Moving Up, Moving On, and Moving West

Change has a bad habit of sneaking up on you.  Or at least that's the way I feel about this summer.  Fortunately things have finally started to settle down in a different city, job, industry, and state.

This summer I took a pause on my life to evaluate where I wanted to end up in the long term with my career.  What I was doing in environmental consulting, which was largely report-based, did not engage me in ways that I needed.  I needed something more hands-on and physical with a concrete product and result.  Something I could passionately sink myself into.

I approached my search thoroughly and methodically.  I read career books, took evaluation tests, experimented in life coaching, and spoke with several dozen alumni-- a rewarding task, and highly recommended.

After evaluating my skill set, what kind of work environment I wanted, and the potential for rewarding future employment in different industries, I decided to focus on a career in energy, namely the oil and gas field.

Energy is something that I have always been interested in, its one of the bases off of which society runs, comes in innumerable forms.  It covers a broad range of life from transportation, home, international politics, the environment, and society, to name a few.  It's something that I can confidently say that I could spend a lifetime on without getting bored.  And it's not going away, energy (regardless of the form) is the future.

Everyone has to start somewhere, so now I am using my background in geology and working as a mud-logger in Pennsylvania.

A mud logger is someone who collects bits of rock that brought to the surface when a drilling rig (a piece of equipment which is drilling for oil or gas) is operating.  By examining the bits of rock I can determine where in the earth the drill head is going, and help the operator steer the drill towards the rocks which contains the oil and/or gas.

For more information about what I do as a Mud Logger, click on one of the following links: 

-Summary with Movies

-A day in the life of a Mudlogging Geologist

The rig is located in a beautiful hummocky area of northeastern Pennsylvania.  The leaves are changing and are bursting with color.

I am enjoying working in a position with beautiful outdoor work at very regular intervals (every 20-40 minutes) which is counterbalanced by office work updating my observations into a log.  The pace is methodical and relatively non-stressful (if everything is going right).   All in all not a bad job for where I am in life and what kind of work I enjoy.  One of my job perks is becoming accustomed to resplendent morning sunrises.  

More information about my job, and rig life to come, and hopefully I will have pictures from hiking Pennsylvania coming soon.

Let me know if you have any suggestions for books I should read in my off-time, places I should visit, questions about how I decided upon this position, or about how the wells are drilled.  Thanks!

P.S.  Call me crazy, but I am only 5 hours from Niagara Falls,  I see water in my future.

View from the "office."

One of many gorgeous sunrises