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Anyone quit Korea to work in the oilpatch?
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Stan Rogers

Joined: 20 Aug 2010

Posted: Tue May 27, 2014 5:12 am Post subject:

Ginormousaurus wrote:

Money-wise, it's the guys in the trades (on average)that earn the big bucks in Fort Mac.

Apprenticeships: <1 year in class, the rest of the time you're working
Engineering tech.: 2 year program with several months of paid co-op
Engineering: 4+ years in class, 1 year co-op

Problem is a lot of university educated people in Korea are not excited about the idea of putting their earnings on hold again and increasing their debt loads so they can go back to school and learn how to be an industrial worker.

BTW how's the weather there?

Ginormousaurus

Joined: 27 Jul 2006
Location: 700 Ft. Pulpit

Posted: Tue May 27, 2014 6:59 am Post subject:

Stan Rogers wrote:

Ginormousaurus wrote:

I hear you on that. Working in the oilfield certainly isn't for everyone. I chose to go into engineering (not eng. tech.) for precisely that reason. I do go out into the field/plant from time to time, but for the most part I work in an office. The thing about the trades and eng. tech. is that it is a much smaller investment of time/money, but with a potentially huge payoff. There is another thread here somewhere where user 'matesol' describes his experience in Northern Alberta. I believe he took a Power Engineering program and is now making $200K+ per year. If I were doing things over again, I'd probably go that route instead of taking 5+ years to get an actual engineering degree. But, then again, now that I'm almost done it will start paying for itself soon.

Weather-wise, Fort Mac isn't so bad. Winter is cold, summer is hot, spring and fall are too short. It's similar to everywhere else in Canada (except the Vancouver area).

Weigookin74

Joined: 26 Oct 2009

Posted: Tue May 27, 2014 7:15 am Post subject:

Ginormousaurus wrote:

Stan Rogers wrote:

Ginormousaurus wrote:

Something to think about. I think I'd prefer the cold over the heat. I mean the heat here. Don't know when you left, but the past couple of years the government has been on this save energy kick. Rather than make buildings energy efficient, they decided to restrict air conditioning so that it's never turned on and when it is, it's only 28 degrees. I think sub zero temperatures are looking pretty good to me right about now.

One of my cousins got his class one drivers licence and hauls around different sites. I think he just told me you work good for a company for a couple years as a laborer and they'll train you for a field. Sounds good as wages in Korea are similiar to what they were 10 years ago. Maybe going up a bit compared to the past couple of years but still not the cash cow it was.

I assume in these places the downside is lack of hot chicks? But if you went back, you probably missed it back home and found Korea grinding on you, perhaps?

Stan Rogers

Joined: 20 Aug 2010

Posted: Tue May 27, 2014 7:23 am Post subject:

A good idea would be to offer Canadians paid internships or paid on the job training like companies in many other countries do. Canadian companies are remarkablly stingy when it comes to paying for worker training. But hey, I hear the foreign worker program has been replacing all you overpriced Canadians anyway. They don't want to pay anyone eff all.

Ginormousaurus

Joined: 27 Jul 2006
Location: 700 Ft. Pulpit

Posted: Tue May 27, 2014 8:38 am Post subject:

Stan Rogers wrote:

A good idea would be to offer Canadians paid internships or paid on the job training like companies in many other countries do. Canadian companies are remarkablly stingy when it comes to paying for worker training.

But hey, I hear the foreign worker program has been replacing all you overpriced Canadians anyway. They don't want to pay anyone eff all.

All co-ops are essentially paid internships (and they pay well). The catch is that you must be a student. Any trades program or engineering tech. program at SAIT will include paid internships. I assume NAIT would be similar. If you can afford to move to Fort McMurray and take something at Keyano College, I think you could be reasonably confident about landing a job as soon as you complete whatever it is your taking. The school works closely with industry to fill demand.

Last edited by Ginormousaurus on Tue May 27, 2014 9:21 am; edited 1 time in total

Ginormousaurus

Joined: 27 Jul 2006
Location: 700 Ft. Pulpit

Posted: Tue May 27, 2014 8:45 am Post subject:

Weigookin74 wrote:

One of my cousins got his class one drivers licence and hauls around different sites. I think he just told me you work good for a company for a couple years as a laborer and they'll train you for a field.

This is what I've heard as well. You start at the bottom with no experience, but a good work ethic and you can rise quite quickly and get all your training/education on the company's dime.

Weigookin74 wrote:

I assume in these places the downside is lack of hot chicks? But if you went back, you probably missed it back home and found Korea grinding on you, perhaps?

There's definitely a lack of eye candy...especially when compared to Korea! I'm fortunate enough to be married and so this is less of an issue with me, but I wouldn't really want to be a single guy up there trying to find a girlfriend. You're going to be up against a lot of competition...big guys with more money than they know what to do with.

ttompatz

Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea

Posted: Tue May 27, 2014 1:55 pm Post subject:

Stan Rogers wrote:

A good idea would be to offer Canadians paid internships or paid on the job training like companies in many other countries do. Canadian companies are remarkably stingy when it comes to paying for worker training.

But hey, I hear the foreign worker program has been replacing all you overpriced Canadians anyway. They don't want to pay anyone eff all.

That might be true back east .....

up in the patch.... 30 days training gets you onto a rig.
4 years paid apprentice ship ($20+/hr) (down south - not even up north in fort mac).
end as a journeyman rig tech making 100k+/year.

Couple years at that and your pulling in 200k or working 8 months a year and spending your holidays in Mexico or Cuba like my little brother.

More than enough (decently paid) work for anyone with a strong back and a good work ethic.

If you want to get into the trades - again, a 4 year paid apprenticeship and more work than you can handle.

Cheap companies don't run private airlines giving free flights back and forth from Alberta to Newfoundland as a perk to keep workers on the job.

.

Enduro

Joined: 26 Apr 2014

Posted: Tue May 27, 2014 2:06 pm Post subject:

Is there an age cutoff for this field of work? I would think age doesn't matter as long as one is in great physical condition.