Let's keep things in perspective here mate.

Yeah, there has been some bad press in Australia relating to a few incidents involving some young Irish guys there - that's not to say that all the Irish over there are like that. Obviously.
The one's that decide to come here from Oz shouldn't be pigeonholed by you as potential troublemakers based on the actions of a few idiots.
Most young Irish guys are like most young Canadians or Australians or English or French; ie like to go out and have a good time but not generally into fighting or causing trouble. And not inbred either...

Is the boom in Australia over?

Any word on Irish girls migrating here?

I have a question I hope someone can answer it.

Would taking this course be useful?
http://www.aptcollege.com/courses/floorhand.html

Unless I'm missing something that course looks like a scam. You normally get paid for that training.

Yeah I agree. Why pay Three grand for that when you could make three grand plus in two weeks as an entry level lease hand then move to floor hand? Use the three grand to fund a trip out to Sask or AB and then start knocking down doors. It's getting very close to heavy drilling season so hiring signs should be everywhere.

(08-28-2014 11:01 AM)DjembaDjemba Wrote:  Is the boom in Australia over?

Any word on Irish girls migrating here?

Irish girls dont travel anywhere where they have to compete with hotter local girls and where guys have white girl fever. So they end up in places like Egypt, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, Africa and cockfests like surf towns, work towns etc.

They are actually pretty crafty at finding penis paradise.

I dont think Canada is an attractive offer for them. They have hotter girls to compete with and no huge white girl shortage to leverage with.

Expect the ones who do arrive to live in smaller towns or to already arrive with an Irish boyfriend/fb to at least cover one base.

(08-28-2014 05:16 PM)Pete Wrote:  I have a question I hope someone can answer it.

Would taking this course be useful?
http://www.aptcollege.com/courses/floorhand.html

Useful? Maybe.
Needed? No
Waste of money? Definitely

These courses are like shitty game bootcamps. Just go approach (oil companies).

(08-28-2014 05:16 PM)Pete Wrote:  I have a question I hope someone can answer it.

Would taking this course be useful?
http://www.aptcollege.com/courses/floorhand.html

I know a couple of guys who took this course years ago, its in my home city back in Nova Scotia and ya, its probably a waste of money if you don't already live in the area since on top of tuition, you'd have to pay for the flight there, hotel, etc but hey, if you have money to burn then go ahead. I remember back in 04/05' when the big boom was just heating up, there'd be tons of job ads for work in Alberta in the Halifax newspapers and also ads for outfits like these. I remember one "school" that advertised boom truck training to "make big money in Alberta", it was ten grand and I considered taking it, my buddy talked me out of it, thankfully.

Any training such as this can be done in Alberta with companies that will pay you to do it.

(08-27-2014 09:16 PM)John Mack Wrote:  Let's keep things in perspective here mate.

Yeah, there has been some bad press in Australia relating to a few incidents involving some young Irish guys there - that's not to say that all the Irish over there are like that. Obviously.
The one's that decide to come here from Oz shouldn't be pigeonholed by you as potential troublemakers based on the actions of a few idiots.
Most young Irish guys are like most young Canadians or Australians or English or French; ie like to go out and have a good time but not generally into fighting or causing trouble. And not inbred either...

Allow me to be abundantly clear by no means am I painting everyone with the same brush. I'm simply saying that in my view it seems that my own people are disproportionately causing a lot of trouble when on tour in comparison to other nationalities. I will succeed the point that me stating that an entire group of people act a certain way is poorly thought out idea. My viewpoint may be a bit biased as I am living in the heartland of mini Ireland (South Boston Represent) it's a bizarre place there's IRA murals on shop walls and the average citizen is not to fond of black folk. Anyway I'm going a bit off point how's the weather up North these days? All my friends in Boston think I'm fucking nuts leaving a place known for having a bleak winter to go beyond the wall haha

(08-28-2014 06:19 PM)komatiite Wrote:  Yeah I agree. Why pay Three grand for that when you could make three grand plus in two weeks as an entry level lease hand then move to floor hand? Use the three grand to fund a trip out to Sask or AB and then start knocking down doors. It's getting very close to heavy drilling season so hiring signs should be everywhere.

(08-28-2014 07:49 PM)scotian Wrote:  

(08-28-2014 05:16 PM)Pete Wrote:  I have a question I hope someone can answer it.

Would taking this course be useful?
http://www.aptcollege.com/courses/floorhand.html

I know a couple of guys who took this course years ago, its in my home city back in Nova Scotia and ya, its probably a waste of money if you don't already live in the area since on top of tuition, you'd have to pay for the flight there, hotel, etc but hey, if you have money to burn then go ahead. I remember back in 04/05' when the big boom was just heating up, there'd be tons of job ads for work in Alberta in the Halifax newspapers and also ads for outfits like these. I remember one "school" that advertised boom truck training to "make big money in Alberta", it was ten grand and I considered taking it, my buddy talked me out of it, thankfully.

Any training such as this can be done in Alberta with companies that will pay you to do it.

Thank you very much guys. It's nice to hear from people who actually do this.

My question is because I'm from the US so getting to work on Canada might be next to impossible without experience. I'm interested in moving to North Dakota.

Do you suggest I just move up there and start looking for jobs?

What are some things that would help getting a job?

(08-29-2014 08:23 PM)Seanchaí Wrote:  I'm going a bit off point how's the weather up North these days? All my friends in Boston think I'm fucking nuts leaving a place known for having a bleak winter to go beyond the wall haha

Haha you'll be grand man. At the moment it's cooling down a little bit - we had a serious heatwave for a while there (along with some vicious mosquito's).
The winter is bleak alright no doubts. But most days are fairly bearable if you're dressed for the occasion. In saying that I work indoors for most of my day so am not really qualified to speak on the subject with much authority ha.
Those few days where it gets down below -30 are a different story. Even if you're out for a minute to fill up on petrol and you don't have a hat or gloves on, you're going '.....bolluuuux.... this is fucking a nightmare'.
But most winter days in Edmonton at least seem to be around -15 or 20 which is sort of not too bad. It's a dry cold.

Just go man. Google oil field job fairs in Montana, ND, Wyoming and show up with a good resume and attitude. Too much thinking, not enough action.

(08-31-2014 05:08 PM)Pete Wrote:  

(08-28-2014 06:19 PM)komatiite Wrote:  Yeah I agree. Why pay Three grand for that when you could make three grand plus in two weeks as an entry level lease hand then move to floor hand? Use the three grand to fund a trip out to Sask or AB and then start knocking down doors. It's getting very close to heavy drilling season so hiring signs should be everywhere.

(08-28-2014 07:49 PM)scotian Wrote:  

(08-28-2014 05:16 PM)Pete Wrote:  I have a question I hope someone can answer it.

Would taking this course be useful?
http://www.aptcollege.com/courses/floorhand.html

I know a couple of guys who took this course years ago, its in my home city back in Nova Scotia and ya, its probably a waste of money if you don't already live in the area since on top of tuition, you'd have to pay for the flight there, hotel, etc but hey, if you have money to burn then go ahead. I remember back in 04/05' when the big boom was just heating up, there'd be tons of job ads for work in Alberta in the Halifax newspapers and also ads for outfits like these. I remember one "school" that advertised boom truck training to "make big money in Alberta", it was ten grand and I considered taking it, my buddy talked me out of it, thankfully.

Any training such as this can be done in Alberta with companies that will pay you to do it.

Thank you very much guys. It's nice to hear from people who actually do this.

My question is because I'm from the US so getting to work on Canada might be next to impossible without experience. I'm interested in moving to North Dakota.

Do you suggest I just move up there and start looking for jobs?

What are some things that would help getting a job?

really dont want to spend another 12 hours of my life aimlessly tripping pipe.

(08-31-2014 08:48 PM)oilbreh Wrote:  Came to Alberta over 2 years ago with a Mechanical Engineering degree. I was looking for mwd work at the time, but came middle of summer so it was not happening. Ended up working coil tubing over a year, and been rough necking for almost a year on a drilling rig now (pays better).
My question is, should I switch to mwd now? will my rig experience put me to DD faster then other MWD that have only a degree or only rig experience?
Should I try to go for something else? All in all I like MWD, but I wish it was on rotation, kinda sucks spending all year in Alberta aside from break up...
I also have american citizenship, would it be easy to get a MWD job in lets say Denver, or some place more liveable then Alberta? So far applying online I get no responses. I did drop my resume off in the winter to a MWD place, heard back end of spring, but by the time my hitch was over the guy who called me switched jobs, said he forwarded my info, but I never heard from the new guy
really dont want to spend another 12 hours of my life aimlessly tripping pipe.

You've been working in Alberta for two years, you have a mechanical engineering degree, dual citizenship and have been doing entry level grunt work on a rig for a year and are now asking such basic questions, something doesn't add up here. I don't know anything about drilling so I'll let someone else chime in but I"m very surprised that no one in the companies you've worked for has answered these questions or you haven't been head hunted off Linkedin or some other site like that.

- I dont have a linkedin profile, should I make one?

Yeah I don't get it. I went to Alberta right when I found out I had dual citizenship and got on as a mud engineer within 4 months.. No engineering degree.. during breakup.

You should be trying to work for an operator and not screwing around with any of this service company garbage. Forget about DD, you won't care two shits about that when you get on with a junior producer and get stock options. You have a golden ticket to the top of the triangle, especially with 2 years oil field experience between completions and drilling. This is exactly the candidate background operators look for in junior production and drilling engineers...

(08-31-2014 09:55 PM)scotian Wrote:  

(08-31-2014 08:48 PM)oilbreh Wrote:  Came to Alberta over 2 years ago with a Mechanical Engineering degree. I was looking for mwd work at the time, but came middle of summer so it was not happening. Ended up working coil tubing over a year, and been rough necking for almost a year on a drilling rig now (pays better).
My question is, should I switch to mwd now? will my rig experience put me to DD faster then other MWD that have only a degree or only rig experience?
Should I try to go for something else? All in all I like MWD, but I wish it was on rotation, kinda sucks spending all year in Alberta aside from break up...
I also have american citizenship, would it be easy to get a MWD job in lets say Denver, or some place more liveable then Alberta? So far applying online I get no responses. I did drop my resume off in the winter to a MWD place, heard back end of spring, but by the time my hitch was over the guy who called me switched jobs, said he forwarded my info, but I never heard from the new guy
really dont want to spend another 12 hours of my life aimlessly tripping pipe.

You've been working in Alberta for two years, you have a mechanical engineering degree, dual citizenship and have been doing entry level grunt work on a rig for a year and are now asking such basic questions, something doesn't add up here. I don't know anything about drilling so I'll let someone else chime in but I"m very surprised that no one in the companies you've worked for has answered these questions or you haven't been head hunted off Linkedin or some other site like that.

I guess I'll give it some more time and apply more. Worse comes to worse ill just switch to mwd in novemeber if it doesnt seem to be going anywhere.

American here taking a MSc in Oil and Gas Engineering.

Like CSKEA said, you have a golden ticket and should be looking at oil and gas operators for entry level employment. With a Mechanical Engineering degree you should be looking for entry level Drilling Engineer jobs so you can become a Drilling Consultant and laugh all the way to the bank!

Get your profile updated on Linkedin.com and then try to connect with Drilling Engineers/Managers to see if they can help direct you to who is hiring.

Regarding your current job, let your HR Coordinator/Manager know that you have an Engineering degree and see if they might put you on the fast track program to Assistant Driller or another opportunity. Never hide an Engineering degree from Management. I understand if you don't want to mention it to your colleagues, but always let HR know. FYI, most Drilling Supervisors in my MSc program have a BSc in Mechanical Engineering. Your degree is very very valuable and can help you get your foot in the door for a lot of opportunities if you use it correctly.

If I were you and had dual citizenship, I would head to West or South Texas and get on a crew working frac/wireline/downhole tools, ect..., but as an ENGINEER and leverage your 2 years of oil field experience. If there are no Engineering roles available, take an operator role and then tell them you have an Engineering degree after you secure the position. Oil servicing companies are always looking for good engineers. They should put you on the fast track route toward learning how to run your own jobs after a year or 2 of training since you already have field experience.

I have a friend who is a 27 year old Frac/Stimulation Engineer and makes $1200 every 12 hours on site working as a Frac "Engineer Consultant". He has a Petroleum Engineering degree, but has let me know that having a Mechanical Engineering degree in the field is also very valuable.

The first couple of years will suck, but after you "pay your dues" you can then work your way into an Engineering Consultant role where you can make some serious coin. You can either stay out in the field and run your own jobs, or go join an oil and gas operator and consultant as a "Completions" Engineer. Major major coin!

Here is a good post explaining field opportunities.

http://www.reddit.com/r/findapath/commen...field_and/

(08-31-2014 10:30 PM)oilbreh Wrote:  

(08-31-2014 09:55 PM)scotian Wrote:  You've been working in Alberta for two years, you have a mechanical engineering degree, dual citizenship and have been doing entry level grunt work on a rig for a year and are now asking such basic questions, something doesn't add up here. I don't know anything about drilling so I'll let someone else chime in but I"m very surprised that no one in the companies you've worked for has answered these questions or you haven't been head hunted off Linkedin or some other site like that.

Hi, Well I should of been more descriptive in my post,
- Coil work didnt pay well and was ten times the head ache, it wasn't consistent work and you were constantly on the road, the schedule and town sucked on top of that. I said fuck it and looked for other jobs, dropped by to a drilling company and they hired me on the spot. It pays better, and better than most engineering jobs atleast entry level, and I figured it would put me ahead of the other engineers for oil related jobs in the future.
- Really there arent that many engineering jobs the the field, (frac engineer, wireline sometimes use em, mwd and DD but the degree is not even needed really) and the operators seem to be impossible to get on, so I was just seeing if maybe anything else I wasnt aware of was out there, that offers a rotation.
- I am pretty sure I can easly get a MWD come october, but it doesnt offer a rotation so idk
- I never told the company I had an engineering degree, they just asked if I had oil field experience and h2s, and after a 30 sec interview hired me. I also never tell my rig crew or anyone I have a degree, rig hands have a hard time with their egos and it would just invite unnecessary jealousy and nitpicking of my work and work ethics to find flaws to make them feel better about themselves.
-An engineering degree isnt really that special like most Albertans think, at least in my experience.
- I dont have a linkedin profile, should I make one?

The pay in Texas is shit, almost china like slave wages.

Go to North Dakota.

Just caught this article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/c...30?cmp=rss

In essence it's a couple of ironworkers working on the Husky site complaining about Saipem and their use of seemingly unqualified foreign workers. They warn about safety issues that can come up when guys aren't even required to undergo testing for a year and even if they fail that test they are allowed a repeat further down the line.

One of them says that they are paid at journeyman rates but perform at the level of a labourer. One guy was using a blowtorch to try and defrost a propane tank.

A union rep states that Saipem hired a group of Portuguese ironworkers in June, with the union then sending them resumes for Canadian workers, with Saipem saying they weren't hiring. In July they brought in a group of Polish ironworkers.

I can see both sides of the story. On one side you have the company (Italy-based) having the opportunity to bring down labour costs on a project that already has run over budget. On the other you have Canadian workers who are fully capable not getting these jobs.

The main issue, as I take it though, is safety. Some of the workers they bring over aren't fluent in English which can't be good. Imagine being a supervisor and not being able to fully communicate with your crew. That would be chaos.

Quick edit: After re-reading it appears that Saipem was rejected a number of times in their effort to bring in TFW's because the government didn't believe they couldn't find Canadians to do the work. They then used a visa option called a "intra company transfer" in order to bring some workers over. They also used a now cancelled pilot project to bring more in.

^^^I'll more about this later but Saipem are greasy fucks and that site will probably blow up, I worked there at Sunrise two years ago and it was the unsafest, disorganized, TFW infested shit hole I ever worked at.

(08-23-2014 08:49 AM)Roma Wrote:  

(08-22-2014 10:08 PM)PakiRambo Wrote:  An update from my part... I also paid 2 months rent to a place in etown for 400/month, and turned out the land lady was a scammer and out of the 800 i paid her, I have managed to get back 300...

Would you post the landlady's name, address and phone no. so others do not fall into the trap?

The woman who scammed me, lives in Abbottsfield.. She posts ad for a furnished bedroom with an attached bathroom. Her story is that she owns the house, and she works 3 weeks in fortmac and only her 16 yr old son lives in the house, and her parents rarely visit. The real story is that the cunt DOES NOT own the house. Her dad owns the house who is an alcoholic, and so is her mother. The rent she advertises for is $450. Meeting her in person and harrassing her for 20 days straight i have gotten most of my money back ($800 originally). It is a beaten down house in a shady court style area. For privacy reasons I cant post her number here. For work she tells me that shes a used car saleswoman, AND works in fortmac. In reality I think shes a broke good for nothing scammer with big tatas.

Looks like im around for tbe week. Meet up on thursday or Friday maybe. Something fun like gokarts or paintball!

Hi,

How much should I pay for a service from Edmonton to Sylvan Lake (the company main office is located there and I have to pickup my coveralls and start to work this Wednesday). I don't want to go the before and stay in a motel and pay a cab because I already pay for my room in Etown until Wednesday. Is somebody with a car is off and will give me a good rate, I will take it... I need to be in Sylvan lake on Wednesday at 8 am.

Thanks...

(09-01-2014 02:40 PM)PakiRambo Wrote:  

(08-23-2014 08:49 AM)Roma Wrote:  

(08-22-2014 10:08 PM)PakiRambo Wrote:  An update from my part... I also paid 2 months rent to a place in etown for 400/month, and turned out the land lady was a scammer and out of the 800 i paid her, I have managed to get back 300...

Would you post the landlady's name, address and phone no. so others do not fall into the trap?

The woman who scammed me, lives in Abbottsfield.. She posts ad for a furnished bedroom with an attached bathroom. Her story is that she owns the house, and she works 3 weeks in fortmac and only her 16 yr old son lives in the house, and her parents rarely visit. The real story is that the cunt DOES NOT own the house. Her dad owns the house who is an alcoholic, and so is her mother. The rent she advertises for is $450. Meeting her in person and harrassing her for 20 days straight i have gotten most of my money back ($800 originally). It is a beaten down house in a shady court style area. For privacy reasons I cant post her number here. For work she tells me that shes a used car saleswoman, AND works in fortmac. In reality I think shes a broke good for nothing scammer with big tatas.

Man that sucks, Abbotsfield/Beverly area is a dump, hookers and crack heads and ghetto public housing in that area, I actually stayed there for a year when I was working 24/4 up north, I crashed at a buddy's place on my days off but wouldn't recommend living there. I always tell guys that the south side near Whyte and the UofA is the best area, that's where I live. Don't end up way the fuck out in the west end or some ghetto down town hood, especially if you don't have a car, it will make your life miserable, trust me I've been there.

Guys if you're new to Alberta and aren't sure about the area that you're considering moving to, just PM me, I've lived in Calgary, Edmonton and Fort McMurray and know most of the province well, I can point you in the right direction.

(09-01-2014 07:41 PM)HANS... Wrote:  Hi,

How much should I pay for a service from Edmonton to Sylvan Lake (the company main office is located there and I have to pickup my coveralls and start to work this Wednesday). I don't want to go the before and stay in a motel and pay a cab because I already pay for my room in Etown until Wednesday. Is somebody with a car is off and will give me a good rate, I will take it... I need to be in Sylvan lake on Wednesday at 8 am.

Thanks...

A taxi will be pricey as Sylvan Lake is about 1.5 hours south of Edmonton, you'd be better off hitch hiking (that's what I would do!) or taking a grey hound bus to Red Deer then a taxi to Sylvan from there, then the taxi and bus back. Seriously a taxi to Sylvan and back would probably be $300+ dollars.

Guys, this is exactly why I always recommend moving to Alberta with a car if you can or at least your full driver's license so you can rent a car when you get here, it will make your life a lot easier and improve your chances of getting a job!