I certainly can! Do you mind if I send you a PM asking for more details?tmkf_patryk wrote: ↑ Yes there are still FI-FO jobs but not as many. Most of them now you go to Edmonton or Calgary as a hub and it's FI-FO from there.
I was lucky to work in the -50 weather we just had outside for 12 hours a day. Day after day. OP can you handle that? After 4 or 5 days it doesn't feel as cold anymore
Wow reading that depressed me. So the days of making 150K+ with overtime are long gone? Man I was born in the wrong period lol.FirstGear wrote: ↑ Depends on what you’re looking into. Many jobs and incomes prior to the oil crash in 2015 aren’t coming back. The industry has learned to squeeze margins by drastically reducing costs (and desirability and happiness of jobs).
Flights usually at most are to Calgary or Edmonton - if that. Most jobs only recruit locals to save cost.
Most of the higher paying jobs are blue-collar, but they tend to have much higher turnover. Lower entry cost, and lower entry time (which is also cost), but lower stability. They are the kind of jobs where you can make $2,500-5,000 a week but you may not work for 6 months, or you work no overtime or just a compressed workweek, then get laid off after the project is done. It is very hard to gauge how much you make in a year; can be $50,000, $70,000, 150,000, or 200,000.
For example: we are paid here $2,500-3,500/week, but the oil company only does drilling projects in the winter. In the spring, and fall, we then have “shutdowns”, where the plants go into a major maintenance period and have a surge in spending. These gigs usually last a month or less. Winter projects usually go for 2-3 months. All together, on a good one, we’d get 5 months of solid work in a year; approx. $60,000-70,000 of income, plus EI and/or some other odd jobs we do in between.
I came to the oilfield in 2013 and am on site as I write this. In the good years, us oilfield truckers and operators can see $100,000-150,000 over a year; $15,000 for a month of work when busy. The electricians or mechanics could see over 200,000 a year. Nowadays it seems like most people are happy to work or see anything close to just $100,000.
This is the kind of money people are happy to be working for in the oil patch these days, doing 12 hour days in sub -40C weather, away from home. This around often terrible people who make your workplace seem like a paid prison.
I personally do not think spending years to get your experience built enough to be constantly employable, while going though the above, to be worth just $100,000/year, if that. You will be at a severe disadvantage starting out because your experience and education will be limited compared to competing job seekers. When work slows down, your lower experience amount will get you laid off first. If you are still in the position to start another worthwhile career and/or go to school, spend your grief, time, and money on that instead. Invest and grow your money. This does not mean that going to school for 4-5 years and $30,000+ of tuition, to make $40,000/year, is a good idea either however. At that rate you may as well complete a trade.
Many “permanent” camp jobs operate on set rotations, such as a week on and a week off. Many blue collar jobs sit in the mid $3x/hour range, and 12 hour shifts are standard. If you take the median, it comes to roughly $81,000 per year income. If you’re a journeyman tradesperson who gets around the $40-45/hour mark, this comes to $90,000-100,000 range. In the old days there was so much work that people could work almost as much as they wanted. This is where the stories of $200,000+ per year income tradespeople came from, as then they’d have their overtime kick in as well. This before many sites reverted to compressed workweeks to avoid paying overtime.
Personally I want to get out of it because I’m sick of it and the work is a lot harder to come by. Plus the pay rates have stagnated and dropped, and workers having less power than in the past. Being away all the time also sucks, especially when you don’t get paid for it as much as you used to.
More stable 6-figure salary jobs are far in between but still exist, though more so for people with 5-10+ years of experience and an extensive list of credentials. Project managers, senior supervisors, to name a few.
There are still many traditional office jobs key to the functioning of industry in Alberta, such as CPAs, analysts, recruiters, controllers, payroll people, managers, bookkeepers, software engineers, IT people, etc. But competition is extremely fierce and apart from the tech sector, those people are happy to make $50,000-60,000/year. Closer to $70-80K for things like supervisors, operations managers or CPAs, but typically those in those positions have already put many years in.
Tech sector pays well, with many roles even close to $100,000 or higher mark. I’ve seen some positions recruit for as high as $50-100/hour, but the list of required credentials and education is extremely extensive. If you are say, a business analyst with two degrees, several programming languages, 5-10+ IT certifications, and 5-10+ years of experience, then it is not unrealistic to be worth $100,000+/year.
The Alberta provincial government pays extremely well, and is a top rated employer, but near impossible to get in as they are very close knit and unionized. The lists of requirements for positions are usually extremely extensive as well.
What a well written, accurate and informative post man. Well done.FirstGear wrote: ↑ Depends on what you’re looking into. Many jobs and incomes prior to the oil crash in 2015 aren’t coming back. The industry has learned to squeeze margins by drastically reducing costs (and desirability and happiness of jobs).
Flights usually at most are to Calgary or Edmonton - if that. Most jobs only recruit locals to save cost.
Most of the higher paying jobs are blue-collar, but they tend to have much higher turnover. Lower entry cost, and lower entry time (which is also cost), but lower stability. They are the kind of jobs where you can make $2,500-5,000 a week but you may not work for 6 months, or you work no overtime or just a compressed workweek, then get laid off after the project is done. It is very hard to gauge how much you make in a year; can be $50,000, $70,000, 150,000, or 200,000.
For example: we are paid here $2,500-3,500/week, but the oil company only does drilling projects in the winter. In the spring, and fall, we then have “shutdowns”, where the plants go into a major maintenance period and have a surge in spending. These gigs usually last a month or less. Winter projects usually go for 2-3 months. All together, on a good one, we’d get 5 months of solid work in a year; approx. $60,000-70,000 of income, plus EI and/or some other odd jobs we do in between.
I came to the oilfield in 2013 and am on site as I write this. In the good years, us oilfield truckers and operators can see $100,000-150,000 over a year; $15,000 for a month of work when busy. The electricians or mechanics could see over 200,000 a year. Nowadays it seems like most people are happy to work or see anything close to just $100,000.
This is the kind of money people are happy to be working for in the oil patch these days, doing 12 hour days in sub -40C weather, away from home. This around often terrible people who make your workplace seem like a paid prison.
I personally do not think spending years to get your experience built enough to be constantly employable, while going though the above, to be worth just $100,000/year, if that. You will be at a severe disadvantage starting out because your experience and education will be limited compared to competing job seekers. When work slows down, your lower experience amount will get you laid off first. If you are still in the position to start another worthwhile career and/or go to school, spend your grief, time, and money on that instead. Invest and grow your money. This does not mean that going to school for 4-5 years and $30,000+ of tuition, to make $40,000/year, is a good idea either however. At that rate you may as well complete a trade.
Many “permanent” camp jobs operate on set rotations, such as a week on and a week off. Many blue collar jobs sit in the mid $3x/hour range, and 12 hour shifts are standard. If you take the median, it comes to roughly $81,000 per year income. If you’re a journeyman tradesperson who gets around the $40-45/hour mark, this comes to $90,000-100,000 range. In the old days there was so much work that people could work almost as much as they wanted. This is where the stories of $200,000+ per year income tradespeople came from, as then they’d have their overtime kick in as well. This before many sites reverted to compressed workweeks to avoid paying overtime.
Personally I want to get out of it because I’m sick of it and the work is a lot harder to come by. Plus the pay rates have stagnated and dropped, and workers having less power than in the past. Being away all the time also sucks, especially when you don’t get paid for it as much as you used to.
More stable 6-figure salary jobs are far in between but still exist, though more so for people with 5-10+ years of experience and an extensive list of credentials. Project managers, senior supervisors, to name a few.
There are still many traditional office jobs key to the functioning of industry in Alberta, such as CPAs, analysts, recruiters, controllers, payroll people, managers, bookkeepers, software engineers, IT people, etc. But competition is extremely fierce and apart from the tech sector, those people are happy to make $50,000-60,000/year. Closer to $70-80K for things like supervisors, operations managers or CPAs, but typically those in those positions have already put many years in.
Tech sector pays well, with many roles even close to $100,000 or higher mark. I’ve seen some positions recruit for as high as $50-100/hour, but the list of required credentials and education is extremely extensive. If you are say, a business analyst with two degrees, several programming languages, 5-10+ IT certifications, and 5-10+ years of experience, then it is not unrealistic to be worth $100,000+/year.
The Alberta provincial government pays extremely well, and is a top rated employer, but near impossible to get in as they are very close knit and unionized. The lists of requirements for positions are usually extremely extensive as well.
Depends on how much work you get, what you do, what the market does, what the oil companies do, etc. There is no for sure yes or no. Think of it like owning a business where you do not know how much you get from one week to the next. You’re essentially providing a service to X company, that bills it out to some Y oil company.
That is pretty much the case everywhere, need to work for the government to get 6 figure and job security. Although the public sector worker in Alberta will not accept it, even if the private sector gets gutted.
The fly in and fly out from the east coast used to happen quite a bit years ago (had a few friends when I used to live in Edmonton that started that way). However after the oil price crash a few years ago companies are being more cautious and cutting costs. They will bus/fly you in and out of Edmonton, but no longer from the east coast.jwindle wrote: ↑ Hi everyone, I was wondering if there were still jobs in Alberta where they fly you out from Ontario and you work for a week in a camp and then fly you back for a few days rest. I know a few years back I used to hear a lot about it. I am able to work very hard so it doesn't matter the conditions that may be present or the long working hours. Something in the oil and gas industry is what I am specifically talking about.
