As a freelancer with Zimex sitting at home waiting for a call I can tell you things are not great at the moment. We have lost a few contracts lately due to low oil prices and now have at least three twotters on the ground.
As far as lifestyle it's quite different. You get paid a decent amount of dough for spending 5 (or more) weeks in the desert, and have quite a bit of time at home. Five weeks on.five weeks off, but take that with a grain of salt. Extensions and training on time off (paid time) is SOP.
The company itself is, most of the time, a class act company. The flying is most of the time not very challenging, 98% VFR, except during sand storm season in the spring. All in all a quite easy paycheck, as long you can handle extended stays in remote (and HOT) places.
At the moment obviously no hiring, not until present crews are back in the saddle.