I'm at a crossroad

[mike-db]

So here I am, Southern Alberta. My first few months here were spent in a work environment that I know very thoroughly Painting. A trade that I absolutely despise. Started out as a job to do while I was in school. Here I am three years later with nothing to show for it except a crappy attitude.

I have decided it's time for a change, if some of you remember I took a Heavy Equipment course before coming to Alberta. Although I have yet to obtain a job of any sort running machinery the tickets that I obtained opened up a lot of doors for me.

So I quit my job about a week ago, since then I've had a few jobs. One was building retaining walls I was hired on as an operator, my first two days were spent running smaller excavators. It was sweet! The job was advertised at $20 an hour which I know isn't much but it's more than I've ever seen since I entered the work force. My second day on the job my new employer came up to all of us new guys (he hired on about twelve or so new people) with contracts. This contract was going to force all of us into a $10 an hour wage with a bump up to our offered wage after six months. This of course is unacceptable because I was making more painting. I'm no longer a student and have a living expense that much higher than what fulltime hours would provide at $10 an hour.

So I quit, again. (I also have yet to receive compensation for those two days) The next jobs that came up were not what I was hoping for but at this point I'm desperate, I need cash flow and I need it yesterday. The companies I've been able to get into are landscaping companies making their mad dash to finish off their projects before the snow comes. Some of which are already starting the snow season. I even had a job as a framer for a day. They needed someone for a day and only a day. They advertised as part-time but whatever they paid cash and it helped. I had a job doing snow removal, everything was great until they left me behind without a word that we we're packing up and moving on... So what I had earned framing went towards a fairly hefty cab fair to get home.

I'm trying to find out if I'm a useless employee, maybe I'm a very unlikable person (I'm leaning towards this option) or maybe I'm just having a stroke of bad luck. It sure is frustrating!

What do you folks think? I'm in the land of opportunity, jobs are here by the truck load. But I seem to be just getting the shit thus far.