(11-02-2012 03:20 PM)Kdog Wrote:  

(11-02-2012 01:38 PM)scotian Wrote:  

(11-02-2012 08:34 AM)?Kick Wrote:  

(11-02-2012 07:00 AM)pitt Wrote:  Irishman do you have two jobs at the moment?

By the way, does anybody know if they will allow me to work with braids? Is there a strong black community in Edmonton? Just wondering if i will be able to find a hair salon to braid my hair.

Hey Pitt,
Finding someone to braid your hair, at least braidig it properly might be tough. I've been here since April and have only found 1 place in the city that can give a proper fade. The worst part is it's all the way on the north side of town. Next time I'm in there I will find out if they do braids as well.

And just an update for all you cats planing on coming out here. It was minus 13 with freezing rain and snowing yesterday. This is considered "good weather". Fuck.

I'm sitting at the Edmonton airport, so glad to be leaving Alberta and the shitty cold weather, enjoy the winter boys, dress warm!

Are you off to Bkk now Scotian?

No I'm going to Vancouver Island for a few days to visit a buddy then flying out of Vancouver to BKK on the 7th, stoked!

(11-02-2012 05:37 PM)scotian Wrote:  Cool man, just out of curiosity, do you have a car there in Calgary for getting around to hand out resumes, go to courses, interviews, etc.?

Yes. I have a car and you need a car. I honestly don't know how I would have got around without one. It would have been retarded slow which knowing my impatience, I would have got very frustrated.

Got here Friday. Getting logistics and a game plan done, from what I can gather so far it seems like a nice place. Hitting the pavement Monday. Will keep you guys posted.

Quit my pursuit of an oil job. Making bank so far with internet marketing.

BrownBear, maybe you can start a new thread about internet marketing? I'd certainly be interested in learning about that. Is it only accessible as a "career" or is it something that can be scaled down to a 10 hour/week side hustle? You say you're making 10k/month at it, which I'm assuming is full time. If I could make 1-2k/month as a part time thing I'd be laughing!

(11-05-2012 08:02 AM)christpuncher Wrote:  BrownBear, maybe you can start a new thread about internet marketing? I'd certainly be interested in learning about that. Is it only accessible as a "career" or is it something that can be scaled down to a 10 hour/week side hustle? You say you're making 10k/month at it, which I'm assuming is full time. If I could make 1-2k/month as a part time thing I'd be laughing!

+1905
Same here
Heck 700-800 a month is enough for me.
But I dont have any coding skills whatsoever

Just got back from rotation number #3.

Interesting experiences.

Here's a list of the pros and cons I have regarding the work thus far:

Pros -

Money, you'll make lots of it
Physical labour can be refreshing
Quickly learn to be handy
Think faster on your feet
Meet interesting characters - also can be a con
No more office beta bullshit
Travel

Cons
Physical labour can hurt (aches, pains, dangerous work)
Distractions - when your boss or lead hands get drunk every day, it can influence you
Drugs - avoid them
Meatheads, the industry is full of them
Pussy - your dick will hate you
Days off not enough time to build relationships
some women will write you off as a rig pig

The days off from rotations make it difficult to find quality women as there may not be enough time to game and follow up. You may not get the bang the first night, and you'll end up being gone before date #2. So far I've had to do lot of online pipelining while in the field and I've had mixed results.

Will post more later.

(11-05-2012 03:35 PM)DjembaDjemba Wrote:  Just got back from rotation number #3.

Interesting experiences.

Here's a list of the pros and cons I have regarding the work thus far:

Pros -

Money, you'll make lots of it
Physical labour can be refreshing
Quickly learn to be handy
Think faster on your feet
Meet interesting characters - also can be a con
No more office beta bullshit
Travel

Cons
Physical labour can hurt (aches, pains, dangerous work)
Distractions - when your boss or lead hands get drunk every day, it can influence you
Drugs - avoid them
Meatheads, the industry is full of them
Pussy - your dick will hate you
Days off not enough time to build relationships
some women will write you off as a rig pig

The days off from rotations make it difficult to find quality women as there may not be enough time to game and follow up. You may not get the bang the first night, and you'll end up being gone before date #2. So far I've had to do lot of online pipelining while in the field and I've had mixed results.

Will post more later.

Good info. It got me thinking that if you can find a 28on/28off would be more optimal for getting bangs/travel in between rotations. Sure you have to work a month straight, but if I can do 15 months, 1 month should be a joke. But I don't know if the 28/28 is only for offshore and not in Canada or ND.

Pacesetter20, I worked a 30/30 rotation before and it was nice but its not very common. Most guys would rather work more than 6 months each year and the companies prefer it too, shifts like 10/4, 14/7, 21/7, etc. I think it also depends on your skill set and how busy it is, you can sometimes negotiate your rotation.

Don't post on Scotian's thread, private message me if you have questions about IM..

(11-06-2012 12:54 PM)BrownBear Wrote:  Don't post on Scotian's thread, private message me if you have questions about IM..

haha. you started it with your pointless "I don't work in oil I do IM" post...
Anyways, if you DO have insights please start a new thread. Why would you wanna talk to someone in PM that will help 1 person when you can make a legit post and help thousands...?

(11-06-2012 12:27 AM)Pacesetter20 Wrote:  

(11-05-2012 03:35 PM)DjembaDjemba Wrote:  Just got back from rotation number #3.

Interesting experiences.

Here's a list of the pros and cons I have regarding the work thus far:

Pros -

Money, you'll make lots of it
Physical labour can be refreshing
Quickly learn to be handy
Think faster on your feet
Meet interesting characters - also can be a con
No more office beta bullshit
Travel

Cons
Physical labour can hurt (aches, pains, dangerous work)
Distractions - when your boss or lead hands get drunk every day, it can influence you
Drugs - avoid them
Meatheads, the industry is full of them
Pussy - your dick will hate you
Days off not enough time to build relationships
some women will write you off as a rig pig

The days off from rotations make it difficult to find quality women as there may not be enough time to game and follow up. You may not get the bang the first night, and you'll end up being gone before date #2. So far I've had to do lot of online pipelining while in the field and I've had mixed results.

Will post more later.

Good info. It got me thinking that if you can find a 28on/28off would be more optimal for getting bangs/travel in between rotations. Sure you have to work a month straight, but if I can do 15 months, 1 month should be a joke. But I don't know if the 28/28 is only for offshore and not in Canada or ND.

Not without being in the industry for a long time. You need serious negotiating power for this. Plus working for only 6 months, you're not making enough money to stack.

Damn I'm conflicted. I could have a camp job in the Mac with Thompson Bros. They work all over the Suncor sites. Good cash and zero expenses. But I am planning to go to SE Asia in January, shit. I guess I should be looking more long term than short term.
What do you guys think?

Hey Scotian,

Thank you for posting all of this great info; I read the entirety of this thread last weekend. From what I gather, it will be difficult to enter Canada as an unskilled American worker. I've family near Edmonton, so my forward operating base is taken care of, so to speak.

The local junior college offers welding certification courses this spring, which I will be taking. They offer two options 1) GMAW/MIG welding or 2) GTAW/TIG welding. Is there a particular type of welding that's more useful in the oil sands? I'd like to make a wise investment that I can get the most out of. Thanks in advance for your response.

(11-08-2012 04:52 PM)Kdog Wrote:  Damn I'm conflicted. I could have a camp job in the Mac with Thompson Bros. They work all over the Suncor sites. Good cash and zero expenses. But I am planning to go to SE Asia in January, shit. I guess I should be looking more long term than short term.
What do you guys think?

I think you know the answer, work the job but who am I to tell you.
You can always go to Asia, might even be for a longer time after you have finished.
Good cash and zero expenses, can't beat that but just seen a snow storm in Edmonton and man it looks ugly.

Man I envy the blue collar fort mac guys. You can hop around job to job company to company. Take 6 months off and come back and just keep going. Engineering is great, but the "career" and "professional advancement" are not structured so that you can work your ass off for a while and then take all winter off.
If I had to do it again I'd have hopped on the bus out west when I was 18 and become a welder. I'd be a welding inspector or manager by now (age 25) making 250-300k and spending a few months a year traveling the world!

Christpuncher,
At 25, you're still young and have a lot of time ahead of you. I wish someone had told me about the oil sands when I was 25. You can still come get into a trade or even start as a labourer and then network and get into a trade or something technical quite easily.

(11-09-2012 12:10 AM)christpuncher Wrote:  Man I envy the blue collar fort mac guys. You can hop around job to job company to company. Take 6 months off and come back and just keep going. Engineering is great, but the "career" and "professional advancement" are not structured so that you can work your ass off for a while and then take all winter off.
If I had to do it again I'd have hopped on the bus out west when I was 18 and become a welder. I'd be a welding inspector or manager by now (age 25) making 250-300k and spending a few months a year traveling the world!

Man I have some family friends that moved to Alberta about 5 years ago and they were in their early 40s. The guy is a heavy duty diesel mechanic. He now has 5 trucks/guys working for him. Makes a shit ton. Never too late.

(11-09-2012 12:10 AM)christpuncher Wrote:  Man I envy the blue collar fort mac guys. You can hop around job to job company to company. Take 6 months off and come back and just keep going. Engineering is great, but the "career" and "professional advancement" are not structured so that you can work your ass off for a while and then take all winter off.
If I had to do it again I'd have hopped on the bus out west when I was 18 and become a welder. I'd be a welding inspector or manager by now (age 25) making 250-300k and spending a few months a year traveling the world!

You're 25 and think you're too old.? Seriously!

I'm 35, moved to Alberta 3 weeks ago. No job. All my family and friends left behind. It took me 4 days to find EXACTLY the apprenticeship I wanted.

Do you really wish you could have done it at 18? It takes 3 years to become a welder. What's your excuse now?

(11-09-2012 07:07 PM)Zeus Wrote:  You're 25 and think you're too old.? Seriously!

I'm 35, moved to Alberta 3 weeks ago. No job. All my family and friends left behind. It took me 4 days to find EXACTLY the apprenticeship I wanted.

Do you really wish you could have done it at 18? It takes 3 years to become a welder. What's your excuse now?

Well, I'm an engineer now, in Alberta. I'm not saying I'm dissatisfied, just that if I had to do it all again I would have gone the trade route instead of the technical route. I'm starting at an advantage as an engineer compared to my current self if I went into a trade right now. But that advantage wasn't worth the 5 years of school I did to get here...

I suppose my post is cautionary to those 18 year olds considering their career choices.

Any fraccers in here ? I have my class one and crane ticket , could get a transfer to Edmonton and then move to fort mac . I'm still debating this in my head since I love my city ( Vancouver ) and love the kink scene down here .

(11-08-2012 10:35 PM)SpiderKing Wrote:  Hey Scotian,

Thank you for posting all of this great info; I read the entirety of this thread last weekend. From what I gather, it will be difficult to enter Canada as an unskilled American worker. I've family near Edmonton, so my forward operating base is taken care of, so to speak.

The local junior college offers welding certification courses this spring, which I will be taking. They offer two options 1) GMAW/MIG welding or 2) GTAW/TIG welding. Is there a particular type of welding that's more useful in the oil sands? I'd like to make a wise investment that I can get the most out of. Thanks in advance for your response.

The most commonly used welding process used in the field in Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) or "stick" welding, MIG and TIG are used mostly in shop environments. Your ultimate goal as a welder, especially in Alberta would be to obtain the "Red Seal", interprovincial journeyman ticket with the "B-pressure" endorsement to weld pressure piping, those are the guys who make the big bucks $100-120/hour when they run their own welding trucks, "rig welders".

I would recommend contacting the Canadian Welding Bureau (http://eng.cwbgroup.org/Pages/default.aspx) and asking them if any training that you take in the States will be recognized in Canada.

Also, your biggest issue will be getting the right paper work/visas, as you know, its hard for Americans to come up here, especially unskilled. I recommend taking a long term approach, the oil sands will be there for years to come, so think about getting your training and journeyman ticket State side then getting a company to sponsor you to come here. You can always cold call companies to see what they have to say, or come up and visit your family and talk to some potential employers in person.

(11-09-2012 12:10 AM)christpuncher Wrote:  Man I envy the blue collar fort mac guys. You can hop around job to job company to company. Take 6 months off and come back and just keep going. Engineering is great, but the "career" and "professional advancement" are not structured so that you can work your ass off for a while and then take all winter off.
If I had to do it again I'd have hopped on the bus out west when I was 18 and become a welder. I'd be a welding inspector or manager by now (age 25) making 250-300k and spending a few months a year traveling the world!

That's probably the only advantage that use trades guys have over engineers is the ability to to screw off and come back as we please, however our jobs are a less secure and we never really know if there will be one waiting for us when we come back. Its all good now but in 10-15 years when I'm in my 40's I definitely don't want to be crawling around pipe racks and inside boilers.

If you want to get out of engineering or into a trade, whats stopping you?

(11-10-2012 10:30 AM)NeVerGymLess Wrote:  Any fraccers in here ? I have my class one and crane ticket , could get a transfer to Edmonton and then move to fort mac . I'm still debating this in my head since I love my city ( Vancouver ) and love the kink scene down here .

With your class one and crane tickets you'll be busy anywhere in Alberta, especially Fort Mac, you should be able to land a fly/in out gig. I love Van city too, I was just there last week, did some surfing in Tofino too, good times!

How’s it going everyone, hope your all doing well. I’ve been eary wigging on this blog for months. It’s been fantastic, informative & fun to follow and hopefully helps change my life for the good. Thanks a million to all the input, Scotian & his followers.
I’m from Ireland, a Pipefitter/Plumber. I sent out my CV to lot of companies in May’12. Received a letter of offer within weeks. The AAIT in Alberta have assessed and temporarily approved my existing Steamfitter/Pipefitter qualifications from Ireland and I’m due to arrive out before end of this month fingers crossed.
When I was sent the initial job offer, I noticed it was cc,d at least 20 others. But in the last few emails I’ve received its only cc’d to another 3 people. Maybe the others just dropped out.
I’ve jumped from one trade to another when needs must. You have to move with the flow, bend the rule book. In the university of life we soon realize how diverse you need to be in life career ways. After a few weeks in a trade you’ll be as confident as most others. Move on or you’ll miss the boat, you can always fall back on it. If you were born in a stable it wouldn’t make you a horse so never let your trade or occupation own you.
That’s my thoughts anyway!
Can I ask;
What’s the typical % deductions from a weeks wages in Alberta ie Tax etc…?
What’s camp lifes most essential must haves for your room and for working on site?