assistant engineer

engineer

roustabout

roughneck

manager

Transocean

Typical day as a third mate at transocean is very similar to a AB/OS or a cadet at a maritime academy. As such most of your day will be out on deck doing deck work and some time will be inside doing the ever increasing amounts of paperwork, data entry, and trainings. Under normal circumstances you will not be working on the on the bridge or standing a watch. You are there to fulfill the third mate requirement on board and the company likes to have as many licensed deck officers on board to boost its reputation. The more licensed officers has onboard the better for them when it comes to bidding in new contracts. However, the clients only car about how many licensed officers are on board, not their position, which is why transocean has been replacing their experienced unlicensed crew with inexperienced new academy graduates. 

There is extremely high turn over for third mates as well. On my first hitch the marine department had seven people quit and another three people quit on my second hitch. Many only do one to three hitches before moving on to a different company. Those that stay longer that are constantly shoe horned into supervising and training new hires. The marine department was always under staffed despite having the largest area of authority on board. Since there's so many people onboard and the drill ships are around 800 feet long, almost every preventative maintenance job takes way longer than it should, where it's lifeboat, fire station and extinguisher, or working aloft gear inspections they will all take multiple days. Sadly a lot of unwanted jobs also tended to find their way to marine department because it's a ship and the marine department does ship stuff. 

The company will pay for your dynamic positioning training but they will require you to no longer be a short service employee (by completing three hitches on the same ship) and complicated all of your required online and on the job training before they will send you. Once you have the DP certificate you will most likely only be able to get your two hours of DP time after your 12 shift. 
 In my case the captain wouldn't even let short service employees up on the bridge during their off time to work on DP sign offs. The DP simulator was also off limits to thrid mates as well.

When I was working there in mid 2023 third mates were making just under 103k with no bonuses or extra holiday pay. That ends up being around 575 dollars per day. That is definitely on the low side for a 3rd mate, even just out of the academy. Other companies in the Gulf will pay around 650 dollars a day for a new mate with their DP basic certificate. Good luck trying to figure out how they calculate your pay. You are salaried nonexempt meaning you can eat over time. Good luck trying to figure out how you are paid, everyone onboard just calls it black magic whenever they're asked how we are paid. Good luck trying to get extra money for staying on longer as well. For example, if you work 28/28 and they ask you to stay for another week, you won't get any additional pay. Only 35 days onboard will they increase your day rate. 

The crew, just like any other ship will make it break your time onboard. In my experience, everyone was great to work aside from the chief mate. In their defense, the company doesn't treat their chief mates very well but that doesn't excuse the way mine acted. The other departments also didn't seem to respect the mates all that much. Most of the time we were seen as hall monitors looking to write people up or the people that stopped drilling so we could things like fire and abandon ship drills.

In summary, if you're fresh out of the academy and want to work on a drill ship as a dynamic positioning officer go get your dp basic certificate and apply to any number of the many osv companies in the Gulf. You'll get actual ship handing experience, time and half on you sea days, and better pay and working conditions. Do not get baited by transocean into thinking they'll give train you from a 3rd mate to a dpo in a reasonable amount of time. Only third mate I know out of the 5 I knew were able to make the jump from mate to dpo. 

Years ago it was a really good place to work, but as the layoffs came, the cream doesn't rise to the top.  Management on the rig itself really deteriorates especially when accidents occur in the fleet.  Company management became even more reactive  when a person was injured or killed on a rig.  The OIM and other rig upper supervisors start threatening those below and talk about making an example out of someone.  Pre-tour meetings turn into whipping sessions about what is going wrong and how people can be replaced.  Another important thing to mention is the cutting of rig crews in order to cut costs.  The men (and it's almost entirely men on a rig) are expected to accomplish the same work with fewer people.  Managers in the corporate office tell us to take our time and work safely, while upper supervisors on the rig measure trip times and tell us these will not slow down.  Since the safety rules are always changing, expectations are changed, and we are expected to do the jobs with less people...you are set up for failure almost everyday.  When there is an investigation of an incident, they first thing the investigators do is find out which policy was violated and find someone to blame.
Years ago most of the drilling contractors were very good family oriented companies that did their best to avoid layoffs such as Global Drilling, Falcon, Sonat, Rowan, and others.  All this changed when upper management started out from the bottom ranks of the company and replaced by Harvard and other Ivy League grads.

My normal day would start by chairing a Team meeting of our engineers regarding targets that had been achieved yesterday and look ahead for today and tomorrow. 
Ensure all of the team are clear and happy in their tasks to be achieved and reassure that if any issue arises we deal with it immeadiately. 
Whilst being a leader it was not forgotten that not one person makes a team it is the forging of work and personal attitudes that create a winning formula.
Managing a budget which could amount to millions of dollars and lost revenue for installations out of service was at times stressful but also satisfying as constant scrutiny spurred you on to achieve the goal required.
The job in projects threw up some challenges none more so than elongated time spent away from family and friends in some cases months.
Following on from the challenges of time away, it was a very satisfying feeling of knowing you have made changes/improvements for the personnel that would be working offshore on their particular installation. 
And finally that you could now see your family which is the most important

You work a twelve hour shift. Have a pre-tour meeting to discuss ongoing and upcoming operations. Handover with relief to find out where he is on the task. Ensure all permits and work orders are in place to ensure all safety barriers are active. Ensure all well control equipment is in place and functioning. Ensure all crew members are wearing the proper ppe. Ensure well is secure at all times whether you are tripping in or out of the well. When equipment goes down worked with the maintenance departments in trouble shooting the problem and fixed in a timely manner to minimize downtime. Ensure all equipment was locked out and tagged out correctly. As a supervisor I have learned how to manage people to make the job go safely and efficiently as possible. Had the opportunity to work with different people from around the world. Learning different cultures and their life styles. The hardest thing about my job was leaving my family for twenty one days at a time.

Performing a periodic maintenance on appropriated equipment and following the STAR work orders procedures and updating primer sensors interfaces and transducers;
Follow a Chief Electrician task with unexpected faults, rectifying of them as required. 
Monitoring SCR’s top drive, rotary table, shale shakers, mud pumps;
Controlling engines as auto start and full monitoring of them (temperature of oil, Cooling water, oil flow, pressure, exhausts gas, water ballast;
Controlling pumps and monitoring valves control Drawworks;
Being in charge of pumps, control-monitoring panels; 
Being in charge of shale shaker frequency driven motors (soft starter) DC winches, cranes, BOP equipment, fire and gas installation and obstruction lights;
  SCR’s: Top drive, Rotary table, Mud pumps control, Shale shakers, Engines,  load control and auto start up  and full monitoring of them, ballast system control and monitoring. Drawworks with aux. pumps, control-monitoring panel of it. Shale Shaker VFD of  el.motors with aux. pumps, Cranes, BOP aux equipment, Fire and gas alarm installation, Obstruction lights.

When I originally hired on in October 2022, I was thrilled to work there. Unfortunately for the Electronic Techs, it’s not always the case. It just depends on where you are assigned. I unfortunately was stuck with a strict, yet rude and disrespectful EE supervisor on the Deepwater Proteous. There were good crews on the A, B, and C crew, but D crew, you wouldn’t want to be there. Overall though, I did learn a lot during my 6 months there. I especially picked up more on the oil and gas side. Be prepared for the additional stress that comes with the position. 
I was released due to not excelling like the Supervisor wanted and I was told originally I had a 1 year and half training schedule to be an ET. Apparently that wasn’t the case with the supervisor. There are some good people who have taught me a lot and I’m thankful to have met and work with them. Management needs to truly connect with those working offshore instead of seeing employees as numbers. 

Responsible on a Daily for the operation, maintenance and repair of all subsea BOP(Blow Out Preventer) and riser systems, Multiplex electro-hydraulic control systems, and all associated surface equipment and systems. A brand new environment giving myself new knowledge in the exploration and extracting of fossil fuel from deep beneath the Sea floor.
A challenging work environment where excellence is sought at all times before expediency, working to extremely tight schedules, where costly equipment downtime has to be kept down at ALL times.
Safety is always at the forefront of any task and is driven daily by management at pre tour meetings.
Working with extremely dedicated personnel on an offshore installation can bring people together that other jobs cannot. Being away from home for 28 days a month, 6 months of the year can sometimes be extremely difficult but always time the quality time at home drives Offshore workers on.

Overall, the offshore drilling industry provides a very high salary for skilled labor and professional positions while working only six months out of the year. The benefits package is pretty decent and the company is very proactive about employee training. However, the offshore drilling industry is not for everyone as it requires one to be gone long periods of time (21 days in the US GOM and 28 days overseas) with travel on your off time. They pay all air fares, lodging, school costs, and transportation to and from the work or training locations. Most of the time they also pay for meals at your hotel when training. Life on a drilling rig is good in the US GOM with good meals, nice accommodations, internet, email, phone access, a gym, game room, and movie theater. Overseas rigs have most of these same amenities but the food quality can be very terrible depending on location.

Provides direct support and assistance to the Assistant Treasurers as well as approximately thirty (30) additional personnel within the department in a variety of administrative-detailed matters.

Performs diverse secretarial and clerical work of an administrative nature which requires discretion and confidentiality.

Prepares Travel Request forms and works with in-house travel department to coordinate travel (hotel accommodations, car rentals, etc.) as required by managers and personnel for domestic and international travel while ensuring cost-effective choices.

Coordinator for all special events including Annual Bankers’ Conference.

Assists in the coordination of office moves when required, and in setting up office space for incoming personnel/consultants.

Coordinates the payment of department invoices and ensures proper coding.

Working with very complicated, heavy and technologically advanced equipment is par for working with Transocean. Much of the equipment is put under punishing conditions, and need much manpower to keep them running smoothly. There are excellent personnel in their employment. The company's treatment of employees is great, many are there for their entire careers happily. There is always room for promotion and cross training.

My favorite part of the job was being a part of a new crew of licensed engineer's excited at getting all the equipment back to 100%. Much of the ship I worked on was falling into disrepair before this new crew.

The hardest part of the Job for me was being away. Its part of the Job. You Will Be Away.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Assistant engineer 3 salaries reported	$119,667 per year
Engineer 5 salaries reported	$125,600 per year
Roustabout 3 salaries reported	$68,308 per year
Roughneck 3 salaries reported	$80,667 per year
Manager 3 salaries reported	$126,333 per year

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