Last year I worked in Seward, Alaska in a fish processing plant, processing Halibut, Black Cod and other fish.
The company I worked for paid for my flight their and back. After my contract was finished they flew me back to where I came from, no issues.
The first day their was interesting. I arrived in Anchorage, Alaska and arrived one hour late and missed my shuttle to the bunk house. I was lucky and made arrangements to leave the airport three or four hours latter and arrived in Seward, at midnight or latter.
Their was no one to meet me or anyone to call. I was afraid of the shuttle leaving me their with no accommodation so banged on a door until someone let me me in. I was lucky they let me sleep on the couch and make arrangements the next day for somewhere else to sleep.
The actual work in the plant was not difficult or hard. Most days we worked less than eight hours a day which left me with low pay, and they take out deductions for room and board, whish left me with not much.
Luckily over the month things sped up and we got to work everyday twelve to sixteen hours a day, and little sleep and no days off, which in a two week pay period after tax deductions and room and board equaled a check of over 2,000.00 but in six months of working their I only received two checks like that, so wasn't able to save much.
One of the bad things that happened was I got hurt on the job and wasn't able to get all my medical bills paid through work mans comp. I got a few paid but the last bill was not and it was substantial.
Just for the record my bosses and office bosses were very nice and no issue their. I had a few problems with other workers but it was mostly cultural misunderstandings that I could not do much about.
One of the bosses even came downstairs into the plant to cut fish and work with us tell things were done, you don't see leadership like that much anymore.
The actual living conditions weren't as bad as people say but they weren't great either. If you cant live with other people who's culture can be different than yours you may not like it.
I forgot to mention I did this in my fifties so even at that age I could work the long hours.
If I were younger I might do it again but for now probably wont. As for Seward Alaska its really a beautiful place, not to mention you can buy weed anywhere if that's your thing. I don't smoke or drink so I had an easy time of it. On our time off I went hiking in the mountains and saw pretty big salmon in the rivers, I didn't see any black bears or Bigfoot but was always on the lookout for them.
Alaska is a beautiful place at least Seward was. I could live their despite it being a small town. Its pretty busy in the summer with all the tourists. Lots of tourists jobs with room and board at hotels, brewerys ect.
If you can get a chance to do it I would.
