[Confidential] Moving to Fort Mac, would you do it?
 

The following is a post from an anonymous Revscene member

Just got offered a position in retail in fort mac.
The position is small promotion from what I am currently doing but can potentially get me much further ahead in my career path.
It is something that the VP of my company personally offered to me.
I have a scheduled conference call with him tomorrow to discuss the details of the position, including term on contract and compensation.

What would be a fair compensation for a relocation for fort mac?
1.5X current salary?
2x current salary?
2.5X current salary?

Also, what would be a fair amount of flight allowance to negotiate for?
6 round trips? 4 round trips?
I get 6 weeks of paid vacation per year.

I know accomendation up there is expensive, but how is cost of staple food? Like milk, chicken breast etc?

Any information regarding this would be helpful.
Also, anything else I should negotiate for in my contract if I decide to go?

Thank you!

we need more info on your salary, position etc.

Retail is really broad.

Flight allowance? For a retail position?

The following is a reply from the anonymous member

currently salary is in the 6x,xxx figure + bonuses which usually puts me at around 8x,xxx before tax at the end of the year.
Position would be a general manager for a retail store.

If I made 80k a year managing a retail store in Vancouver I'd likely never leave. Thats a great wage for this city, and a nice comfortable amount to live on. I wouldn't go, but I love it here. Men to women is about 9/1, its more expensive than vancouver, there is nothing to do except work and meth, and 5 months of the year its too cold to walk outside. Unless you have an exit strategy, i.e. go bank 300k over 3 years, find somewhere you want to settle and buy a condo/house I wouldn't do it. My wife's brother does it and she says she can literally see him become more introverted and awkward every time he comes back to visit. If you are a social person, it is really tough to deal with. If its going to be a temporary thing, and you are young, I'd suggest considering it if the career benefits are massive, but be prepared to sacrifice a lot for your career.

The following is a reply from the anonymous original poster

I am currently in my mid 20s
Living outside of the GVRD
My lifestyle right now is very comfortable
The place I'm living in has extremely low cost of rent
I pay ~$1200 for a waterfront 1600sqft apartment.

So my standard of living would drop significantly in fort mac
From a career stand point, this move puts me in a much larger volume store within my company, and would normally take 3-4 years to achieve from where I am now.

So it is kind of a spring board for my career.

Need to know what kind of compensation is "fair"
And also what else can I negotiate?
Flight allowance?
Extra vacation time? Etc

Food is about the same cost up there maybe ~10% more.

In the winter, you'll pretty much want a car to get around. Public transit exists up there but runs every 15-30 mins for most routes.

IMO fair compensation would be the average of wages of everyone in the same role as you. I would try to contact people that are doing the same thing and ask what their salary is.

Fly in, fly out, is normal up there, but I've never heard someone in retail getting it. Usually once every 2-3 months is the norm.

Negotiate for housing assistance?
What about health and wellness benefits?

If you live in camp, you will have problems with trades people doing drugs. If you actually live in the city, and you're an outdoorsy person, you will have no problem finding people to hang out with. When I mean people, I mean people that are not degenerates.

I cant say this is the same for you, but for my bud who went to fort mac, he found that either you did drugs, or everyone shunned you.

he lasted 8 months before he had to move home because everyone up there was cracked out and wouldn't talk to him cause he wouldn't smoke with them.

Keep in mind he's in retail, not in trades.
So the drug use might still be there but the herd/bullying mentality might be vastly different then that of a bunch of rig/trades guys

I understand you want to keep everything confidential, but I would love to know what retail store in fort mac generates more volume, more sales, more revenue then a retail store here in the gvrd.

The following is a reply from the anonymous original poster

So I spoke with a couple of decision makers to day.

So far we didn't get into too much detail in regards to my compensation.

But it sounds like a "couple" of paid flights "home" is negotiable
how the pay structure works will be a raise on top of my current wage + a significant amount in living allowance.
the total of wage + living allowance would be close to 2.2-2.3X my current wage.

it is a 3 year contract, afterwards i keep my wage but lose the living allowance when I move back into a major metropolitan area.

so far they are going to arrange for me to visit the city and environment before I need to make a decision.

what i want to know is um....does the compensation sound fair? should I negotiate other things into the contract? etc

ultimately the $ is nice, but its the advancement in my career that is the main driving factor.

This.

A bunch of my engineering classmates moved up there for work, and whenever they come back to visit, those of us who stayed in the lower mainland totally notice a change in their personalities.

Ultimately, it all depends on your priorities and lifestyle.

My salary would easily double or maybe even triple if I moved up there, but I just have too much going on in Vancouver. Friends, family, music, arts, dating, teaching, etc.

I wouldn't give any of that up for, hell, even 5x my salary. Funny enough, I was actually considering moving down to California and making less.

But I'm one of those "you can't put a price on your 20's" people. I'd move up there as a last resort, but I would never consider it at my current age.

If I had moved up there when after I graduated, I'd have money coming out of every pore right now. But I would have missed so many opportunities and life memories here in Vancouver that I could not and would not put a price on.

Unless you're super pressed for money and sitting on a unrecoverable pile of debt (which I assume you're not, or at least, I hope you're not, as you're living in a waterfront condo), then just relax. We're in one of the best places to live in the world.

Of course, this is all just me.

Get into detail. Don't let them be ambiguous until you see the contract.

Do you get paid vacation days?

Just ask them about anything else you want. But "living expenses" is pretty broad.

Calculate your rent, car, phone, hydro, cable, food, etc.

Its fair, and actually quite generous. If you look at jobs across the board in ft. Mac they usually end up averaging from 1.5 to 1.75 times normal metropolitan area salaries. I'm obviously generalizing a lot here but its a starting point. Really YOU have to make the decision of wether its worth it or not, and it sounds as though you've already made the decision, as it always comes back to you talking about career advancement. Sign up, get there fast, make your money and get the fuck out of there. If your smart, you'll end up with house paid off in your 30s and a nice car. You mention negotiating flights and such into your contract, but considering you are going to be making 180k a year basically I wouldn't make it a deal breaker.

The following is a reply from the anonymous poster

cant say the company name, since nothing is finalized yet
but fort mcmurray has a much higher disposable income
this store currently does top 10 volume in the country, with the highest dollars per square foot in the country.
they are expanding and opening a new store 3Xs the size and potentially has the potential to be the top 3 store in the country in terms of volume...and yes larger than any store in the GVRD.

Yes I understand that i will be putting my social life on hold.
the Money isnt the main driving factor, but the career boost.....without this move, it would take me another 3-4 years to get close to the volume of store that they are currently offering me.

also, after this store (provided I succeed), I can pretty much dictate where I would like to go next. which is nice to have that 'choice'

I will see the contract after my visit to the area sometime next week or week after.
i get 6 weeks of paid vacation per year (but that is same as now)
the living allowance is quite a significant amount, which is designed to cover off rent + some food. (should be able to cover all food if i dont eat out all the time).

I would like to ask for a company car, but I doubt they will do that.

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?

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.

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

No one's saying what's right or wrong, just making sure OP knows what he's in for, and giving our own opinions.

Again, it all comes down to priorities and values.

OP seems very career-driven and is willing to relocate for the future of his career. I admire that, because that's something I simply couldn't do. Much respect.

To expand a bit on my earlier post, I was actually looking to relocate down to California and take a pay cut. But that makes sense for me, because my priorities are music scenes and casual dating, neither of which Fort Mac has much of.

If OP doesn't have much of an interest in anything location-specific, then it just comes down to a family/friends thing.

Fort Mac has everything else we have here, basically. Pools, bars, gyms, theatres, etc.
BUT the 9 males to 1 female ratio is not exaggerated. Seriously. The four friends I have that are working up there right now tell some pretty interesting stories of the lengths people go to for thrills. :lawl:

When I was working at Staples, the Fort Mac store destroyed anything in BC in sales volume. I wouldn't be surprised if that's typical of any retail store (FS, BB, LD, etc.), to be honest.

I work in Fort Mac 14 days on and 14 days off. It's true food and everything else is more expensive but the wage you'll make will compensate for it. Roughly a one bedroom basement is around $1800 / month and that depends which part of town you would like to live in. When it comes to transportation, I would suggest you drive something awd or 4x4 since winter here gets rough. Good luck on your career!
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(raises hand)

to the op:

don't listen to people: Do what you think is right. Fort mac isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Noone in this thread except for maybe 2 people have been there.

ill take it, fuck you'll be banking hard and a boost in ur career!! your social life will always be strong, if those really care for you, they will keep contact with you, vice versa

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.