Mike was working out of Aberdeen Scotland in the North Sea, on an off shore platform. He was an in house trained process operator who did flow and well testing for Schlumberjay. It was interesting but, very demanding in terms of the time spent away from home and the little notice that was given when needed to be off again to another job. All out of town work. More of a single guy kind of a job. And to top it off it was dangerous and it didn’t pay well either.

Mike had a family and wanted something better for himself so he was keeping an eye out for a better way of life. One thing that came up was he was told about emigrating to Canada and doing the same job on land. It sounded safer and Canada sounded like a better bet for the future. So in 1979 Mike pack it up and headed off to Canada.

He started of working part time making as much money as he did while working full time. That was a bonus. From 1979 through to 1985 he had worked with and spoken to a number of Stationary Engineers about what they did for a living and the kind of pay they got. Mike decided to make the transition to Stationary Engineer. He took correspondence courses to acquire his 4^th and 3^rd class Stationary Engineer certificates and started working for a contract out fit, which wasn’t the greatest. Then he graduated to a large corporation where the pay and benefits were much better.

Needless to say, life was great. He had the big bucks, security and all the lovely benefits that go with it. He worked shift work for about 12 years and then decided, shift work had served it’s purpose and now it was time to work just days Monday to Friday, like the rest of the world. He took a bit of a pay cut but, the thing is he had the desire and the choice to go to days. Now Mike’s job title is Operations Specialist.

He still utilizes all his experience as a Stationary Engineer and enjoys the challenge. He just has a similar job in a different capacity. That is another thing that Mike likes. He likes the fact that this career can place you in so many different career directions. It opens so many different doors. Its’ got variety and change when you seek it out.

These days Mike spends his free time with his family, does some gardening, fishing, boating and has a small web site on which he sells specialty hand made fishing tackle. It relaxes him and keeps him out of trouble.