduating senior and currently hold an offer from Halliburton in their FOP program (fracking). I dug up some old threads on it but still have some questions. Primarily, what is the long term career path, and how long does it take to move into a position with that's not on 2 week shifts? Also, what does the actual work consist of? I'm fairly mechanically inclined and certainly not afraid to get dirty but I really don't have any idea what I would be doing. Thanks in advance for your input.

It's essentially a fast-track to a supervisor for a crew. You'll start out in the field working outside and learning the equipment on a 2 week on/1 off schedule. You may be out there for a couple of years rotating through each piece of equipment doing maintenance on it and helping crews rig up/rig down for jobs. After you've gone through each piece of equipment, you may serve under a supervisor as a Supervisor in Training. After demonstrating that you can handle the load and you know your equipment, then you'll be promoted to a supervisor. After supervisor, the next role is service leader and you'll be in charge of a crew as a whole. Supervisors are field roles while Service Leaders spend a lot of time in the field but they're not subject to 12 hour shifts and they spend a lot of time in the office handling paperwork and setting up the next job for their crew. You'll basically be a a 2 on/1 off schedule until Service Leader but that may take you 4-5 years. You'll work your butt off and be gone a lot but you definitely learn a lot and the benefits at Halliburton are great.

Thank you, that helps a lot. How does Halliburton handle those positions during a slowdown in the industry? I know that layoffs are common in the oil and gas, but is there any more security in a management position?

That's a competitive position. You're young and just getting out there. Jump at it. The volatility will always be there. The only way you insulate yourself from layoffs and furlows is by gaining enough experience to warrant the higher level positions. This is the beginning. DO IT!!

There is more security in management but even Service Leader isn't management. What Halliburton will first try to do as it slows down is close down crews. They'll keep those people and spread them out across different crews in case it picks back up and they open that crew again. If it keeps slowing down, they'll have to do some layoffs and usually the field employees are the first to go. Experience has the best chance to stick around.