So guys I'm five days in working as a greenhand on a Service Rig.

Let me say it's pretty tough work. I've been working my ass off to try and impress my crew and it has done me well. The guys have seen my work ethic and are treating me great. It's certainly not something I'm going to do long term just a great way to save money for Foreign shithole!

My body aches in every way possible, gym no way(for now) but there is certainly some satisfaction at the end of the day. Camp life is great, the food is great and it has an amazing gym once I get used to the physicality of the job. This job wouldnt be for everyone, lots of people have quit before me but im not going to. I'm using this to build greater work ethic for the future.

If you want the money guys get out here just be prepared to work hard long hours.

It's easy for me though I have tons of motivation for long term travel and this will enable me to do that!

I got lots of pms, I'll get back to you within the next week, just super busy!

Man I appreciate everyone pitching in their experiences, it's inspired me to contribute as much as I can when I head down from Vancouver in December.

I've searched all over the thread and coudn't find a definite answer for the following questions which i would be grateful if anyone could answer.

How much do entry level kitchen positions make per day at the big camps like PTI or Noralta Lodge? I have no work experience in the kitchen but becoming a chef is a passion I would like to pursue as a career and being that it translates well into game and my personal life is an added bonus. Do they have work year round?

Also I've conditioned my body to run smoothly with consistent sustained energy on a low carb, med protein, high fat diet (which I'm convinced is our bodies preferred form of energy btw) and I don't mind transitioning back to high carb low fat, although my energy won't be as good, I was curious as to whether the food in large and/or small camps would make it possible to follow my high fat low carb regimen, any thoughts?

Big props to Scotian your an original boss man and a big thanks to everyone else who contributed, y'all prob have no idea how much you've influenced an increase in immigration to Alberta through an online fucking forum about game haha, just nuts.

(11-07-2013 10:13 AM)Corrigan.Spear Wrote:  So guys I'm five days in working as a greenhand on a Service Rig.

Let me say it's pretty tough work. I've been working my ass off to try and impress my crew and it has done me well. The guys have seen my work ethic and are treating me great. It's certainly not something I'm going to do long term just a great way to save money for Foreign shithole!

My body aches in every way possible, gym no way(for now) but there is certainly some satisfaction at the end of the day. Camp life is great, the food is great and it has an amazing gym once I get used to the physicality of the job. This job wouldnt be for everyone, lots of people have quit before me but im not going to. I'm using this to build greater work ethic for the future.

If you want the money guys get out here just be prepared to work hard long hours.

It's easy for me though I have tons of motivation for long term travel and this will enable me to do that!

I got lots of pms, I'll get back to you within the next week, just super busy!

You deserve a lot of respect. I see the service rig crew on our location and it's extremely tough. They are the whole day outside, when there is no work, they are cleaning or helping others, but at least you get a hot lunch everyday and we lazy testers can eat the leftovers
Keep your hard work up.

@Paleo
The kitchen helpers in my small camp (about 100 people) make below 20$ an hour

Corrigan Spear,

I'm surprised you didn't get any verbal ass whoopage in your first week. Sounds like your crew is chill. My first couple of crews were fucking brutal for the first two weeks. Top that with -40 degree weather and tripping rods and pipe (not sure if you're doing that yet)... An....interesting experience.

You are absolutely right about the work ethic portion. I've worked many types of jobs, and working on a rig is in a league of its own in terms of difficulty. Every job you do afterwards will be child's play from now on.

Since you're the greenhand, you gotta do shit like carry the water cooler and pump gas eh??

To the irish lads who went over,

Whats the story with the iec visa process, the forms seem straight forward but when can you apply.. they told me the visas are gone for 2013 and to wait till they open in January 2014 which I have been doing but I went on a different site there and its accepting applications by the looks of things. Is it fake or can ya get over anytime lads.. id appreciate any help with this or links to the site ye got yers.. Im not letting this opportunity pass me by, Im getting to Canada one way or another haha! The sooner the better too!

If you type ice visa Ireland into google.ie the first hit that comes up is the only website you can apply through check it daily as it opened in feb last year but this year could be different.. Aslong as you have no convictions you should be ok.it will take about 2 months so if it opens in feb you can be ready to fly in April.. It's a great place for sure and if you have a trade you will be laughing all the way to the bank;-)

sound out lad, ya I saw that alrite, the quota is gone up to 10,000 visas too so they mite last abit longer this year, Ill b one of the first on their list anyway! haha. ya I meet all their requirements anyway so should be fine. I don't have a trade but would be happy out with general labour type work for awile till I take a closer look at getting into a trade. wouldn't mind putting in some time on the rigs until I can get citizenship either. as u need to be a citizen to become an apprentice rite? ha.

hows work going for ya man, you liking it out there!?

(11-11-2013 11:02 AM)man in green Wrote:  sound out lad, ya I saw that alrite, the quota is gone up to 10,000 visas too so they mite last abit longer this year, Ill b one of the first on their list anyway! haha. ya I meet all their requirements anyway so should be fine. I don't have a trade but would be happy out with general labour type work for awile till I take a closer look at getting into a trade. wouldn't mind putting in some time on the rigs until I can get citizenship either. as u need to be a citizen to become an apprentice rite? ha.

hows work going for ya man, you liking it out there!?

Negative on that Man In Green....I'm a Brit expat working in Fort McMurray (only been here in Alberta a month)...I'm a landed immigrant with Permanent Resident status only, so NOT a citizen, and I was hired on by my company as a first yr apprentice instrument tech.

Yea you have to be a Pr to do an apprenticeship:-)

Wow I just recently came across this. Great thread. Any intel on someone with a Liberal Arts Degree in this field? Possible to get a job there? Im getting depressed the more I go to class paying for a lousy degree that inst worth a damn (Bachelors in Spanish). Just cant imagine my life after college being in debt and paying thousands. Any advice? Thanks in advanced.

Finally made the move and now I'm here in Calgary getting my safety tickets this week then going to drive up and hit all the spots and cities that were mentioned on this thread.

Note to anyone driving. I drove from Montreal to Calgary in just over 50 hours. I'm glad I took the forums advice and brought my car but I will never drive that distance again in that little time.. More than once I almost went off road because of nodding off. Sask. and Manitoba are a super easy drive but Driving through Ontario when I was near Thunderbay was a nightmare at night. Next time I take the American route.

Let me know if anyone wants to share living arrangements I also have a second guy who will also be down.

(11-12-2013 10:39 PM)donnie514 Wrote:  Finally made the move and now I'm here in Calgary getting my safety tickets this week then going to drive up and hit all the spots and cities that were mentioned on this thread.

Note to anyone driving. I drove from Montreal to Calgary in just over 50 hours. I'm glad I took the forums advice and brought my car but I will never drive that distance again in that little time.. More than once I almost went off road because of nodding off. Sask. and Manitoba are a super easy drive but Driving through Ontario when I was near Thunderbay was a nightmare at night. Next time I take the American route.

Let me know if anyone wants to share living arrangements I also have a second guy who will also be down.

I don't think I'll ever drive across Canada, I just drove 12 hours from south east Saskatchewan to Edmonton yesterday and I was beat, I couldn't imagine driving for four or five days straight.

Good luck in Cowtown man you picked the nicest city in Alberta to live in, I hope you find work quickly and to the rest of you RVF guys in Hellberta, have fun freezing your asses off this winter, I'm flying to south America on Thursday, suckers!

Man that's crazy. I first thought "wow how slow were you going that it took you so long" and then I looked it up on google maps. 3500km, Respect and good luck.

Man, I think this job is trying to grow on me or I'm growing on the people I work with lol. I keep hearing from different people that I'm going to be a good tester and a good stud hand. I even have supervisors fighting over me. On Monday I got double pay which is really cool and the most money I've ever made in one day of my life! Plus I don't think I've ever ate this well on a job lol.

Great to hear Temm! What kind of job are you doing?

(11-14-2013 01:34 AM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  Great to hear Temm! What kind of job are you doing?

I'm an assistant well testing operator.

Hey guys,


It’s been a good while since I posted so thought I’d do a quick update. I have been back drilling now for a while and at the moment it’s looking like I will be busy right through to March. I have got in with a good crew and have been getting some great training the last while. All the stories I posted last year about relaxing watching movies and browsing the internet on shift no longer apply. I have been working my ass off taking notes and learning the job. I am nearly ready to ‘break out’ and start running my own jobs. I should be at that level come January. I am even starting to learn a bit about directional drilling and can maybe see myself doing it in 1-2 years. To give some idea of wages the directional driller on this job is on about 1400-1500 a day and made around 400k last year.


The last few months before I went back drilling were kind of tough for me with some personal stuff going on and the constant stress of do/don’t I have a job for the winter? The drilling industry and in particular MWDing is notoriously inconsistent and it definitely takes a toll on you mentally: not having work versus weeks of working nights by yourself, great money versus no social life, etc. I’d like to see some of the other guys post up on how they find the mental side of working in the patch.


As for next while I will hopefully have a busy winter then I’m packing up and doing a bit of traveling for a few months. My body and mind need a bit of a break.


Good to see that so many people are out here now and are doing well for themselves.

Curious if the social isolation gets to you guys working up there.
In my head I have an image of a bunch of pirates working together in the cold, austere conditions of a Siberia-like wilderness town. Drinking heavily in what little free time and only prostitutes or bar girls for miles around.

Something like this:

(11-15-2013 10:31 PM)Checkmat Wrote:  Curious if the social isolation gets to you guys working up there.
In my head I have an image of a bunch of pirates working together in the cold, austere conditions of a Siberia-like wilderness town. Drinking heavily in what little free time and only prostitutes or bar girls for miles around.

Something like this:

Generally true. If you want comic relief lookup "Steve from Site" on youtube. It hits the Ft McMurray culture on alot of points. Alot of puns.

With my experience working in and around Ft McMurray, as well as further north (Nunavut) and some of the Potash mines in Saskatchewan - 'camp life' as it's called - the social isolation is a factor. It gets worse the more mundane and boring your daily work scope is. I can't imagine doing some mundane task in the high arctic during winter months with zero sunlight. As far as social isolation in camp life, it depends here. I stayed in a camp of 3500 people with a top notch gym, it had yoga, volleyball, basketball. I would expect any of the larger camps to have great facilities and almost feel like a town of their own. Some of the smaller camps have zero facilities like that so it will be a different story.

I have yet to be restricted to 2 pieces of baggage for the fly in/out setups, so I've always brought my guitar with me. I believe any little bit of leisure/fun/recreation helps the isolation factor of camp life.

Great to hear things are busy and you are making progress towards directional drilling Irishman., very happy for you man!

An update from my end after 3 weeks in the biggest if all certified world class shit holes:

To say tat it's been slow would be the understatement of the year. In the 3 weeks that I've been here, I've only worked a total of 12 hours spread over 3 half days in 3 weeks! Initially my boss had some personal family things to take care if as his wife gave birth 2 weeks ago. So I knew before getting here it would be slow at least initially but never thought it would be that bad. Ad I known, I would have remained in Edmonton and got a job with a company there.

I'm not complaining about the boss, he's been good to me, very patient and training me good, but the lack of work is really getting to me. I wasn't expecting that at all! If anything, everyone was telling me the opposite that it will be crazy busy! I am starting to get the hang of my trade, its not hard and it can be interesting but the lack of work is getting to me. Being stuck in the hose with nothing to do, waiting for a call or text from the boss as to when is he going to pick me up for work next is very stressful and depressing.

Moreover, I'm in a no mans land where there's absolutely nothing to do and it's already freezing balls here. And its not cheap, I'm almost paying 800$/month for a room in a house!!!! If things don't pick up here by the end of the month, I'll pack my stuff and return to Edmonton and look for another company in my field or even in something else like well testing.

I know there's lot of money to make here specially in the field I am but so far, I haven't had any luck so far. I'm not going to give up and be patient and I really hope things will pick up by the end of the month. I knew it wouldn't be easy at first but didn't think it would be that slow.

Anyone else in here who's had a tough and slow start in here? Or am I the only only one in here to be unlucky so far? What am I doing wrong? I did follow the exact plan I was given...

But I'm staying positive and patient! With God's will, there's a way!

I am haveing a slow start to vp it's takeing me 4months to get my Irish qualifications transferred over so I can work in the trade here and in that time I have worked as a labourer working in a bar and of recent snow removal. I have just been approved so now I can legally work in the trade but I too am haveing it hard to get a start in the oil and gas game.company's I rang in the summer who had so much work then are saying it has quieted down and maybe In the new year it might get busy.. I had a lead with a company but when they found out I was not a PR yet they didn't want to hire me... So your not the only bro all we can do is keep on going I didn't move here on my own to pack up and go back home our day will come :-)

(11-15-2013 10:31 PM)Checkmat Wrote:  Curious if the social isolation gets to you guys working up there.
In my head I have an image of a bunch of pirates working together in the cold, austere conditions of a Siberia-like wilderness town. Drinking heavily in what little free time and only prostitutes or bar girls for miles around.

Something like this:

Generally true. If you want comic relief lookup "Steve from Site" on youtube. It hits the Ft McMurray culture on alot of points. Alot of puns.

With my experience working in and around Ft McMurray, as well as further north (Nunavut) and some of the Potash mines in Saskatchewan - 'camp life' as it's called - the social isolation is a factor. It gets worse the more mundane and boring your daily work scope is. I can't imagine doing some mundane task in the high arctic during winter months with zero sunlight. As far as social isolation in camp life, it depends here. I stayed in a camp of 3500 people with a top notch gym, it had yoga, volleyball, basketball. I would expect any of the larger camps to have great facilities and almost feel like a town of their own. Some of the smaller camps have zero facilities like that so it will be a different story.

I have yet to be restricted to 2 pieces of baggage for the fly in/out setups, so I've always brought my guitar with me. I believe any little bit of leisure/fun/recreation helps the isolation factor of camp life.

Anyone who is having a hard time and things are slow you can always start looking into being a lease/floorhand on drilling rigs. Its a hard job for sure but it will keep you going through the winter. Afterwards you can have a nice cushion in your bank account and you don't have to worry so much and can think on your situation and what you want to do.

Quote: Anyone who is having a hard time and things are slow you can always start looking into being a lease/floorhand on drilling rigs. Its a hard job for sure but it will keep you going through the winter. Afterwards you can have a nice cushion in your bank account and you don't have to worry so much and can think on your situation and what you want to do.

That's what I'm planning on doing. A friend of mine was on the drills last year for a few months getting around 10,000 Can Dollars a month. Pretty good but you work for it!

Just got back from a project in the middle of nowhere.

I forgot how to talk to people. The first few days back are always the hardest, especially coming from camp.

I have that deer in the headlights look when I first start re-socializing in normal society, specifically women.

Checkmat just described the last 3 weeks of my life. Austere, isolated, cold conditions.

The conversation I had with my co-worker the second to last day there:

Me: Man it's warming up quickly eh?
Him: Yup
Me: *Checks temperature gauge in truck, it's -20C
"Nice, it's only -20"
Him: You know you're in this part of the world when it's -20C and you're happy it's warm.