Someone downvoted you, but you're right about the climate. Cold, wet, dark and somewhat hard to make new friends. Lower salaries and status for highly-trained p

Someone downvoted you, but you're right about the climate. Cold, wet, dark and somewhat hard to make new friends. Lower salaries and status for highly-trained professionals. Otherwise good. Generally great health care, employment benefits, work-life-balance, workers' rights, justice system etc. If you can get an operative oil job, you'll make great amounts of money. [Edit: To the GP, I'm not sure I would want to trade places. Work-life balance is very important to me, and is something that is worth quite a bit of money to me. It seems like most Americans work very long hours with few holidays, although you do seem to get paid a lot. I wouldn't want to settle down in the US, but it might be nice to try for a couple of years.]