By Amanda Leon, founder of OilMoney.io. Houston-raised, came up in the Houston marketing team of Vallourec, and has run Unrth, a brand and growth studio for oil and gas and industrial companies, since 2017, with her boots on client locations in Midland and Odessa. Last reviewed November 5, 2026.
We read live oil and gas sales job postings on November 5, 2026, and kept 93 that sell into the patch. Here's what they ask for. Industry experience comes first, in 64 of 93. Among postings that state years, the median is 4. About two in three talk about winning new business. One in five wants you to bring relationships you already have. Only 14 show pay, 3 mention LinkedIn or social selling, and 1 mentions entertaining customers.
How We Read It
We ran 20 searches on LinkedIn Jobs, limited to the past 30 days, by basin and by product line: Midland and Odessa, Houston, Oklahoma, North Dakota, artificial lift, PVF, chemicals, rentals, wireline, and water. That turned up 317 postings. We read about 245 of them one by one, and added two from Baker Hughes' own careers site.
We kept a posting if it was a US role selling a product or service to oil and gas customers. We dropped non-sales roles, other industries, and roles aimed only at refineries or retail fuel. A posting repeated across cities counted once.
Where the 93 sit: 34 in the Permian, 37 elsewhere in Texas (mostly Houston), 13 in Oklahoma, 7 in the Bakken, and 2 in the Rockies. Nine came through recruiters. Ten sell software, networks, or IT into oil and gas.
Limits: this is one day's read of what LinkedIn chose to show. Small shops often hire by word of mouth and never post at all, so this leans toward bigger companies. We confirmed the counts for relationships, industry experience, safety cards, LinkedIn, and pay by reading the matching sentence. Counts for degrees, CRM, travel, and new business are word matches, so read those as "the posting mentions it."
What They Ask For
Oil and gas or related industry experience: 64 of 93 (69%).
New business, prospecting, or hunting: 60 (65%).
A degree, required or preferred: 55 (59%).
Travel: 47 (51%).
A CRM, such as Salesforce: 45 (48%).
Commission or bonus: 35 (38%).
Trade shows or conferences: 27 (29%).
A driver's license or clean driving record: 19 (20%).
Existing relationships or a network you bring: 18 (19%).
Drug test, background check, or driving record check: 17 (18%).
Pay shown: 14 (15%).
Company vehicle or allowance: 10 (11%).
LinkedIn or social selling: 3 (3%).
Entertaining customers: 1.
Years: Fewer Than You'd Think
Of the 93, 67 state a number of years. The median is 4. Nine ask for 2 or fewer, 25 ask for 3 or 4, 28 ask for 5 to 7, and 5 ask for 8 or more.
There are doors for newer people. Republic Services' E&P territory role in Odessa lists 0 to 2 years within the oilfield or similar. NOV's outside sales role in Odessa lists 2 to 4 years of work or college. At the other end, Forum Energy Technologies wants 8 or more years of oilfield services experience in Odessa, and Downhole Chemical Solutions says it will prioritize completion engineers with sales experience. If you're coming from the field, that last one is worth reading twice. We cover both roads in how to get into oil and gas sales.
Who You Know Is in Writing
Eighteen postings ask, in plain words, for relationships or a network you already have. SLB's Midland sales role names existing relationships in the Permian Basin drilling and completion market. Metric Geo wants strong existing relationships throughout the Permian. EnerStar Solutions wants them in the Bakken. Global Compression Services strongly prefers them within the territory.
Nineteen percent may sound low. But people hiring on X say the same thing with fewer manners: bring a rolodex. Relationships you've built can't be rushed the week you see a posting. Before you lean on them at a new company, read Texas non-compete law and non-solicitation clauses.
The Job Has Many Names
If you only search for "sales rep," you'll miss most of it. By title: 30 were some kind of sales representative, 24 account manager or executive, 20 business development, 11 sales manager or director, and 8 technical sales or sales engineer. Read the duties, not the title. We explain one of these in what a technical sales representative does.
What Isn't There
Safety cards. None of the 93 lists H2S, SafeLand, or an ISNetworld requirement as something you must already hold. Don't read that as "not needed." Screening shows up instead: 17 mention a drug test, background check, or driving record. Customers and sites set their own rules, and ISNetworld is a company-level gate.
Entertainment. One posting, NOV's Denver regional role, lists entertaining among its duties. Oil Twitter jokes about the company card all day. The postings mostly don't mention it.
LinkedIn. Three postings mention it. SLB lists social selling among outreach methods for two Houston roles, and ComboCurve lists LinkedIn correspondence among the ways its business development lead reaches people. Everyone else is silent. That doesn't mean your name doesn't matter to them. Nearly 2 in 3 of these jobs want new business, and a buyer can look you up before he takes your call. Few employers ask you to build that. Whoever does it anyway has something their competition doesn't. Start with whether your LinkedIn profile really matters.
Pay, Briefly
Only 14 of 93 show pay, and 35 mention commission or bonus. The lowest figure in each posted range has a median of about $100,000, from a small and uneven group. We break that down, with federal wage data, in how oilfield sales reps get paid.
If You're Looking Right Now
Search more than one title. Try account manager, business development, territory manager, and technical sales.
Answer the experience question early. Say what you've done in oil and gas in the first lines of your profile and resume.
Be ready for new business. Most of these roles expect you to find work, not just take orders. Have a list of who you'd call.
Ask what the posting doesn't say. Pay, plan, truck, and territory are mostly left out.
We Will Read It Again
We plan to read postings again in April 2027 and show what changed. The Tailgate is one letter a month from the patch, and it carries the numbers from each update. Sign up at the bottom of any page.
Get Your Bison Walk-Around
If a buyer searched your name tonight, find out what he'd see. Send us your LinkedIn. We'll send back the Bison Walk-Around: five minutes of plain English on what's costing you callbacks and what we'd build. No call. No invoice. We give first. Get your Bison Walk-Around.
Sources and As-Of Dates
LinkedIn Jobs search, past 30 days, 20 searches read November 5, 2026. Employers are named here because their postings are public; we have no connection to them from these postings.
Baker Hughes careers site, read November 5, 2026.
Postings come and go, so some of these may have closed by the time you read this. Our coding sheet, with each posting, is available on request.
The Warm Walk-In™ is an original method created by Amanda Leon and owned by The Valours Creative Innovation LLC.
