Aberdeen is expensive but if its a base to get offshore then its not so bad, just a departure point really. As for the glamour, I agree, you may get scunnered when you have to mobilise offshore once you've done it a few times but once you're offshore its not too bad. Worse ways to make money.
As for cash, I dunno, you can turn a good coin offshore, day rate contractor varies from £250 - £620 per day in Aberdeen, plus your uplift / retainer. Also, if you're only based in Aberdeen you can live where-ever you like. I know a guy who lives in Tennerife, makes his cash in Abz rotates home and has good buying power overseas. £4-8k a month plus 2-3 weeks time off too, not too bad.
Personally though, working overseas would be more exciting I think, more tax free too. As for occ safety wage contracting, you can still make 6 figures so not the worst. As for staff, yes, the pay is less, but good for a start, can get good perks also, paid for MBA, MSc + Pension, Shares etc.
As for the beast money lol, yes, tech safety engineers do turn a good coin, £70-£90 an hour I'd say, more in Norway if you want to go there.
As for getting into the oil and gas, I'd go overseas, Aberdeen is kinda hard to break into but once you're in you're ok. Check out oilcareers.com get on linkedin, get some contacts, in all honesty, you need someone in the industry already to get you in.
That is changing a bit now, but it still is the case as as much as JJ is getting stuck into occ safety, you'd be amazed at how many riggers, bolting tech's and other offshore guys want to transition to safety and they already have an offshore skill.
Possibly if you want to get on the tools, you might have a better chance of getting offshore. Either that or occ safety overseas.
As for much better than occ safety, I'm retraining to get into tech however, I’ve seen and been involved in some fantastic things in occ safety so I wouldn't’t change my career history and it is a very rewarding career so don’t let JJ put you off.
My 2p