Before I get into this I'll give a little background information. Currently, I am going to school at BCIT to become a land surveyor. I'm really enjoying it and think it could be what I work as until I've reached my goal of owning my own personally designed house around the lower mainland. That is all I'm after as of right now, and I am pretty happy with my goal, hoping to achieve it within the next 10 years.
But as I go through with this plan, I'm going to need some information to help plan it all out. If you have experience with any of the questions I am about to ask please lend it.
I've heard about these things called work camps. Good pay, out in the middle of nowhere, lots of drug addictions. That's the extent of what I know about them. I'm very interested in this and want to know for sure if its something I want to get into.
-How big are these camps, generally? How many people reside at any given time?
-Do the labourers and the land surveyors work at the same time, or is it the land surveyors, then the labourers?
-How long is one stretch of work? By this I mean, how long is one stay at the camp?
-I know there are cooks that provide for the camp. Are there any other jobs like that? First Aid for example.
-Are these camps pretty much exclusively for oil/gas related stuff?
-Are the things I hear about spending all your money, if not more, during downtime true? How difficult is it to just put it in the bank?
-Overtime. Time and a half? More? I've heard its very common to work overtime in camps.
-Any other things I might need to know?
Now for questions regarding saving up for a home.
-What's an average percentage of money to put in a down payment?
-What's a good amount of money to have just in case things go bad in construction? I am aiming for a $1.5 million home.
-If I want to design my own home, do I still want to hire an architect? I already know quite a bit about design and regulations due to my first choice of occupation turning out to not be my thing.
-Income taxes. I don't even know what questions to ask about this topic. As long as this doesn't hurt my plans too much I guess.
Lastly, if camps are as bad as some make them out to be, and I can't handle it, are there alternatives to work camps for a guy with a degree in geomatics? Anything with comparable pay?
That's it. If you have any experience in these matters, please share it. It would make me that much more confident, knowing what lies ahead of me.
Thanks,
-Ro3