<b>Pros and cons of an onsite engineer.</b>

I start with the cons first

You have to wear a helmet, coveralls and safety glasses everyday. Sometimes, you may have to wear a safety harness.

You have to work under the hot sun or in dark, noisy and dusty confined areas sometimes everyday. The combination of the above reason and this will be a real turnoff. Think of the equivalent of wearing your army fatigue with your helmet and webbing if you've been through NS.

Probably, you will have to lead many bangladeshi and indian foremans and workers to get the work done. You will have to communicate with them on a daily basis. Think of going to Little India to work everyday.

The risk of getting into an accident. Falls from height or being hit by an falling object are the top killers. It is quite safe to work in the shipyard but incidents do happen and you never know.

Culture is quite regimental. Think of NS again.

Long working hours. Think overtime and burned weekends. Depends on department but the culture is towards long working hours.

Now to the pros.

The prestige of working for the top oil rig builder in the world. Definitely looks good on your resume.

Relevant experience such as having experience in working on the oil rigs or conversion projects can help you get into the oil and gas industry which is more lucrative.

Good bonus.

Virtually no retrenchment.

So you will want to be an onsite engineer if you like the sun and interact with people and don't mind the work environment.

About the bonus. Remember the bonus is not the same as your salary. Bonus can fluctuate. Currently, there are hardly any new projects clinched in the past year or two and the ongoing jobs are based on the projects clinched previously when oil prices were sky high. If there are hardly any new projects for the next 2 years or so, you can pretty figure out on what happens to the bonuses.

So think twice before you sign on the dotted line.