After graduating high school in the ’90s, Cory Baker started working with pipelines and eventually learned about directional drilling. Seeing a lot of opportunity in that market, he started doing horizontal directional drilling (HDD) work for a Louisiana-based company. After spending the majority of his drilling career there, he took an opportunity with Hard Rock Directional Drilling about a year-and-a-half ago. The company specializes in HDD and is based in San Antonio, with two additional hubs in Pearsall, Texas, and Edinburg, Texas. Baker serves as division manager, overseeing projects from bids to completion. He says getting to where he is today took a good deal of time and patience, and that young drillers should realize that moving up the ladder doesn’t happen overnight.
A. I look over all of the operations. We have 23 rigs and I look over the operation of those rigs. I help with the estimations, just the overall production every day. What keeps me coming back is Hard Rock is a really good family atmosphere. Robert Myers IV is the owner and started this company in 2003. I had worked with him over the years with my previous company, doing different things for him, and really got to know him. It’s just a really good family feel here at this company. That’s, for sure, what keeps me coming back every day.