Korean Job Discussion Forums

NilesQ · Joined: 27 Nov 2006

I am considering leaving Korea after 5 years here. Looking for opinions and experiences from others who have gone back to Canada because of the oil boom. Looking for outcomes on the financial, personal, and career implications of such a move.
Thanks to anyone who can throw in their 2 cents.

Wrench · Joined: 07 Apr 2005

I worked in IT supporting the Canadian OIL and boy it wasn't worth it in the end..

khyber · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Compunction Junction

It's a DDD job.
All three. It is (generally) populated with a lot of very rough and tumble types: Not exclusively but mostly. Housing in fort mac is EXpensive so you'd wnat to try to get into a camp (those usually don't allow alcohol or drugs though they have buses shuttling to the "city".
Everything is expensive but you can still save money.

You get paid a lot, a lot of money. I know people who went up only during the winter. They can easily clear 3000s every two weeks. A few of them even got 4000.

If you want to try something easier than the grunt stuff, learn a machine; backhoe, front loader, picker truck; whatever. The work is a bit easier on your body. The bad part: You'll be stuck on that machine for a loooong time (ie, your life). The good part? Work hard enough and you could retire when your fairly young still.

It's not a job for the faint of heart, soft personality, or weak of body.... but the payoff is huge.

Otherwise, try to get into a trade. You can make a bundle in any trade in AB these days. My bro-in-law, in his early 40s changed over to being a plumber and is, after three years, already making way more than he was at his previous job.

Pa Jan Jo A Hamnida · Joined: 27 Oct 2006 Location: Not Korea

Do you like having all your fingers and toes?

rawiri · Joined: 01 Jun 2003 Location: Lovely day for a fire drill.

It's a job for tough nuts. You will need to be quite mechanically minded if you are going for a labouring/driving position. The hours are long and the work can be quite physical. I worked with a couple in australia from calgary, he dropped out of university to work full time on the fields and makes an absolute killing. I was driving tractors at the time and they told me to get my arse to calgary and they would hook up a job, well over 1000 dollars a week, and if your lucky enough to go to the middle east you can bank on double that with all expenses paid. The dude was only 22 and has a fantastic future ahead of him. Definitley not a job for weakwilled people though, you may have to work months at a time with no vacations, be able to get along with pretty hard guys, live away from civilisation for a while, if thats the kind of people you are then you should be fine.

gmat · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

My younger brother quit university, went to training school to become a welder in Alberta and is now making $150,000 a year and drives a BMW. Not bad at 24 Smile

periwinkle · Joined: 08 Feb 2003

Are there any women out there doing those jobs?

I saw a segment on 60 minutes about a place in Alberta that is so desperate for workers they fly ppl in every day from other locations...

niandralades · Joined: 11 Jun 2006 Location: incheon

The money is unbelievable. The jobs are not difficult. If you have half a brain or any kind of goals in life then you can move up on the rig and be smiling in a pretty damn safe, high-paying job in a few months. Most of the people you will be working with will not be all that stimulating and you will be stuck with them for weeks at a time before you get a day away but there are a ton of jobs throughout Saskatchewan and Alberta (especially Alberta). It's not all that dangerous anymore but there is always a risk. It's not at all like being the strange Western guy standing at the front of a classroom, rambling like an idiot to a bunch of children.

mithridates · Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 10:25 am Post subject:

jaganath69 · Joined: 17 Jul 2003

Funny you mention it, I was talking turkey with my best mate on the phone last Sunday about the Australian economy. He is an economist with a bank back home and was mentioning the fact that there was big money to be made for tradespeople in the central Queensland coalfields (and I would assume in WA, too, since there is a lot of mining going on there). It seems the resources boom is paying off for a great number of people and as long as inflation doesn't hit hard and China and India still desire inputs for manufactures, things will remain sweet.

rawiri · Joined: 01 Jun 2003 Location: Lovely day for a fire drill.

Anyone else feel pangs of regret for moving into EFL teaching when there are labouring jobs out there that can pay in excess of 100 000 a year?

Mithiridates, Speaking arabic isn't really going to help out much in a labouring position, so unless you are going for a management job, in which case you have to have all the technical know how, or maybe interpreter, you would be out of luck.

Mashimaro · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Location: location, location

Hollywoodaction · Joined: 02 Jul 2004

I wouldn't mind working as an electrician. It's probably one of the most mentally stimulating trades. I wouldn't mind working as a mechanic, either. Time flies when I'm working on cars. It's very relaxing work.

NilesQ · Joined: 27 Nov 2006

I saw a coop program to become a power engineer in Ft McMurray. Probably good money.....but you have to live in Ft McMurray

contrarian · Joined: 20 Jan 2007 Location: Nearly in NK

Fort McMurray has a lousy climate. The summers are short with black flies and mosquitoes. The winters are long, dark and bloody cold. The place is a good six hour drive from Edmonton and there is really only one highway.

The people that work there are generally a rough bunch, Natives and Red Necks (even the Newfies convert). Most anything you do trades wise needs a ticket of some kind. At the very least experience.

That's the bad part. The good part is the money. It can be really incredible. The daughter and son in law of a friend of mine live and work there. They are in the 20's he drives a super heavy duty truck, she is a mommy and part time court reporter. Their joint income was well over 200,00 grand. They lucked into a small house (took it over from a relative).

Otherwise do a camp job. One standard seems to be 3 weeks "in" 7 days a week, 10 - 12 hours a day. Then two weeks "out". They fly you to Edmonton and turn you loose.

Camps: Great food in near unlimited quantities. Minimal recreation facilites. No booze, no drugs and if you are caught you are gone (except the Natives). People will rat you out because their buddies might want your job.

This is not liberal friendly country.

One friend of a friend (a masochist) did two jobs. He worked one company on his "in" weeks and another company of his "out weeks". If he hung in for three years at that he could have darn near a half million in the bank. Even Subway pays 15 bucks an hour.