[scotian]

You're about to read a datasheet on how to get a job making 6 figures in 6 months, its definitely not a lifestyle for everyone, but if you're interested, please read on......

Since you guys have been such a great help and this forum has provided me with so much great info about travel, lifestyle, fashion, game, etc. I've decided to give back by writing up a comprehensive guide to working in the oil sands, a line of work which can afford a very comfortable lifestyle.

Hopefully by reading this, some of you younger guys may consider a career in the trades. Not too many people on this forum appear to be the blue collar tradesmen types (am I the only one???), but I wish more guys wold consider it, because trust me, it can be good I wish someone told me when I was 18 that if I took a trade, I'd be making 100K by the time I was 20 and likely be my own boss by 25. This is going to be an extensive data sheet, and of course, I welcome all input and will try my best to answer all questions.

Even if this type of work isn't for you, maybe you can use this info to steer a friend or family member in the right direction. We have a serious issue with a lack of skilled labour in the Oil sands, and it'll only get worse as the forecasted projects ramp up, so anyone from the USA, Europe, etc who is or knows a skilled tradesman, please inform them of the opportunities in the oil sands.

So where and what are the oil sands? check out this video, it pretty much sums it up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpBMnUNKqgA

So, as you can see from this video:
-There's a lot of money to be made up there )I know kids 18-20 years old making $150K/year and still living at home with mom and dad.
-Its a rough, frontier town; gangs, drugs, prostitution, etc. If you're going to the bars and clubs, be ready to scrap.
-Real estate is INSANE, a mobile home costs half a million.

Here's some more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sands

Another excellent video on the oil sands: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALCTOs2zakc

Getting a job in the oil sands: There are many options and many different jobs up there, it doesn't matter if you're a PHD in engineering, an MBA or a high school drop out with a rap sheet longer than Manute Bol (I work with A LOT of ex-cons, they don't do criminal record checks in the oil sands!).

The biggest number of jobs are those in the building trades, they are fairly easy to get into and are all very WELL PAYING jobs, these include: welder, pipe fitter, electrician, boiler maker, scaffolder, iron worker, crane operator, industrial insulator, etc. All of these trades are in high demand, if you take a pre-employment course at a community college (4-12 weeks, depends on trade), you WILL get a job and you WILL make 6 figures, I know several welders who make 8-10,000 PER WEEK!

Then there's also more technical trades that are less physically demanding than the building trades but still require field work in the elements; instrumentation tech, industrial automation tech, safety officer, PLC programmer, etc.

There's many engineers too; civil, mechanical, material, chemical, electrical, etc.

And then there's MANY other jobs that don't require much,if any, special training: Labourer, janitor, kitchen staff, camp staff, security guards, man/hatch watch (monitoring confined space entry), water/vac truck operator, etc.

The work: It can be very difficult and for 6 months of the year, especially Dec/Jan/Feb, its FUCKING COLD!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn-ZBdKu7O8

It can also be very easy, I worked on a project last year (unscheduled shut down of a refinery after a major furnace explosion/fire in the coker) and for the last 10 weeks, I did absolutely nothing for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week (well I watched a lot of movies and read books, surfed web, etc).

WORK CAMPS: If you come work up here, chances are that you will be living in a work camp, they're massive housing complexes where the workers live. Everything is taken care of and you don't spend much money when staying in them (I think I was spending about $30/week on coffee and newspapers), I used to enjoy it but after 2 years of staying in camps, it became more and more like prison.

Some camps are VERY nice, big rooms, big beds, big plasma TV with 100 channels, nice big gyms with personal trainers, games rooms (ping pong, snooker, foosball,etc), out door hockey rinks, baseball diamonds, basketball courts, concert hall with full music sets to jam, decent pubs/bars, etc. Then again, some SUCK and don't have any of those services! I remember one shitty camp I stayed at had a sever black bear problem, bears were getting into the camps, fucking up the kitchen, etc. One morning I got into my truck and there's bear paw prints all over the wind screen!!!

Most guys work a rotation and fly in/out from Calgary or Edmonton, lots fly from other parts of Canada and some fly from the USA. The last rotation I worked was one month on then one off, my company gave me $800/month to fly where ever I wanted, they didn't care where I went as long as I came back on time! IF YOU ARE SKILLED, THEY WILL FLY YOU FROM ANYWHERE IN THE USA, I hope some of you American guys come up here to work, tell your friends and family, we need more skilled trades and I'd rather see my USA brother and sisters come up here than hire from overseas.

Examples of rotations, or hitches are: 2 weeks on, 1 off (most common), 24 days on 4 off (most legally allowed to work, I did this for 8 months straight!), week on, week off, etc.

Me personally, I'm only going to work 6 months up there from now on. Its a hard lifestyle guys and not everyone is cut out for it, you have to deal with isolation, not getting laid often and probably the biggest issue for me, working with a lot of morons! Because of the severe labour shortage, they will hire anyone, including ex-cons, some crack heads, dead beats, etc. However, there are a few interesting cool people who only work there for the money then get the fuck out, like me!

Here's a video on camp life, its for an oil company so they try to make it look as nice as they can, its pretty close to reality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct7bziwvY0E

This short clip is from the same camp (and closer to reality lol): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcabfzmW_fg

Here's a list of most of the oil sands operations:

Suncor-1st ever oil sands operation, built in 1967
Syncrude-Largest oil sands operation
CNRL Horizon
Shell Albian Sands
Imperial oil (EXXON) Kearl Lake
Suncor Firebag
Husky Sunrise
Cenovus-Christina Lake
MEG Energy-Christin Lake

Most likely, you will find work with a contractor or subcontractor (like me), here's some big ones in the oil sands:

-PCL (Canada)
-Kiewit (USA)
-KBR (USA)
-Ledcor (Canada)
-Transfield (Australia)
-TIC (USA)
-Bechtel (USA)
-Kentz engineering
-DCM (Canada)
-Bradken (Australia)

Of course there's MANY more, here's some websites to find work in the oil sands:

Rig Zone, Oil Careers, jobbank.gc.ca, workopolis, monster.ca,

http://oilsands.infomine.com/careers/

fortmcmurrayjobshop.ca

Like I say, definitely not a career option for everyone, myself I'm even thinking about getting out of it, but I"m glad that its an option, I can always go there and work a maintenance shutdown and make 15-20K, in a month.

However, its easy to get caught up in the big money, give er' til ya quiver lifestyle, I know one guy last year, who was 25 and he grossed about 330K, he worked an insane amount of days and hours, we call it "the golden hand cuffs syndrome", you become obsessed with money and watch the bank account grow, I guess there's worse things to get into but I've seen some guys waste their 20's working and not enjoying the fruits of their labour!

Anyway, I'll write some more later because there's a lot I left out

peace

[WestIndianArchie]

I wish I was handy.
That's better money that the vast majority of lawyers in this city.

[pitt]

Scotian you rule.

Thanks again for share more info about the oil industry. You under 21 cats, dont sleep on this, this industry is where the money is.

[Moma]

Scotian - it's funny because i was talking about this with one of my friends after we came home from the club on Sat.

i was thinking about Alberta and the oil. I was just wondering if I could cope with the cultural difference and the cold. I also heard that rent is expensive up there because of that. All in all, it's something I have been toying with in the mind.

Also, I need regular lays and black bears just don't cut it (too bushy). But I am going to let that one simmer...

[Donald Duck]

Can non Canadians also do this?

[alecks]

im considering this now.my life is meaningless at the moment

[Laner]

A +1 from me Scotian. I also second the push for some of the young cats to read into this a lot more.

Like most Albertans I got a trade not far out of high school (Metal Fabrication). I worked pipelines for six months, hated it, but I had almost $60,000 to show. I never went back to the patch.

A few journeyman I worked with on the coast went up there and I talk to friends now and then about the work. Sometimes it gets tempting (after reading Scotians post for example) and other times I just cant bring myself to go back to that lifestyle.

But young guys getting in there now will lead to as much work and cash as you can manage. Even outside the patch, I was worked some jobs pulling in $700 a day and was back in my Vancouver condo every night. Not as common in the cities but jobs for $35 an hour are very common. The trades are nothing to ignore these days.

If you do go the trades route, make sure to plan for the future. You dont want to be a 40yo tradesmen. I worked with too many bent, broken and miserable men to want to do it forever.

[thegmanifesto]

Quote:

Not too many people on this forum appear to be the blue collar tradesmen types (am I the only one???)

I worked construction for 2-3 years and many summers as a youth.

As a side note to this thread, other Blue Collar jobs where you can make paper:

Elevator Union (if you can get into this, you can make $$$$)

Longshoreman's Union (again paper)

Railroad Union (don't know anyone in here but I heard its good)

Cranes (these guys cake up)

Longshoreman and Railroad guys are also protected by old laws on the books so if you ever get hurt, you are compensated pretty heavy.

Elevator Union is really strong too.

[Spike]

Scotian, you're not the only blue collar guy on here. I worked on and off as a carpenter and tiler for nearly 8 years. I worked at a BMW dealership, as a taxi driver for a year and in a bread factory before landing n office job as a (assistant) buyer. I got lucky on that one.

I would be interested in a high paying job like this. Do you by any chance know if they hire foreigners. I'm Dutch, we have good relationship with Canada since we many Dutch families emigrated to Canada in the 50' and 60's.

I've heard that working in the mines of Perth/Australia makes similar mad paper but they have strict laws on people above the age of 30.

Anyway a +1 from me.

[alecks]

im sure you need SOME experience to work in a field like this (to make big money anyway)

im actually considering it,as im unemployed and living with my parents in ireland.the thing is im only 20 and I think something like this could change my life for the better.

would I not need to take a course in some sort of engineering field/construction field first?

[scotian]

Glad to see some interest from you guys and nice to see that I'm not the only one coming from a blue collar back ground.

There's definitely some misconceptions about working in the trades or in industrial environments, remember that just because you get into a trade or into the oil biz, it doesn't mean you'll be doing that specific task forever. MANY guys start out as welders, then move up to supervisors or into management side of things, a lot of senior managers who make well into 6 figures and live in Edmonton/Calgary started out just like that, this is definitely an industry where you can work your way up, and make big $$$ on the way.

Moma, the examples I used in the OP are probably some of the shittier gigs (remote camps), some of the sites are closer to the city of Fort Mac (Suncor, Syncrude) and many people stay in the city and communte (45mins-1hour each way), it really depends on the gig.

My last gig was sweet, they put me and a co-worker up in a nice furnished condo (rents for $3500/month) in the nice part of Fort Mac (there is such a thing lol), gave us a brand new 2011 GMC truck to drive to work and gave us non taxable $60/day for food. So we could actually have a life, go out on weekends, I even had a FWB situation with a chick there for the last 3 months.

The best part is, employers are VERY flexible! I walked into my boss's office back in mid-October and said "I'm taking the winter off and Dec 1st will be my last day, I'm going to travel until the spring", his response, "cool, wish I could do that, take lots of pics and we'll see you in April".

G, yo're right, union trades are the best but unfortunately these jobs are a bit harder to get into. I am a proud member of the United Association union of plumbers, fitters, welders and HVAC service techs (Local 496), which means I have a great pension and make double time on the weekends! I encourage all USA union members (IBEW, UA, Iron workers, carpenters, etc) to call you local and ask about work in Alberta, we have special agreements for USA guys and we love working with Americans! Crane operators with the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE local 955) make 250K/year, I know many who do.

Neil and other non-Canadians, look into the immigration Canada web page: http://www.cic.gc.ca/

You may need a specific skill to get in, I"ll do some more research later, but I know a lot of Asians come here as TFW's (temporary Foreign Workers).

Alecks, actually there are many non skilled jobs that a young buck like you could do, being Irish, you can qualify for a working holiday visa. here's a couple of companies that I KNOW hire many foreigners, its a bit shitty work (industrial cleaning) but its a foot in the door and you WILL make good money, also they are going to be VERY BUSY this spring, check out their websites, call/e-mail their HR people:

http://www.cleanharbors.com/ (these guys also operate in the USA, Americans, take note.....if you get a job in the states with a USA company with OPS in Fort Mac, you can get a transfer!)

Also, check out http://www.cedagroup.com/index.html click on "2012 CEDA jobs" and you will see listings for unskilled and skilled jobs, these guys hire lots of guys for maintenance shut downs every year, read the offer, they will fly you in, train you and put you up in camp.

2012 will be the busiest shut down year in decades (shut downs or turn arounds occur each spring and fall for about 2-3 months, they shut down sections of the refineries to inspect, build and repair areas that need maintenance) this is what I do, 3 months in spring, 3 months in fall. Last fall I grossed over 60K in 3 months and I'm an apprentice, my JM probably grossed 75-80!

Here's the kind of $ you would make working for say CEDA or Clean Harbors (theres tonnes of other companies and examples I could use):

work 3 weeks on, 1 off, 12 hours per day:

each weekday: 8 hours straight time at $20/hour, 4 hours at $30/hour. gross $280
weekends: 12 hours at $30/hour, gross $360 each day

so, 5x280=1400 plus 2x360=720 =$2120

Of course the Canadian government will take a nice slice of that (gotta pay for the "free" health car somehow!), but you will likely (any tax guys can figure this out??) end up with about $1500 in you pocket each week. Remember, you'll be in camp so you won't have any expenses, so 3 weeks times $1500 per week, you'll have $4500 per month to fuck around with! Hopefully you don't blow it on your week off!

Guys, this is the MINIMUM you will make. Sometimes its busier so you work 16 hours instead of 12, for us lucky union guys, its more like this:

Journey man rate: $42 hour, 8 hours straight, 2 hours time and a half, 2 hours double. double time for all hours on the week end. Do the math, basically for 3 months straight, I was saving minimum 3K per week, my best week I CLEARED (net pay) $5600....I think my JM cleared about $7000, in ONE WEEK

Anyway, it may sound like I"m bragging and boasting about the money, but I just want to highlight how much coin can be made up here guys, its no secret, its public knowledge, if you take a trade, you WILL make this kind of money. And that's for us lowly trades men, imagine what an ambitious, intelligent entrepreneur can make up here, its wide open.

until next time!

[Hotwheels]

(01-23-2012 12:35 PM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  

Quote:

Not too many people on this forum appear to be the blue collar tradesmen types (am I the only one???)

Railroad Union (don't know anyone in here but I heard its good)

Longshoreman and Railroad guys are also protected by old laws on the books so if you ever get hurt, you are compensated pretty heavy.

I was a railroad engineer for 13 years. It's not hard to make $100K but the hours are really bad. You are basically on call 7/24 so it's not a good lifestyle if you like to schedule your life in any way. And don't plan on having weekends or holidays off. While you might not actually work them, if you get lucky, you will still be on call. The phone can ring about any time.

I have no desire to go back to it because of the lifestyle, but I am working on contracting services to the railroad. Good money there and a regular schedule.

Also, the injury labor laws G mentions go under FELA. Railroaders don't get workmans comp, which is good. FELA pays out a LOT better. It's too much to explain here but if interested google it.

[Alfonzo]

Hey Scotian I have some question for you .
The first one is if I have read well some one like me with no experience in the oil industry
can work over there and have a really decent salary ?

The second one, a french guy like me who is bilangual but still have an accent , do you think
I will have difficulties to adapt ?

The third one is about the taxes , I read you work there there and had a condo in Vancouver .
How the taxes work for you ? I guess you pay your main taxe to B.C and the federal taxe but do you give a % to Alberta too ?

[Hammerhead]

Great info scotian. I saw some IT jobs on the sites you posted. Do you know anything about what they are like? Anyone know about something similar in Alaska for us American's?

[Screwston]

Great thread scotian! Is this the same thing we were talking about before? I'm all for that 6 months on and 6 off. I feel like finishing this semester ta school, getting up there to start from the bottom and seeing how everything works. I'm tired of waiting to travel and this looks like the golden ticket.

[xmlenigma]

Scotian - You said 20-25k per month.. Damn! Crazy money for early 20s without college ed. If I'd known back then, I'd have worked 2/3 years, made $$$ and then gone to college in Brazil, MBA in a top school & back to O&G business as an Exec.

What about jobs like the following link (in IT or management). Curious.

(01-23-2012 04:55 PM)scallleywag Wrote:  

Great info scotian. I saw some IT jobs on the sites you posted. Do you know anything about what they are like? Anyone know about something similar in Alaska for us American's?

http://oilsands.infomine.com/careers/job...ement.aspx

[xmlenigma]

(01-23-2012 11:52 AM)pitt Wrote:  

Scotian you rule.

Thanks again for share more info about the oil industry. You under 21 cats, dont sleep on this, this industry is where the money is.

Pitt - Buddy, Never got a response from you on the other O&G post here.. Do enlighten me please
http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-3810-page-3.html

(12-21-2011 04:24 PM)xmlenigma Wrote:  

Pitt - Do send me the details as well please. Also the info on this Document Controller guy. I am stoked that the $$$ He's making Is that 18000/ month?.

(10-08-2011 01:19 AM)pitt Wrote:  

Malcom i have met this british guy on my camp who is a document controller and he is making 18000 dollars on 28 days rotation and he is only 26. But he has 9 yrs of experience. Money rains in this industry.

(12-01-2011 03:31 AM)rekruler Wrote:  

Hey Pitt, could you forward your breakdown of how you landed this gig to me as well? I'd much appreciate it!

[scotian]

(01-23-2012 04:25 PM)Alfonzo Wrote:  

Hey Scotian I have some question for you .
The first one is if I have read well some one like me with no experience in the oil industry
can work over there and have a really decent salary ?

The second one, a french guy like me who is bilangual but still have an accent , do you think
I will have difficulties to adapt ?

The third one is about the taxes , I read you work there there and had a condo in Vancouver .
How the taxes work for you ? I guess you pay your main taxe to B.C and the federal taxe but do you give a % to Alberta too ?

Hey Alfonzo, you can indeed find a decent job out west with no experience, you can apply to those companies I posted above (Clean Harbors and CEDA) and they will probably hire you. I would suggest doing some safety courses before you go out (unless of course the company offers to), it makes your CV more attractive to employer, the 2 essential ones are called "H2S Alive" (its a one day 8 hours sour gas safety course) and CSTS (Construction Safety Training System) I think you can do that one on-line through Enform.ca. You may also want to take First-Aid CPR training.

And thats pretty much it, you need those courses and you have to piss in a cup (theres ways around passing those tests too) and you can begin working in the oil sands.

As long as you can get up at 5am everyday and go to work for 12 hours (sometimes more) you can make decent money. If you're ambitious and work hard you can advance in the company or, do what I do and jump ship whenever a better gig comes up, I've had 4 employers in the past 3 years and my earning keep going up!

This spring is THE LARGEST SHUT DOWN SEASON ever in Alberta, this is a really big deal for guys like me in the industry, I know that when I go back home in April, I"ll have a solid 3 months of crazy work, then 2 months off to do whatever in the summer (Montreal?), then another 3 months of crazy work again in the fall then maybe Asia?

Alfonzo, look into the company DCM, they're Quebec based and I've worked for them at CNRL ( http://www.dcmgroup.ca/). I can tell by your writing that you speak English well enough to work out there, trust me I've worked with many guys out of Quebec here. You'll catch some slack from the red necks for being from Quebec, remember, this isn't a politically correct office environment, you'll be working along a lot of riff-raff, guys like me lol! Also, remember that at your first gig, you're low man on the totem pole, you'll be getting shit on a lot and you'll probably have to do some shitty jobs, but thats life!

If anyone in Canada is underemployed or is thinking about trying it out in the oil sands, this spring 2012 is THE BEST time to get out there and make some good coin. The shut downs are temporary but can definitely lead to full time gigs, or if you want to fuck off and travel like me between shut downs, that always a possibility!

And, I don't live in BC, I've been an Alberta resident for the past 4 years, my condo is in Edmonton. You can get a fake address in Alberta, if you're looking to avoid paying Quebec taxes ( I wouldn't blame you!)

[WesternCancer]

Sick data, like you said get ready to scrap if you go to a bar. My friend worked up there for the past 8months fought regularily and got into some BRAWLS. like 10 people involved etc.

Do they have any kind of science/biology related jobs up there, maybe chemistry? Something to do over the summer related to my degree.

[Vicious]

I've had my eyes on this for quite a while since I'm a mech eng with some very unique certs (auditing, lean enterprise). The difficult part appears to be the foot in the door for the work visa however.

[scotian]

(01-23-2012 10:26 PM)WesternCancer Wrote:  

Sick data, like you said get ready to scrap if you go to a bar. My friend worked up there for the past 8months fought regularily and got into some BRAWLS. like 10 people involved etc.

Do they have any kind of science/biology related jobs up there, maybe chemistry? Something to do over the summer related to my degree.

Ya lots of fights at the bars, usually just fists but sometimes it gets uglier, the first time I went into club NV there, I saw four different chick fights in about an hour!

They definitely have jobs for all science students, here's an example:
http://www.suncor.com/en/careers/3783.aspx

There really is something up there for everyone, if you're up for the challenge, it isn't an easy place to live and work but the financial rewards is what makes it worthwhile.

I'll look more into the work visa situation, as I posted, I'd like to see a lot more Americans up there. It actually pisses me off, I"ll watch CNN or some American TV channel and they're all going on about how bad the economy is and there's no jobs stateside, then I switch channels to a Canadian station and they're going on about how they can't find workers for the oil sands projects. Then I'm at work and I have to deal with a bunch of Asian workers who can't speak English properly (no offence to Asians but this is a major safety issue on any industrial job site).

I"ll get that info later, but any American who comes up will need a clean criminal record and probably a skill too. One way to get up here is apply to work with a company that has OPS in the USA and oil sands, I posted some companies above.

[Alfonzo]

Thancks for the info Scotian . The money would be interessant but, the shit environement(hours,fight) I don't think I will be acustom to . Right now I am in a poison environement , that won't help me right now if I'm going there . Maybe later when things will come back to the normal .

[scotian]

(01-24-2012 10:08 AM)Alfonzo Wrote:  

Thancks for the info Scotian . The money would be interessant but, the shit environement(hours,fight) I don't think I will be acustom to . Right now I am in a poison environement , that won't help me right now if I'm going there . Maybe later when things will come back to the normal .

No problem Alfonzo, the oil sands aren't going anywhere, there will be work opportunities there for many years to come! Its best to move out with a skill or at least some prior training, to ensure that you don't end up doing a shitty manual labour job like shoveling snow or digging ditches!

[Alfonzo]

(01-24-2012 10:19 AM)scotian Wrote:  

(01-24-2012 10:08 AM)Alfonzo Wrote:  

Thancks for the info Scotian . The money would be interessant but, the shit environement(hours,fight) I don't think I will be acustom to . Right now I am in a poison environement , that won't help me right now if I'm going there . Maybe later when things will come back to the normal .

No problem Alfonzo, the oil sands aren't going anywhere, there will be work opportunities there for many years to come! Its best to move out with a skill or at least some prior training, to ensure that you don't end up doing a shitty manual labour job like shoveling snow or digging ditches!

Do you think a firefighter diploma could help me to find something else than the crappy job ?

[scotian]

(01-24-2012 10:30 AM)Alfonzo Wrote:  

(01-24-2012 10:19 AM)scotian Wrote:  

(01-24-2012 10:08 AM)Alfonzo Wrote:  

Thancks for the info Scotian . The money would be interessant but, the shit environement(hours,fight) I don't think I will be acustom to . Right now I am in a poison environement , that won't help me right now if I'm going there . Maybe later when things will come back to the normal .

No problem Alfonzo, the oil sands aren't going anywhere, there will be work opportunities there for many years to come! Its best to move out with a skill or at least some prior training, to ensure that you don't end up doing a shitty manual labour job like shoveling snow or digging ditches!

Do you think a firefighter diploma could help me to find something else than the crappy job ?

Ya for sure, all oil sands operations have their own fire fighting departments, check out this company http://www.cnrl.com/ , the only thing is, you won't be saving cats from trees or burning residential houses, you'll deal with industrial explosions, like this one that happened last year (I made a tonne of money of the unscheduled shut down that ensued!) here's a video of the coker fire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8CQnCmk10w