Eagleford shale play, just south of San Antonio, is a great place these days. If you can get a commercial drivers license, and are willing to work 100+ hours a week, and pass a drug test, you can get hired there these days. After a year, working those kinds of hours, you ought to be making over $100k a year, driving a truck in the oilfield.
If you have ANY sort of engineering back ground, willing to work long hours outside, and pass that drug test, there are plenty of jobs there too, but not driving a truck.
Typically, it's harder to start as a roustabout or drilling hand, and easier to get on with a service company, usually NOT Halliburton, Schlumberger or Baker. Start with one of the small companies, and you will eventually find other opportunities.
FWIW, a guy/girl with a Petroleum Engineering degree, and 5/6 years of experience, is making a LOT more than that. Understand that, working in the oil patch, is unlike anything else you've done before. Hard to get in, and harder to stay in, too many good hands make good money, and piss it away with a DWI, from partying too much. No difference than being a senior NCO though really is it?
OK, that's an exaggeration. And an oversimplification. But still a fairly accurate generalization.
