A plain guide to breaking into the Permian Basin with no experience: the job titles that are actually entry level, what they pay, the tickets you need before you apply, and where to apply directly.
Every week somebody posts a version of the same question. They have lost a job somewhere else, or they are finishing school, or they are just tired of what they are making. They have heard the Permian Basin pays. And they want to know one thing: how do you actually get in?
The advice they usually get back is a mix of stories from ten years ago and “just show up.” This is the plain version, written for someone who has never worked a lease and does not know anybody out here.
The job titles that are actually entry level
“Oilfield job” is not a search term that will get you anywhere. These are the titles that hire people with no experience:
- Roustabout. General lease labor. Digging, painting, moving equipment, cleaning up locations, helping whoever needs hands. This is the most common first job in the patch and the most common way people find out whether they like the work.
- Floor hand or worm. The entry position on a workover or drilling crew. Physical, and the fastest route to a real skill if you stay.
- Swamper. The second person on a truck. You are not driving yet, you are handling hoses, lines, and rigging. On vacuum and water trucks, this is how a lot of people earn their way into a driving seat.
- Shop helper or yard hand. Working out of a company yard rather than on location. Often overlooked, usually a more predictable schedule, and a good way into an equipment or pump shop.
- Service shop helper. Pump repair, valve repair, machine shop support. Steadier than field work and less weather dependent.
If you have a CDL, the list is different and it is longer. Water hauling, crude hauling, vacuum trucks, heavy haul, and fuel delivery all run on drivers, and every one of those is its own specialty in this directory.
What it pays
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay for the Midland and Odessa metro areas. In its May 2025 survey, the median hourly wage for roustabouts was $22.68 in Midland and $21.95 in Odessa. Service unit operators, the hands on workover and well servicing rigs, came in at $23.78 and $23.60. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, a group that includes a lot of oilfield hauling, were at $27.98 in Midland and $28.06 in Odessa.
Those are medians across every experience level, so a first job usually starts below them, sometimes further below on a staffing agency’s payroll. They also leave out overtime, and that matters out here. Hours move take-home pay more than anything else: a lot of field work is twelve hour days on a hitch schedule, so the hourly number in a posting can understate what people actually earn. A CDL is the other big one. It is the single credential that changes your earning range fastest.
Roustabout work is also one of the largest oilfield jobs in both towns. The same survey estimated about 3,940 roustabouts working in the Midland metro area and 2,060 in Odessa.
What to have before you apply
A SafeLand card. SafeLand USA Basic Orientation, which a lot of people still call a PEC card, is the standard safety orientation for onshore oil and gas work. It is a one-day class, and many operators and contractors expect new hands to have it before their first day. The training itself does not expire, though some companies ask for a more recent class. Many employers also want H2S awareness, a separate short course on hydrogen sulfide. Having both in hand puts you ahead of most walk-in applicants.
Companies that teach these classes locally are listed under safety services and training in Midland and Odessa.
A clean drug screen and a background check you can pass. Expect both, expect them early, and do not be surprised by a random screen after you are hired. This is not a formality in this industry.
A driver’s license and reliable transportation. Locations are spread across a lot of empty country. If you cannot get yourself to a yard at 5am, nothing else on this list matters.
Boots, safety glasses, and FR clothing. Some companies issue FRs, many expect you to show up with your own.
Where to apply
You have three doors, and most people who get hired use more than one.
Apply directly to companies. This is the door people underuse. Search by what the company does and where it is, not by job title. If you want lease work in Midland, start with roustabout and lease maintenance and well servicing and workover. In Odessa the same two are here and here. With a CDL, look at trucking and heavy haul in Odessa, water hauling and vacuum trucks in Midland, and crude oil hauling across the basin.
Go through a staffing firm. Usually the fastest way in and usually not the best paying long term. Several are listed under staffing and recruiting in Midland. A common path is to take an agency placement, prove yourself on a crew, and get hired on direct.
Call the yard. This is still how a great deal of hiring happens out here, especially at smaller companies that do not run a formal careers page. Almost every listing in this directory carries a phone number, which is the reason we put it there. Call in the morning, ask if they are taking applications, and be ready to come in.
If you want the list of Midland and Odessa companies that were running a careers page when we checked, it is here: who is hiring in the Permian Basin, September 2026.
What people get wrong
Moving out here before you have a job. Housing in Midland and Odessa is expensive and it gets more expensive when demand is high. Line up work first if you possibly can.
Buying a truck on day one. The classic mistake, made every cycle. The industry runs in cycles, and a payment made at the top of one is still due at the bottom.
Only applying online. Large companies use applicant tracking systems. Small ones frequently do not, and small ones are most of this basin.
Quitting the first hitch. The first two weeks are the hardest they will ever be. A lot of people who would have done well never find that out.
One honest word about timing
Drilling has been steadier than the headlines suggest. Baker Hughes counted 268 rigs working in the Permian Basin in early September 2026, up from 254 a year earlier. Even so, most openings for newcomers are not on drilling rigs. When we checked the websites of the Midland and Odessa companies in this directory in September, most of the ones running careers pages were production and service companies: the people who maintain, pump, haul, and repair wells that have already been drilled.
That work goes on whatever the rig count does. It still pays to apply to more than one place, and to show up with a SafeLand card and a clean record already in hand.
Browse companies by specialty in the company directory, or by town starting with Midland and Odessa.