33k a year is a shop bitch in my shop, but they get treated well.
I'll be your shop bitch if the pay is right and I get to play with cool machines
I worked 12 hours today and left the store perfectly clean. That's like 8 dollars an hour after taxes
If Dave is nothing else he is fair.
That is the worst thing I heard all day. I worked 12hrs today too, 4 of them were driving (napping as I was co pilot) from the hotel to site, and back, 2 of them were at lunch / coffee. The other 6 I was outside in the middle of nowhere Sask at -14C + windchill (~6F) (no washroom, not even a port a potty) at a pump station, data logging. It was a great day! Mostly because I made more in the first hour then you did all day.
I bring this up not to brag, but as a point. Anyone that has met me from this site will tell you I am average at best. Most people on this site are smarter then me, have more talent then me, and have more employable skills. All I have ever accomplished was graduating high school. This year if it keeps up as is I will work about a week a month, and make well into the 6 figures. Not because I am special, but because I am in the location, location, location where the energy industry is, and they are the big payers. It took me a few years to break into where I am in now, but that has more to do with correcting poor past choices then anything.
I do live on the road when I am working, but 1 week a month isn't that bad. I know lots of guys that do one in and one out, or two in and two out. All making 6 figures.
Yes housing here starts at about 400K, and there are places that gets you a trailer, but the average wage there is nearly 200k a year. It really is all relative.
As an American, getting a green card and a job in Canada would probably be tough, as I know going the other way is a huge pain. But unless you really have a reason to come here for something specific, I would just move to an energy sector in the US (Dakota's, Wyoming, Colorado, Ect...) Get a job with just about whatever, and move around to something that suites you well getting paid.