He was hired, in May 2010, as vice president of his family's construction business. After the 2010 BP oil spill, he was tasked with creating a subsidiary of his father's company, called Coastal Environmental, that secured contracts to remove oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Murphy served as vice president of Coastal Environmental, and was one of its three directors from 2010 to 2012 (after being elected to Congress, Murphy stepped down as a director but remained an owner). As vice president, he ran the company's day-to-day operations for six months, until October 2010, when the Coast Guard called off oil skimming operations in the Gulf. PolitiFact.com found that "Murphy's description of his past employment is based on actual circumstances, but at times he omits a full explanation."