Cape Breton oilfield worker to play ‘himself’ in pipeline pilot
North Sydney’s Mike Vickers following up oil patch success with role in Pipe Nation drama
SYDNEY — Mike Vickers got much more than he bargained for when he left Cape Breton for the more abundant job opportunities in Canada’s lucrative, but volatile, oilpatch.
After heading west for good about 10 years ago, the former North Sydney resident had no problem finding work, but it’s what happened since then that has the 31-year-old’s head spinning.
“The best choice I ever made was to come west – I really miss home, I really miss Cape Breton, but I found happiness, a career and lots of great opportunities out here,” said Vickers, in a telephone interview from Fort McMurray.
“It’s been interesting so far, that’s for sure.”
That his life has been interesting is a bit of an understatement.
Later this month, Vickers will be on the set of Pipe Nation, an in-development dramatization about the men and women who work on the oil and gas pipelines that criss-cross western Canada.
But he won’t be there just looking on. The graduate of Memorial High School is one of the leading characters in the production that its creators hope will be picked up by a major television network.
Vickers’ original plans didn’t include the “out west” thing. He initially wanted to enrol at Cape Breton University to begin studies he hoped would lead to a career as an architect.
“By that point, I was hearing from friends who were already out in Alberta that they were making really big money without any education, so I reconsidered my options,” he recalled.
“I started flying back and forth for work and that lasted a couple of years until I ended up breaking up with a girlfriend back home and the next thing I knew I was headed back out west with nothing but my work bag. If we hadn’t broke up I would not have the life I have today.”
Several years into his stint in the oil patch, the energy sector fell into a slump with low oil prices resulting in the loss of countless jobs.
It was then that Vickers identified what he called a “disconnect” between technology and the oil and gas sector.
He found there was no one place to find energy industry jobs.
“Layoffs were coming and because I didn’t like the uncertainty I started looking for jobs in the oil and gas sector,” recalled Vickers.
“But then I realized I had to go to all these different job site platforms and it was absolutely crazy – that’s when Oilfield Job Shop was born.”
Vickers initially started the job list sharing site on his Facebook page. He explored social media, company websites and job market pages, and blogged all of oil and gas industry employment opportunities on his own site.
Before long, his initiative began attracting job seekers from all across North America.
“I would make a blog post and within a couple of days there would be a million hits – it was like Oh My God, this is crazy,” he said, adding that within months an Edmontonbased development team made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“They made me a great incentive. I made sure their ideas were in align with mine and that it would keep going in the same direction. We only parted ways recently.”
That doesn’t mean he’s finished with the business. Far from it. In 2017, he launched Oilfield Now, an industry blog that has turned into a leading oil and gas news website.
With the Cape Breton native making a name for himself, it was only a matter of time before he came to the attention of Raoul Bhatt, an Edmonton-based app and website developer, who has big ideas for his Pipe Nation production project.
Bhatt got in touch with Vickers who he saw as a possible consultant.
“I was born and raised in Edmonton and I have always known that there is a huge East Coast culture and influence out here in Alberta, so it was important to feature him (Vickers) as part of incorporating the diversity of the oil and gas sector through the show’s characters,” said Bhatt, in a phone interview from the Alberta capital.
“We believe it’s very important to have a colourful and diverse cast – the show is a dramatization about the people involved, and when I met Mike I knew he would be an ideal and long-term character for our show.”
For his part, Vickers said he reckons he represents a typical east coast Canadian who went west to find work and build a life. He just didn’t expect his journey to move in so many directions in such a short time.
“Yeah, I guess you can say that my life has been pretty crazy since I left Nova Scotia,” said Vickers, who added that he has plenty of more ideas and plans.
“I got a lot of big things up my sleeve – but I already I found my happiness out here, I found a woman that was all about the same things I was about and who also wanted a big family, we’re growing now and we have a little girl who will turn seven in November.”
The only question is whether his young daughter will grow up thinking of her father as an oilfield worker, an online social media guru or an actor.
Or maybe even something else completely different.