Editor’s note: This is the first of a six-part series featuring seniors who will be working uncommon jobs after they graduate in May. This installment profiles a student who will be working on an isolated oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

Come June, Ben Wingard will begin a schedule rotation that may start a little differently than some of those working in "the real world."

He'll board a helicopter and fly to an oil rig based off the coast of New Orleans, where he'll live for the following two weeks, working 12 hours a day. Once the two weeks are up, he'll have a two-week vacation and then return to the rig again for another round.

Wingard (senior-petroleum and natural gas engineering) has signed on for a full-time position as a "drilling company man" for the Chevron Corporation, an oil and natural gas industry.

Because Chevron does not drill the wells, but instead hires other companies, Wingard said he will be a liaison between the office and the contractors drilling the wells by making sure the contractors are doing what the office wants and being safe.

While he's on the rig, Wingard will share a room with another person, have free access to a gym and satellite TV. He'll also have meals cooked for him and the other 20 people living on rig, including engineers and contractors.

In the two weeks he has off during his rotation, Wingard plans to travel and volunteer in New Orleans.

"I think I'm going to live on friends' couches," he said.

Wingard said usually engineers who work at rigs work the job for four to five years and then move into a regular office job. He added that typically younger engineers in work at the oil rigs because they have less commitments, such as children and spouses.

"So they have no problem being on their own, isolated for two weeks," Wingard said.

Turgay Ertekin, professor and chairman of petroleum and natural gas engineering, said it's typical for engineers in the field to move around in their jobs.

He said because the work in the field is becoming more complex and capital-intensive, more knowledge of advanced technologies are needed to work in the field.

"We have to make sure all our students are exposed to all advanced technologies related to the sub-disciplines," Ertekin said, adding that the four sub-disciplines focused in the major are drilling, production, reservoir and transmission engineering.

Because many people are retiring from the industry, gas prices are high and the demand for natural gas is exceeding supply, there's a great need to hire petroleum engineers, Ertekin said.

With all the hype about switching to alternative, Wingard's not too concerned about his field's fate.

"It seems like it would take too long to switch to it," he said. "There's always going to be a need for oil."

Wingard said he was offered the job at Chevron at the end of his internship with the corporation this past summer. He said he looked into other companies and went on interviews before deciding to accept Chevron's offer.

Wingard said his internship and class experience helped with him getting the job.

He's had an internship for the past three summers, one in Punxsutawney, where he mapped out gas pipelines using GPS; the past two summers he has interned with Chevron in California and Louisiana.

Wingard said he's excited about working outside an office and having flexibility when it comes to assignments, so he won't get bored. And he may have a chance to work overseas in countries such as Nigeria.

He said his parents don't know much about the petroleum industry, and his mom has expressed concern about the how dangerous the field is, but Wingard said he's not worried.

"As long as you do what you're supposed to, it's not a problem," he said.

For now, he's just enjoying his last semester at Penn State by taking general education requirements and kicking back.

"It's mostly to get through than really anything else," Wingard said about his classes.