What are you going to do with your life?

That one question is on the minds of students more than any other. As post-secondary students, you are now on the cusp of major change, whether you are finishing school, contemplating a move or even just welcoming the new year.

When examining what you want to do with the rest of your life or contemplating your options, you need to look beyond and think outside of the box. A couple hundred years ago, it was out-of-the-box thinking that led people to move West – and later to drill for oil and to mine the oil sands. 

Now, my province of Alberta needs more people like that to take us further into the 21st Century. Alberta has never been in a better situation. The fiscal challenges of the 1990s have led to an environment that is ideal for business and opportunity. With the lowest personal and business taxes in Canada, it is the perfect place for young entrepreneurs to establish new ventures. With an enviable employment market, it is a magnet for Canadians who come from less fortunate parts of the country. 

Opportunities abound in Alberta. More than $200 billion in major projects are on the books to be completed in the next few years. This doesn’t even include the billions of dollars being spent in residential and commercial construction projects, or the opportunities for businesses that serve construction, energy and manufacturing sectors.  

Many people have argued that it is the energy sector that fuels Alberta’s growth. I disagree. It is our people.  

Unemployment in Alberta is at an all-time low, at about 3.5 per cent. This is half the national average, and it has been that way for the last three years. Growth is at an all-time high. Our population is growing at an incredible rate – nearly 100,000 people moved here last year. This has led to challenges in areas like affordable housing and other social infrastructure needs, and we are having trouble keeping up with these demands. 

To build our schools, hospitals, roads, pipelines and refineries, Alberta needs people. We estimate that we will be short more than 100,000 workers by 2016. They are workers at all skill levels – tradespeople, engineers, doctors, teachers, and bartenders. From the lowest skilled to the highest, it is people who make Alberta. It is not oil and gas, or agriculture, or forestry. 

We are looking for more untapped pools of labour inside of Alberta – disabled workers, Aboriginals workers, older workers and younger workers. We are encouraging employers to look beyond their traditional employee pool, to cast a wider net. We are encouraging more young women to enter the trades and we want more employers to hire younger workers. All across the province we are working directly with Alberta employers and helping them tell their stories and share their good examples. We are encouraging them to attend career fairs and expos in other provinces, to get the message out that Alberta is open for business. Who better to tell job seekers than the people who are actually hiring? 

We are also looking beyond our shores for foreign workers, either temporary employees or Provincial Nominees for permanent residency. And we are working with the federal government to increase our share of immigration. Alberta now has more than 10 per cent of the population, but we still don’t get the same proportion of immigrants. We are increasing our marketing efforts overseas and adding more supports to immigrants, so they stay and tell their friends and family members to come to Alberta.

We want you to consider Alberta. It is a place where great opportunities are around every corner. But it is important to remember, you need to be aware that Alberta has demands. There are many stories of workers in isolated construction camps earning thousands of dollars a week. That is not the norm. The oil and gas sector only makes up about seven per cent of all the employment in the province. When you add in the supply and service sector (downstream oil and gas) it still only makes up less than 20 per cent of the employment. The remaining 80 per cent work in manufacturing, agrifood processing, IT, and the list goes on. My point is that not every community in Alberta is a Fort McMurray.

When you are considering making your move, here’s some advice that I took from our own career, employment and workplace information website: www.alis.gov.ab.ca.

Sample, don’t survey. There are over 40,000 different occupations. When you’re checking out occupations by reading newspapers or websites, make sure you explore all the related roles, and talk to people in the fields you’re interested in. There are likely far more options available than meet the eye.

Think sectors. Work roles change every day. What’s hot one month or one year can be cold the next. What changes less quickly are sectors of work. For example, you know the manufacturing sector is going to be around for a while, even if occupations within it may change. Technology allows business to work smarter, making some jobs redundant. Robotics is eliminating some jobs yet is creating others – such as those who repair the robots.

Paths, not positions. You’re not likely going to be doing any one thing for the rest of your life. Instead of looking at your career as an endpoint or destination, look at it as a starting point on your path. When you do, you’ll find things like salary are less important criteria than ideas about where the work can lead you.

Risk, not rest. Worried about making the perfect choice? Not going to make a move until you know you've made the right decision? Keep in mind “perfect” is a word that won’t apply to the work you choose to do. All work has some flair; all work has some grunt. The big question is, “Does the flair work outweigh the grunt work?”

Meander AND manoeuvre. Exploring the world of work is about two kinds of directions: your direction and the direction the world of work is taking. Keep these two directions in mind as you explore. To meander is to take a rambling stroll, to explore the world for things that look interesting. Take your time, explore here and there, talk to people, read the newspaper, watch or listen to the news, read career information, and see if anything interesting pops up.

While you’re meandering, though, you always need to be ready to manoeuvre, or move cleverly. This means being ready to jump at an opportunity when you see one, taking on volunteer work to learn more about a specific kind of work, figuring out what you need to learn, learning what you need to learn, and identifying what you have to offer.

You’ve probably heard this many times before, from career counsellors, friends, teachers or your parents. In the end, you’ll find that there are many opportunities out there. I was recently in China and Japan and I was struck by the patience of those two cultures. They have adopted North America’s fast pace, but they still take time to reflect. Before you make any decision, take time and reflect on where you’d like to be. In the end, I hope it’s Alberta. We need you.

Iris Evans is the Minister of Employment, Immigration and Industry of Alberta.