[El Bastardo]

The following is a reply from the anonymous original poster

Originally Posted by bloodmack

Honestly, you ask us if we would do it, most of us say no but, you're still telling us about how it will give your career a big boost. So, if I were in your position, I'd do it. You seem like you're willing to make sacrifices for it, so why not? Also, most of the problems people would have, seem to be covered for you if you make the jump (living and eating mainly). It will be cold when its cold, and you seem like a smart man, you will know who the bad apples are and who aren't. You have years to go and you seem like you're doing well, what's life without experiences, eh?

Thanks, I honestly have been trying hard to justify it to myself.
due to the nature of the offer I couldn't talk to many co-workers about it, out of the friend's i've talked to, its split 50/50, but seems like all the reasons for me not to go is social aspect.

Originally Posted by SoNaRWaVe

bloodmack has it right on the dot. you keep favoring career advancement, and money is not a biggy for you, so i say you should just do it. if you think you'll miss the city life, remember, its only 3 years. it seems long, but it isn't really that long. how many 3 year contracts have you gone through for cellphones? how many years of renting have you gone through already? and if you can negotiate vacation and paid flights back home twice or three times a year, thats just icing on top.

yea, I guess 3 years is not so bad

Originally Posted by lowside67

If you are making $80k a year now, 2.3x would be $185k a year approximately. If they are going to pay you that plus some flights home and then you are going to be able to come back to Vancouver and still make most of that, that's a no brainer. You are relocating to another city for 3 years, not spending 3 years in a dungeon doing data entry, people in this thread need to HTFU a bit. Life is not just where you live, it's also how you live - you can be sure there are people who are loving life in Fort Mac and also people who are miserable in Vancouver!

Mark

The hard part will be controlling my spending and actually bank some of the money.

Originally Posted by meowjinboo

pretty much. Really take a look at your social life, most people don't realize it, but if you are meeting a friend once or twice a week than it isn't that big of a deal.

If your co-workers are cool people then it wont be so bad. I will admit that I'm easily introverted, and I spend alot of time travelling by myself. I know girls that work in camps at fort mac at the front desk only make 70k a year, but they get their housing + food paid for, and then spend their 7-10 days off travelling.

seriously, our parents are all immigrants to this country. They left their lives for a better life no matter what it took.

Thanks, this really puts it into perspective....

Originally Posted by ScizzMoney

I live up here in Fort McMurray.

A lot of what some people are saying isn't true:
- The ratio of men to women is more like 55/45 or 60/40 at the worst. The ratio does get skewed when you go to the 'poorer' areas of town though. Then it is nothing but dudes (Waterways & Downtown. Women generally don't like those areas)
- "nothing to do except work and meth" is borderline retarded. If you want drugs, you can find it in any town you want in the country. It's all about the company you keep. My friends and I never touch drugs and are never exposed to it.
- People don't shun you for not doing drugs. To the guy that said they did probably had a sketchy group of friends.
- As for people coming back more introverted and awkward, I don't think that has anything to do with location. If people change when they move to another City within Canada, they were probably just weak people to begin with and very impressionable.


Now to the good or factual.

- If you are planning to rent a place on your own, expect to pay anywhere from 1800-2400 a month for something decent in a 1 bedroom configuration.
- Being a general manager I would imagine would be very difficult in this city. Simply because turnover is very high here with the average income sits around $90k a year and people are always jumping ship from job to job. Especially those who work in town and know people or get jobs on one of the sites close by.
- Not sure who you are working with, but I would try to negotiate them renting you a small SUV or something to drive while you are up here. Put company decals or some shit on it. This year we had a 6 month winter and having AWD or 4x4 in my opinion is almost a necessity.
- Food at grocery stores is very competitive as the big stores like Walmart keep it that way. The food cost increase comes at Restaurants and fast food joints.
- Expect to wait in line when going to restaurants too. They are always packed, and it is only going to get busier up here.
- I can see this place getting back to how it was before where you'd walk into a grocery store or Walmart and the aisles would just have pallets of products plunked down and not put out due to staffing being so low. I literally had to dig through boxes to find deodorant one day. This doesn't happen often, but it does happen.
- If the living allowance they are paying is less than $1000 a month, ask for it increased.
- You will probably be surprised by the amount of good looking women up here too.
- You might not see it at first, but this town is very generous and has a good sense of community (Provided you get involved too). There are lots of good people out here who are trying to make this place home.
- The theater here sucks.
- You will probably do a lot more online shopping with the selection here being pretty minimal.




If you can afford to, I would suggest buying a place right away. I 100% think you can't go wrong buying in this town right now if you plan to leave in 3 years.

OP. If you want, you can feel free to shoot me a pm if you have any questions or anything.


This place is a lot better than most people think.

Would thank you 100X if I could, yes I realize it will be VERY difficult from a work standpoint, the average tenure of part time staff at the store that I will be taking over is 4 weeks. So turn over is extremely high.

Most of the part time staff go there to work in retail until a better opportunity comes up w/ one of the oil companies that pays a lot more $.

I will definitely look into buying a place, will PM you once everything is solidified.

Originally Posted by subordinate

I feel as if OP has already made his decision. He's career driven and is motivated by the jump/potential.

I say he's over-thinking it, maybe wants the finer details worked out (wage/accommodation/travel,etc), so he get's a good deal on this relocation.

All the best OP.

Thank you, most likely will sign the contract, but you are right, I am concerned about the fine details. Not sure if I forgot to negotiate anything into the contract, never had an offer negotiation like this before.

I know Money isn't the main factor, but I do not want to get "ripped off" at the same time, but by the sounds of everyone in this thread, their offer to me is very reasonable and I really shouldn't expect much more.


Overall, I want to thank everyone who contributed to this thread, RS has once again come through and helped me A LOT in making this decision.

I will update everyone after I visit Fort Mac. And hopefully by then I can do it no through an anonymous post.

Yea 95%+ I will sign the contract after seeing the place....