Working as IT Specialist in Fort McMurray

Erich2563

Hello,

I've read that Fort McMurray is a place where you can earn much more money than somewhere else. That's why I'm interested and I'm looking for information.

I'm an IT specialist from Austria with 4 years work experience. Recently I worked as web developer.
Probably I can't work as web developer in Fort McMurray, but I'm also educated for information technology, electronics, software development and system administration and I can learn more things if necessary.
I'm adventurous, adaptable and I have no family, so I think I'm very suitable for this.

Please tell me, how I can work in Fort McMurray. Do you have jobs in the IT or electronics or is it necessary to become an oil technician. What education, knowledge and other requirements do I need?
What salary can I expect?

mcmurrian

Most firms have head offices in Calgary or other places and that's where majority of IT people will be located. The city and Keyano college might have a few positions for web developers but those are limited. Also with the oil boom over the salaries for IT people have been going down. If you are thinking of immigrating you are better of looking in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver for web related jobs. Or the USA as their tech sector pays way better.

Erich2563

Thank you for the answer.

What's about a job with short education? E.g.: Driving one of the big excavators or vehicles.
Do you know how long is the education and how much can you earn with it?

mcmurrian

I would suggest to reach out to the folks at Keyano College https://www.keyano.ca/ as they offer a lot of these types of programs and they can talk to you about the costs and how long the program takes to complete.

Keep in mind that driving big trucks in the oil sands is not a sustainable job, since they are being transitioned to be fully autonomous. For example here is a quick video about Suncor's autonomous haul trucks