Working in the Canadian oil sands: 6 figures in 6 months!
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Alberta Welder 路 2014-03-20 22:31:00 路 #2451
Really concentrating on the Pipefitters Union right now. Currently working so I can wait a bit before I try other places. I'm in Spruce Grove but Nisku isn't to far away for me.
Zauber 路 2014-03-21 00:54:00 路 #2452
Hey Alberta Welder, I've called local 488 from Toronto about being a 1st year apprentice and they told me their needs change from day to day (ie. look at their dispatch site). Since you mentioned you don't feel qualified enough do you think someone with no experience can get in as a 1st year apprentice? Or should we focus on going to companies to get hired and then join the union if that company is unionized? I've found the unions like to tell you there is a ton of work but then you wait around a lot hoping for an opportunity.
Alberta Welder 路 2014-03-21 23:38:00 路 #2453
That's what seems to be happening. I'll be camping out there a lot this coming week and maybe I'll be able to learn some more about that situation. I have never seen a call out for apprentices so it might be worth throwing your resume at Union companies to get your foot in the door.
Gotta do some welding tests to see if I can get on a site. Good thing I'm still employed otherwise I'd be looking at going broke pretty fast. I'm confident I can pass the tests but I'll have to take some time off just to take them. The welding shop is open at night though so it might help to get some practice in before I pull a slip that demands more qualifications. All the jobs that ask for just a B Pressure ticket are quickly swiped up by unemployed members before it goes out to everyone (after 2 days of being on the board).
Talked to some people working at the hall and they say that it's supposed to be picking up in the spring.
Gotta do some welding tests to see if I can get on a site. Good thing I'm still employed otherwise I'd be looking at going broke pretty fast. I'm confident I can pass the tests but I'll have to take some time off just to take them. The welding shop is open at night though so it might help to get some practice in before I pull a slip that demands more qualifications. All the jobs that ask for just a B Pressure ticket are quickly swiped up by unemployed members before it goes out to everyone (after 2 days of being on the board).
Talked to some people working at the hall and they say that it's supposed to be picking up in the spring.
Moneypitlover 路 2014-03-23 11:59:00 路 #2454
Anyone in Ontario/Easters rolling out to Alberta in April? This weekend or first week of? I'll be driving out so if anyone else with a vehicle wants to roll with me your more then welcome.
totemthepole 路 2014-03-25 12:16:00 路 #2455
What are the chances for an American old man (49) with no experience?
CKSEA 路 2014-03-25 14:46:00 路 #2456
Don't mess with all the Canadian immigration BS if you don't have to without a clear ticket in (eng. degree/trade). Go to Williston/Dickinson/Minot and from there you can build a good reputation and move somewhere nice like Denver.
(03-25-2014 12:16 PM)totemthepole Wrote: What are the chances for an American old man (49) with no experience?
Alberta Welder 路 2014-03-26 12:24:00 路 #2457
tom007 路 2014-03-26 17:29:00 路 #2458
thank you all for this forum. hopefully i will be in Alberta come September. 
and Good-luck to everyone heading west this April.
and Good-luck to everyone heading west this April.Jack Of All Trades 路 2014-03-27 21:39:00 路 #2459
It took me a year to sort this out but, if your starting out expect patches of unemployment or time off unless you got a guaranteed hours, and at most it'll be 40 hours a week. However if you got balls and aren't afraid of hard work and shitty weather you can do this:
If you come in winter do oilfield work, this isn't restricted to oil rigs, but wireline, fraccing, well testing, etc. there's tons of oilfield services and they get really busy in the winter. Expect 200-300$/day with LOA as a green hand; with the rigs you'll get a lot more but the work is the hardest.
If you come in spring/fall get onto the shutdowns, work as a laborer going into a trade for spring-fall and GET YOUR BLUE BOOK! don't pussy foot this shit, if they don't give you the blue book after a season at the latest change companies. If there's no work in your trade come winter, switch into oilfield work, that's my plan when things slow down this winter.
Until I hit journeyman I think I'll do this, it'll maximize my hours working and stacking $. Also don't forget if it slows down in the summer like july-august there's tons of construction jobs paying 20$+/hr, just gotta have boots, coveralls, and a hard hat.
Do this and you'll have no shortage of $ here in Alberta even as a new guy, and when you get fully ticketed then you can pick and choose.
Any trades/technical career where you can start as a laborer and move up can hit 100k/year+ once you get some experience/certifications under your belt whether it's the trades or the oilfield.
If you come in winter do oilfield work, this isn't restricted to oil rigs, but wireline, fraccing, well testing, etc. there's tons of oilfield services and they get really busy in the winter. Expect 200-300$/day with LOA as a green hand; with the rigs you'll get a lot more but the work is the hardest.
If you come in spring/fall get onto the shutdowns, work as a laborer going into a trade for spring-fall and GET YOUR BLUE BOOK! don't pussy foot this shit, if they don't give you the blue book after a season at the latest change companies. If there's no work in your trade come winter, switch into oilfield work, that's my plan when things slow down this winter.
Until I hit journeyman I think I'll do this, it'll maximize my hours working and stacking $. Also don't forget if it slows down in the summer like july-august there's tons of construction jobs paying 20$+/hr, just gotta have boots, coveralls, and a hard hat.
Do this and you'll have no shortage of $ here in Alberta even as a new guy, and when you get fully ticketed then you can pick and choose.
Any trades/technical career where you can start as a laborer and move up can hit 100k/year+ once you get some experience/certifications under your belt whether it's the trades or the oilfield.
Vacancier Permanent 路 2014-03-28 06:47:00 路 #2460
Will be landing at noon today in Etown.
Boys, lets have some drinks tonight at OByrne on Whyte Ave. Post here if you can make it and/or PM me your #.
Excited to be back!
Boys, lets have some drinks tonight at OByrne on Whyte Ave. Post here if you can make it and/or PM me your #.
Excited to be back!
alecks 路 2014-03-28 13:24:00 路 #2461
I cant fuckin wait to get to alberta!
Vacancier Permanent 路 2014-03-28 16:08:00 路 #2462
Just arrived at the hotel. Flight got delayed in TO for 2 hours due to maintenance as the engine stopped as we were about to take off. Captain took the plane back to the gate to be checked. Long story short, wasted 2 hours sitting on the plane as the crew were checking and rechecking the plane. Finally, 2.5 hrs later at 11am took off.
Im glad they took the took the time to really check thoroughly the aircraft before allowing it to safely take off.
Im very excited to be back. I cant wait to get started. Its too late for today to go to companies head offices. But monday morning its on and hard core style!!!
Im glad they took the took the time to really check thoroughly the aircraft before allowing it to safely take off.
Im very excited to be back. I cant wait to get started. Its too late for today to go to companies head offices. But monday morning its on and hard core style!!!
TravellingSoldier 路 2014-03-28 16:20:00 路 #2463
(03-28-2014 04:08 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote: Just arrived at the hotel. Flight got delayed in TO for 2 hours due to maintenance as the engine stopped as we were about to take off. Captain took the plane back to the gate to be checked. Long story short, wasted 2 hours sitting on the plane as the crew were checking and rechecking the plane. Finally, 2.5 hrs later at 11am took off.
Im glad they took the took the time to really check thoroughly the aircraft before allowing it to safely take off.
Im very excited to be back. I cant wait to get started. Its too late for today to go to companies head offices. But monday morning its on and hard core style!!!
Good luck man I hope you find something quick, its a pretty shitty time to come out lol but I'm sure you will find a gig.
Buenas suerte
Vacancier Permanent 路 2014-03-28 17:07:00 路 #2464
Are you in AB now TS?
TravellingSoldier 路 2014-03-28 17:10:00 路 #2465
Vacancier Permanent 路 2014-03-28 18:32:00 路 #2466
Yeah i hear you man. It can be slow if you are looking for a rig job if you are a newbie. But there are trades for which now is a prime hiring season due to the spring shut downs. So it really depends on the field one is looking.
Where in Mexico are you? What do you do there? Being sent there looks like a sweet deal man!
Where in Mexico are you? What do you do there? Being sent there looks like a sweet deal man!
TravellingSoldier 路 2014-03-28 19:39:00 路 #2467
(03-28-2014 06:32 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote: Yeah i hear you man. It can be slow if you are looking for a rig job if you are a newbie. But there are trades for which now is a prime hiring season due to the spring shut downs. So it really depends on the field one is looking.
Where in Mexico are you? What do you do there? Being sent there looks like a sweet deal man!
Haha I wasn't sent here man I was just told they have no work so I decided to take off. I'm in Mexico City right now, thinking of heading to Veracruz or another coastal city for the last 10 days of my trip. I'm taking a spanish course right now.
Fuego 路 2014-03-28 22:53:00 路 #2468
Hey Vacancier, which field are you looking to get into???
Vacancier Permanent 路 2014-03-29 12:43:00 路 #2469
We had a nice and fun little meet up last night at the Rack on Whyte Ave. The talent was surprisingly not too shabby. Let's organize a bigger meet yo with as many of the guys currently in Etwon in the next few days. Who would be up for that?
Fuego,
I'm into the trades. Are you in AB now?
Fuego,
I'm into the trades. Are you in AB now?
Fuego 路 2014-03-30 19:44:00 路 #2470
(03-29-2014 12:43 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote: We had a nice and fun little meet up last night at the Rack on Whyte Ave. The talent was surprisingly not too shabby. Let's organize a bigger meet yo with as many of the guys currently in Etwon in the next few days. Who would be up for that?
Fuego,
I'm into the trades. Are you in AB now?
Not yet, I'm shooting to go in May, I hope I get to meet all of you in Edmonton.
RCS 路 2014-04-01 00:49:00 路 #2471
Good evening gentlemen, it's been a while. First I have some answers to a few q's that came in an email from Dejan that I fuckwittedly overlooked (sorry man) then I'll provide an update about life in general.
Hi Swearbox, I hope that you don't mind to answer some more questions for me.
For the apprentice position do you have to relocate or you can choose to stay in a camp with FI/FO program?.....They would like you to relocate but you don't have to as they have a camp here (crap I'm told). They do FI/FO to Calgary & Edmonton but they are looking into BC and Ontario as well and they hope to have something in place very soon.
With $25/h I hope that apprentices work 84h/week? Might as well work some mad OT while you there.....Apprentices are on $26.57/hr. Labourers are on two different hourly rates depending upon experience $25.55/hr & $28.57/hr. We work what is called a compressed work week...our shift is 8 on 6 off and we work 80 hrs per shift. OT is rare but some people get lots of it depending on trade. I even got a few hours myself a couple of shifts ago :-)
Also I was thinking to challenge first 2 years here in Ontario but I think I read somewhere on this thread that unless you are a Red Seal nothing else is recognized if it's not done in Alberta. Do you know anything about that...the best thing is to try to get indentured first then challenge while you are here. The only issue would be your hours and satisfying the Apprenticeship & Industry Training folks that you satisfy their requirements for challenging those 2 years. Without the hours you are nothing and regardless of which level of schooling you pass you won't get paid at that grade until you meet that hourly (and time in years) requirement. Having said that I think there's a blackmarket Red Seal JM certificate issuer operating outside of Alberta if some of the JM I know are anything to go by ;-)
And one more thing, that signing on bonus is that only for people that choose to relocate or for anyone who gets hired....Only for those who choose to live locally (ie not in camp). $5k for the labourers and $10k for the trades BUT they have you by the balls for three years if you take it as they will ask for it back if you quit or get fired (all of it in yr1, 50% in yr2, %25 in yr3). Personally I'll be telling them to fuck off if I leave...they aren't getting it back.
Right, that's the Q&A sorted so here's the scoop on life at Long Lake. It's still fucking cold though there are signs of things warming up and thankfully the road surface on the 63 & 881 is decent again (well, except for the shitty patch jobs they did on 881 which would give tanks a run for their money).
We still appear to have a contract with Nexen though fuck knows how as most of the guys I joined with have either quit or been fired. The company is still hiring pretty much all trades plus labourers HOWEVER some dopey fucker took the decision a couple of weeks ago to lay off ALL the Instrument apprentices (me included) on both shifts "as part of their Journeyman to apprentice ratio realignment". So now the ratio is exactly 1:0.
I was offered the chance to stay on as a labourer (with a payrise LOL) which I took since I haven't secured a job elsewhere though now is the time for openings to start appearing. In fact earlier today i applied to Pyramid for a gig at CNRL which I wouldn't be too disappointed to get but getting hired on as a first yr apprentice is fucking hard going as they really only want 3rd & 4ths if they are honest.
There's been a bunch of other shit gone down but you never know who reads these pages so I'll keep a lid on that. That pretty much brings me up to date. For anyone out there who is on the outside looking in who has half a brain and a bit of motivation there's tons of opportunity here. There's a posting elsewhere in this thread (October I think) that details how I got started out here. 1 phone call from my home in Ontario to my current company's HR department was all it took followed up by jumping through a few hoops in a very short space of time. If you're worried it might not work out don't be...get the offer of employment secured, beg borrow or steal the dough to get here and in 6 months time you'll be kicking yourself wondering why the fuck you didn't do this ten years ago...I am.
Stay safe
RCS aka Swearbox
Hi Swearbox, I hope that you don't mind to answer some more questions for me.
For the apprentice position do you have to relocate or you can choose to stay in a camp with FI/FO program?.....They would like you to relocate but you don't have to as they have a camp here (crap I'm told). They do FI/FO to Calgary & Edmonton but they are looking into BC and Ontario as well and they hope to have something in place very soon.
With $25/h I hope that apprentices work 84h/week? Might as well work some mad OT while you there.....Apprentices are on $26.57/hr. Labourers are on two different hourly rates depending upon experience $25.55/hr & $28.57/hr. We work what is called a compressed work week...our shift is 8 on 6 off and we work 80 hrs per shift. OT is rare but some people get lots of it depending on trade. I even got a few hours myself a couple of shifts ago :-)
Also I was thinking to challenge first 2 years here in Ontario but I think I read somewhere on this thread that unless you are a Red Seal nothing else is recognized if it's not done in Alberta. Do you know anything about that...the best thing is to try to get indentured first then challenge while you are here. The only issue would be your hours and satisfying the Apprenticeship & Industry Training folks that you satisfy their requirements for challenging those 2 years. Without the hours you are nothing and regardless of which level of schooling you pass you won't get paid at that grade until you meet that hourly (and time in years) requirement. Having said that I think there's a blackmarket Red Seal JM certificate issuer operating outside of Alberta if some of the JM I know are anything to go by ;-)
And one more thing, that signing on bonus is that only for people that choose to relocate or for anyone who gets hired....Only for those who choose to live locally (ie not in camp). $5k for the labourers and $10k for the trades BUT they have you by the balls for three years if you take it as they will ask for it back if you quit or get fired (all of it in yr1, 50% in yr2, %25 in yr3). Personally I'll be telling them to fuck off if I leave...they aren't getting it back.
Right, that's the Q&A sorted so here's the scoop on life at Long Lake. It's still fucking cold though there are signs of things warming up and thankfully the road surface on the 63 & 881 is decent again (well, except for the shitty patch jobs they did on 881 which would give tanks a run for their money).
We still appear to have a contract with Nexen though fuck knows how as most of the guys I joined with have either quit or been fired. The company is still hiring pretty much all trades plus labourers HOWEVER some dopey fucker took the decision a couple of weeks ago to lay off ALL the Instrument apprentices (me included) on both shifts "as part of their Journeyman to apprentice ratio realignment". So now the ratio is exactly 1:0.
I was offered the chance to stay on as a labourer (with a payrise LOL) which I took since I haven't secured a job elsewhere though now is the time for openings to start appearing. In fact earlier today i applied to Pyramid for a gig at CNRL which I wouldn't be too disappointed to get but getting hired on as a first yr apprentice is fucking hard going as they really only want 3rd & 4ths if they are honest.
There's been a bunch of other shit gone down but you never know who reads these pages so I'll keep a lid on that. That pretty much brings me up to date. For anyone out there who is on the outside looking in who has half a brain and a bit of motivation there's tons of opportunity here. There's a posting elsewhere in this thread (October I think) that details how I got started out here. 1 phone call from my home in Ontario to my current company's HR department was all it took followed up by jumping through a few hoops in a very short space of time. If you're worried it might not work out don't be...get the offer of employment secured, beg borrow or steal the dough to get here and in 6 months time you'll be kicking yourself wondering why the fuck you didn't do this ten years ago...I am.
Stay safe
RCS aka Swearbox
simdog87 路 2014-04-01 04:42:00 路 #2472
I will be in Alberta soon. Hopefully things go well and I get a good gig. Is there any point in bringing Australian tickets with me ?
Any advice on places that are currently hiring ?
Any advice on places that are currently hiring ?
Dejan 路 2014-04-01 21:29:00 路 #2473
No worries RCS and thank you.
Vacancier Permanent 路 2014-04-01 23:22:00 路 #2474
Simdog,
Bring any tickets you have. It won't hurt. Not sure they would be recognized here but it won't hurt to bring them with you.
What field do you have in mind? Do you have any experience in anything related? Like field, trade experience?
Do you have proper work visa? That will be a major thing.
It doesn't really matter what places are hiring now. What matters is what places will be hiring when you are physically here.
Cheers.
Bring any tickets you have. It won't hurt. Not sure they would be recognized here but it won't hurt to bring them with you.
What field do you have in mind? Do you have any experience in anything related? Like field, trade experience?
Do you have proper work visa? That will be a major thing.
It doesn't really matter what places are hiring now. What matters is what places will be hiring when you are physically here.
Cheers.
LuckyCharms 路 2014-04-02 11:12:00 路 #2475
Flying to Edmonton on April 9th and hosteling it till I get set up. Will get my tickets when I get there.
I have 5 years of data cabling experience in every environment including ships. Also have a bit of experience with drywall, painting, renos.
Have read through this thread about 5 times in the last 10 months and will use the info. Thanks for all that have provided the helpful info as it really is invaluable. That being said picking up and moving 3000 miles is a life changing move and any current help, tips, contacts would be appreciated.
I have 5 years of data cabling experience in every environment including ships. Also have a bit of experience with drywall, painting, renos.
Have read through this thread about 5 times in the last 10 months and will use the info. Thanks for all that have provided the helpful info as it really is invaluable. That being said picking up and moving 3000 miles is a life changing move and any current help, tips, contacts would be appreciated.