Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Any professional welders here? My son is looking for a career as one.

Many fields require a good working knowledge of heavy welding and fabrication... here a while back many of them had a high turn-over, more people retiring and dying with no training of replacements. Operating Engineers, Millwright, and Machinery Movers, all went years without taking into account turn-over. School trained welding, metallurgy, and machining classes wouldn't hurt the kid in any of those fields.

Phil

My wife's nephew is one year into a 30 month aircraft mechanics program, 20 couple months for airframe and powerplant. The rest for electronics and avionics. Estimated income with his credentials is near 100k.
He got a pretty decent airport job and is supporting himself, and saving some, while in school.
Through his job contacts he has some job offers for when he graduates.

His best paying opportunities will most likely be big airports ,cities, or places no one wants to work.
His intent, is to chase money for several years, get established debt free. And then, find a job in a more
desirable locale.

I had a friend try real hard to get me to do exactly this. I got hung up on not being in a city.
That was one of many youthful mistakes.

If he is looking at Training, check your local CC. Most have industrial services. It'll be pennies on the dollar compared to relocating to one of the big dedicated schools.

Most have flexible hours. Morning / afternoon and evening classes.

If you are rural Missouri and your son wants to stay there tell him to go talk to the weld shop owners in the area. He might end up with a job and opportunity to partner up after school

Another option may be the welding related field of non-destructive testing. Pays better and a lot easier on the body. If you are willing to travel compensation can be very good. Some of the better known schools are the Ocean Corporation on the Gulf Coast and Spartan in Tulsa, others can be found at ndt.org under the heading "education"

First off, do what you love. I could make a ton of money doing what I don't want to but screw that.
Second, be great at what you do and the sky is the limit.

There are some schools that teach the welding without all the extra "learnin classes" too many people waste time and money on. ND's kid recently completed one and is pursuing that career.

I've considered hitting the welding circuit for a year or two so I can completely retire. With my own rig I can easily send home $100k a year and more if I care to. I've welded production in a factory but it's not for me anymore.

Yes conditions are physically more hazardous than a desk job but with all of the safety programs, it's not a bad gig.

Smart advice. Industrial electricians and Electronics and controls techs can make 100k pretty easy and they are in high demand. For get residential work.

Regardless of the trade you best hammer into your son the need to save money. Yeah you get that high hourly, but you don't get a lot of hours normally. If you ( or your wife) are the type that can't see into the future and pisses your money away, stay the hell out of the trades.

If he does pursue a welding career be sure that he knows how important math will be. We've had a bunch of guys cycle through our crew who can't read a tape and who can't do simple fractional conversions. No kidding I had a kid tell me last week when I read him a measurement off a print, " oh I don't do 1/16ths". Lots of guys struggle with simple blueprint reading as well. Most anyone can learn to actually weld reasonably well, but the layout is what separates the men from the boys.

Also be sure do drill into him how much he means to you and to always wear his safety gear and pay attention on the jobsite so he doesn't get hurt. We get lots of guys of all ages who have to be constantly told to put their safety glasses on or who get to go get stuff dug out of their eyes at the ER. On pipeline jobs there will most likely be drugs around somewhere.

I've seen some good weldors come out of small tech schools too. And if he's in high school lots of those schools can be taken as part of the school day and for little to no cost. Several of the guys on our crew went to VoTech and got their certification, they're about an even split between good hands and useless, but I think that's just people in general.

My home area, the upper Ohio Valley, has become an economically depressed cesspool. That being said, my nephew just finished up his welding certification, and just barely 20 he landed his first welding job for a smallish, local private company that provides welding and maintenance services on the pipelines. He travels a bit, but nothing too obtrusive; home every weekend. He's already making more than me, and I'm in a specialty position, with rank, having been with my department for thirteen years. He's heading towards 60k this year if he keeps his nose to the grindstone. Just brought himself a real nice, late model Cummins.

Not bad for a first job, no student debt, and 20. Now if I just manage to keep him from getting arrested or knocking up some piece of trash... He's a good boy, and respectful as it gets, but damn he's a wild one.