Why Alberta oil and gas workers are pivoting to tech jobs

As Alberta's oil and gas sector struggles through a labour shortage, some former industry workers are pivoting to careers at technology companies. 

For almost seven years, Daniel Afekhume worked as a geoscientist in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria and the United States. But after moving to Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic, Afekhume decided to change his career path.

"The volatility in the oil and gas industry, it's getting more rapid," Afekhume said.

"It's just tough for me basically to do long-term planning for career growth opportunities."

Afekhume took part in the EDGE UP program, led by Calgary Economic Development, which offers free training to workers transitioning from energy to tech. More than 300 workers participated in the program.

For the past two months, Afekhume has been working as a data engineer at Neo Financial, a financial tech company. He hopes to find more stability in the tech industry.

"I needed a fresh start. I needed to move my experience, my skill set, to another industry, and the tech industry was almost a natural fit for me."

According to commercial real estate and investment firm CBRE, Calgary had a 17.9 per cent growth in its tech sector employment between 2015 and 2020. That boosted the city total to 46,700 tech jobs. With multinational companies like Amazon Web Services (AWS) setting up shop in Calgary, the city's tech sector appears to be gaining momentum. 

Talent competition

Vince O'Gorman, CEO of Calgary-based Vog App Developers, said hiring among tech employers is extremely competitive. His company has been hiring oil and gas workers with applicable skills to the tech sector. 

"There's a lot of people in there that have the knowledge in project management and maybe some technical background that is transferable," O'Gorman said. 

But with the oil and gas sector experiencing a boom due to price surges, O'Gorman said it may become harder to recruit energy workers into tech.

Kris Read, co-founder and head of technology at Neo Financial, agrees that despite the positive growth in Calgary's tech sector, hiring remains competitive. In less than four years, Read's company has hired more than 600 employees, but recruiting is still a challenge. 

"Everyone wants the best talent. So, it's going to always be competitive," Read said. 

Companies like AWS are turning to post-secondary schools for recruitment. The company partnered with Mount Royal University in November 2021 to create a training program that prepare workers for entry-level jobs in cloud computing.

The recruitment power of larger companies like AWS may be another factor that makes it harder for smaller tech companies in Calgary to hire top talent. 

Transitioning skills to tech

Felipe Moreno, 46, is a mechanical engineer by trade, but for the past year he has worked as a technical analyst at Neo Financial.

Moreno used to work at a sustainability company that was involved in projects in the oil and gas industry. He said the skills he gained in his former work are somewhat similar to what he does in his current tech job.

"It's just a different type of problem solving, using computers and data to analyze problems, basically," Moreno said. 

But the transition to working in tech isn't always a breeze. Moreno said the IT industry is always changing, so workers like him need to be constantly learning new skills. 

Afekhume also said the biggest challenge of transitioning out of the oil and gas sector was the number of new tools and technologies he had to learn. 

"You need to be up to speed. So, it keeps you on your feet, but the good side is that you're always learning … your perspective is always growing and broadening every day."