Although it’s slowed a little there are always projects going on around GP. Kitimat is another one to keep an eye on.
Metal trades like welder, pipe fitter, boilermaker are in high demand because metal rusts and breaks and is used in a variety of industries like oil, gas, nuclear, aviation, ship building, green tech, etc. Plus younger guys don’t want to get into trades because it’s tough and dirty and boomers are retiring so I can still recommend it.
I’m not sure about data science but work with guys who do cost estimation, planner/scheduler and they’re good jobs but many of the office types who worked cushy jobs in Calgary are hurting these days. Things are better in Edmonton and Fort McMurray but it’s not like it was in boom times. I’d recommend staying in the US unless for some odd reason you’re really set on emigrating to Canada.
Just take whatever welding job you can get to learn the basics, or if you have the time and money take a course but basically in the oil sands, SMAW is the most common welding process so learning stick is the best to start with. It should be relatively easy to find a welders helper job someone.
Where there's money these days, there's data science to be done. But, if it's still hurting that bad then you're right, it probably isn't worth my time. It would follow that Canadian tech companies like Shopify are probably still inundated with laid off oil company data professionals.
I'm really not sure but there's definitely been an exodus of office folks from Calgary to places like Vancouver and Toronto. It's actually really busy right now for tradesmen in Alberta because of guys from back east not flying out for seasonal refinery outages because they have to quarantine in the Atlantic Bubble when they go back, also a ton of guys got covid in the camps. We were supposed to have 150 boilermakers at my site this week but so far only 12 have showed up so I've been getting paid to watch movies all week. Today I have to do an antigen rapid test, if I get covid and have to quarantine for two weeks, I'm not going to be happy, I just finished one last week after coming back from abroad.
Edmonton is closer to the oil patch and has more refineries in the area. It also has more work for trades and labour.
I'll have to see where we go now. BC is about to make BC Covid Pass Mandatory so we're seeing what that entails and if we should seek out another country instead. I'll be trying to find a remote job ASAP as well, this world has gone crazy.