By day, I work in a scrap yard. It is not glamorous, but glamour does not pay my bills. In the evening, I teach in a welding program at a community college.
Like many others, I once bought into the fallacy that you need a piece of paper from a university to succeed in life. At the age of thirty, I graduated from a university with an undergraduate degree, and the customary debt, which came along with it. Twenty-nine years later, I see how wrong I was.
Soon after graduating, I obtained an office job and moved to a city where I knew no one. The job I was so optimistic about turned out to be like marriage to a crack whore. Each day was as if walking through a minefield full of dysfunctional women, emasculated men, drama, backstabbing, cat-fights, and every other problem associated with modern workplaces. Worse yet, the cut male managers allowed trim to be in charge resulting in a fucked up toxic culture. After three tumultuous and abusive years, I found myself unceremoniously kicked to the curb, and surprisingly relieved.
After a lengthy stint of unemployment, I landed an entry-level job in a metal fabrication company. One of the benefits offered was tuition reimbursement for work related classes. I enrolled in welding classes at night, and upgraded my skills, all on my employer’s dime.
I immediately noticed a difference from my previous job. I worked exclusively with men. Except for a few token assholes, the men liked their solitude, did their jobs, and left each other alone. The work was varied, creative, and with overtime, the pay was decent. The fact that I had a work ethic, showed up every day on time, and desired to learn earned me respect quickly.
I eventually went down a different path, but returned to welding part-time as an adjunct instructor.
Welding is the joining of two metal pieces or parts by applying heat. A filler metal, or electrode, helps to make the joint. Power source supplies electricity required for heat, and a shielding gas or flux-covered electrode aids in the welding process.
The most common welding processes are Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW), Flux Core Arc Welding (FCAW), Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW), and Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW). Of these, Gas Metal Arc Welding is the easiest to learn and offers the fastest production. Welding involves both Ferrous (steel) and Non-ferrous metals (aluminum, stainless steel).
Why Welding?
1. According to a Bureau of Labor report, the need for welders will grow by 26 percent by 2020.
2. According to a National Association of Manufacturers report, nearly 81 percent of manufacturers in the United States report that they cannot find skilled welders to meet demand.
3. The American Welding Society reports that the average age for a welder is now in the mid-fifties
4. Entry-level wages in my region average $28,000-$40,000 annually, with skilled welders earning $50,000 and more after five years in the trade.
I frequently hear from employers who are desperate for skilled welders. One plant manager told me “there are too many computer jockeys and not enough people who can weld and turn a wrench.” Another manufacturer told me “we have over a dozen welders retiring and no one to replace them”. Further, the school I teach at has more jobs available than they have students enrolled.
What Welders Do
Welders work in manufacturing, construction, maintenance repair facilities, and service companies. Welders typically work eight-hour shifts and a five-day week, but overtime is common. Welders often perform other duties like operating metal fabrication equipment and doing assembly work.
The more skills a welder develops, the more value and earning potential he has. For example, being able to weld, cut and fit up metals, and read weld symbols and prints will command a higher wage. Becoming certified in certain weld procedures also increases a welder’s wages and marketability.
Qualifications
Welding is the quintessential blue-collar job. It is physically demanding, hot, dirty, and requires a high degree of skill. Other personal characteristics are good eyesight and hand eye coordination, good manual dexterity, and good concentration.
Training
Community colleges offer affordable training for entry-level jobs in welding. Most programs are nine months, but my school also offers a sixteen-week work ready certificate in welding. Students learn common welding processes, thermal cutting processes, and blueprint reading. Unlike the typical ivory palace college professors, instructors are required to have a minimum of three years related and verifiable industrial experience. Job placement is also good.
Additional Facts
Despite a decent paying skill in high demand, clueless parents and educators continue to dissuade young men from entering blue-collar trades like welding. The result has been an entire generation of young men ruined by hostile four-year colleges, worthless degrees, and insurmountable debt.
Perhaps you are a perceptive and bright young ROK reader considering a career change. In closing, consider these facts.
1. You will always have employment as a welder.
2. Welding skills are highly transferable. You can carry these skills to your next, and often higher paying job.
3. Unlike many white-collar corporate jobs of today, the average welder’s wages increase with skill. Overtime, merit increases, and production bonuses are common benefits for welders.
4. At the end of your shift, you can leave your job at the door.
5. Welding offers a level of creativity, solitude, and seeing the fruits of your labor. Studies show that welders, machinists, and other blue-collar trades have lower suicide rates than many white-collar professions.
6. Welding is often a “gateway trade” into other even higher paying trades like machinist, multi-craft machinery maintenance, and millwright.
7. Welding is a male dominated occupation. Traditionalist men will find it offers some insulation and respite from the typical feminist diatribe and PC bullshit of today’s corporate world.
Conclusion
How has welding benefited me? First, I developed reasoning skills, something that academia failed to do. I also developed a thorough understanding of how men do the dirty, nasty, and dangerous jobs in this life. Feminists and elitists can marginalize men all they want, but men risk their lives and health to build and maintain their shit.
Further, welding has opened some doors for me, mainly teaching. My ultimate goal is to teach welding full-time, a late life career change if you will, and one I hope will happen.
Read More: Is A Blue Collar Job for You?
My little brother got an expensive, fancy engineering degree, and can’t get a job. So he’s going back to school to learn welding. Fuck college, get an internship while a teenager and learn a trade, you’ll be way ahead of the game.
I am on that engineering pyramid and fully agree with your message. Always need good hands
The different engineering degrees vary widely in employability and remuneration. I.e., you’d be stupid to pick some of them , but many still make for great careers.
I was an engineer for 20 years. Then the bottom dropped out of the industry I was in. Now I work in finance.
What I learned in engineering, as a career, is that you pay for a US education and then compete against every engineer in the world, most of whom got a free education, and live in low cost third world countries. My “AHA” moment came when I was in a design meeting for a US government corporation project and realized that, of the 40 + people in the meeting, I was the only American.
Part of the collapse of engineering employment in my industry was that all the companies had decided to outsource their engineering work, or to do it on a contract basis instead of an employment basis. Then I learned that foreign companies had no interest in American engineers; they wanted their own nationals. At the same time American companies didn’t want American nationals because we weren’t capable of cross cultural adaptation. I made some bucks as a consulting engineer for a while, but moving every six months was hard on family life.
Yyyyyeah, no offense but that’s what you gringos need to work on, a bit of adaptability for being in other countries. (Relax, “gringo” is a bit of a term of endearment in Panama hehehehe).
The younger the better, have your kids learn at least one more language, Spanish or Mandarin are your best bets, screw French that is some 19th century leftover.
Get yourself some standard US wages included in a transfer to Latin America, your salary will yield twice as much as it would back home.
Oh, and never, ever be ashamed of your accent, we all have one.
It’s funny. The only people who ever call me out on my accent are other German people. English speakers usually tell me I am doing quite well.
I speak French and Spanish as well as English. No nation south of the border wants American engineers for anything other than technology transfer. I did that for a few years too. Mostly they sent their engineers to the US, I trained them, then they went home to work. They were not interested (actually hostile to the idea) in my moving there and working there.
Wow…. got that bad eh. Sorry to hear that >_<
Saddest part is that this part of the region has some sweet brain drain action going on, employers are struggling to find qualified personnel for .. well.. everything. Our education system has gotten deplorable too.
Well, at least we’re still a great country for expats, usually US, to retire in. (Really saved Panama’s economic ass, that retiree influx. Little/Average Joe got quite a boost from all that disposable income coming in.
Yeah that was aimed more at people who DO speak the language of choice but barely use it feeling awful about their strong accent. No shame in it.
Gotten “Irish”, “Canadian”, “somewhere in Europe”, and such from gringos, while Latinos tend to think I’m from the US lol
I am nearing retirement now. I have read a lot of good press about retiring in Panama. I have been married to a Filipina for a long time and planned on moving there at retirement. However, she has adamantly refused to go back to the Philippines. She likes the US and doesn’t trust the health care system anywhere else. (I do have a few health issues, so she isn’t completely off base here.)
When I am in Spanish speaking countries everyone assumes I am French. Apparently I speak Spanish with a distinct French accent. Still, it is much better in most of these places not to be taken to be an American.
My grandfather emigrated from Germany, as a 5 year old child, in the early 1890s. He died at age 63; still with a very thick German accent.
LOL Europeans tend to get the same treatment in those countries… few simple reasons.
1) Leftists: You’re clearly here to colonize for the sake of your empire.
2) Professional useless idiots: “This guy’s bringing in more advanced techniques… GET OUT!! THIS ISN’T HOW WE DO THINGS… What’s that? Learn new stuff to improve myself and catch up to the world? IMPERIALIST!!”
3) “How DARE this rich boy dare compete with me using his fancy degrees and learninations to compete against my extensive knowledge of reggaeton and Alicia Machado quotes!?”
Smart locals get the same treatment, you may be missing it but look closely, betcha anyone who’s made something of himself gets constantly called some form of “elite with unfair advantage” even if said person went from a childhood in the slums to a CEO position.
My dad is born in Czech, moved to US the day he ‘created’ me, left me in Germany. I grew up in Germany. He has been living in the US for 26 yeras. I have less accent than him.
I know. I am well compensated and a lot of our friends think we are rich (we aren’t but we are comfortable). I am the only son out of 7 children of a factory worker (and dyed in the wool union man for the 1930s on) and a nonworking mother. Also a very traditionalist Catholic upbringing. I got my first job ant 15 and have worked every day since (employed every day since that is). I paid my own way starting with that first job to help out the family finances. The only thing I took from home when I left for military service was a single pair of tighty whities.
Long ago Henry Kissinger’s brother was asked why Henry had a thick accent while he did not (both emigrated at the same time). His reply was, because Henry talks but I listen.
Couple things…. don’t move to Panama City, just ain’t worth it and real estate speculation is a goddamn joke.
The Pacific seaboard in the beach areas west of town, however have all the business and infrastructure necessary, including good bilingual schools and hospitals (lots of money, national and foreign in that area).
For doctors, we got great ones and seems way cheaper than the US one, only caveat is make sure your doctor is good. Easy enough to spot, find one that does pro bono work at state hospitals in his free time instead of hitting the golf course. Learned that when I almost lost my index finger to a car belt, he sees those injuries all the time even though his bimmer is paid for by high society’s $10k boob and nose jobs (and the other lesson: use paper towel, not a piece of cloth to grease the damn thing with the engine running).
So you score yourself a house. Pro tip: price for the same house plummets if you just move uphill away from the beach, so you get a 15 minute drive to the beach instead of a 5-minute walk… you’ll live.
And all that said, you just gotta meet the requirement, $1k a month income for the couple. That or anything over than that, owning the house, sure, you won’t buy a private jet but it really won’t bother you.
And…………….. $0.60 cent beers, $20 half gallon of good rum ^_^
The advantage for me in the Philippines is that as a spouse of a national I get an immediate green card, can own as much property as I can get (under my own name), can own a business 100%, and can work with no work permit issues. I also don’t have to put up with any visa renewal BS.
Still, thanks for the heads up on the medical front. I may use it on the wife. She is fairly helpless in most Spanish speaking countries even though a good portion of her native language(Visayan) has a huge amount of imported Spanish in it. Spain ruled the Philippines for over 400 years.
I once asked an elderly couple in Manila why no one spoke Spanish after Spain ruled the Philippines for 400 years, while every one speaks English, and America ruled for only about 50 years. The woman spoke up and said, “When the Spanish ruled they educated the top 2%, and ruled through them. When the Americans got here the first thing they did was build schools and send everyone through them.”
Retiree visa is almost as simple as giving your name and “renewing” is basically a day in town, no biggie.
Starting a business does have a few extra requirements but fairly gentle as we encourage foreign investment. On average we’re talking having to commit to about $80k to that business but depends on type. Theeeeere the only serious caveat is that we do have a form of foreigns-to-locals ratio that applies (someone email that concept to Trump when he wins). Property, as much as you can afford and you’ll likely pay less taxes than the already low locals’ tax rate on it. GETTING a job… eeeeh you got me there, then again I wouldn’t migrate to Panama only to earn local wages. Hell, I’m commenting on this article ’cause it sparked the idea of moving abroad lol.
I mean, I’ve had TWO good bosses out of about a dozen, both gringos who landed here with no real plan at first and ended up generating us some lovely, lovely jobs.
Because I am a structural engineer that works on architectural projects, foreigners can’t really compete with me (yet). That’s because they have to be professionally licensed in any state where the building is constructed (except for federal projects), So you can’t “stamp” plans for a building in Kentucky unless you have a Kentucky PE, etc. This provides a nice entry barrier to the teeming hordes of the “developing world”. They have made some entry into the steel detailing realm, but in the last decade it’s been generally recognized that the money saved in getting cut-rate shop drawings is not worth the construction problems they cause later on…
There are american, German, and Japanese expat engineers all over the world. When companies are willing to pay or transfer someone they already employ.
What they really mean by cultural adaptation is they can’t get american engineers to work for a survival wage in some 3rd world industrial cesspool.
What kind of engineering? if I may ask because mechanical engineers with hands-on experience are wanted everywhere. The same goes for electrical engineering and even process engineering with hands-on experience on his field.
I was a field engineer with a Mechanical Engineering undergrad and a Masters in Management of Technology (later retrained by getting PhD to transfer to finance). I found that none of that was easily transferable to other countries or other industries. Once you have a track record of a few years in an industry you are pigeon holed as only being suitable for that industry.
Then you have the employers that think the talents and knowledge of anyone who has been out of school for more than 5 years is hopelessly obsolete. I can not tell you how often I had to train up young engineers that just had no idea about actually working in the field. Trouble shooting is a skill that develops over time, and with experience, not by education. Most employers are not themselves engineers and have not a clue to the realities.
I’ve been in product development. Industry jumping isn’t difficult. I can see how it would be for field service. These morons can’t figure out how skills are skills. Figuring out what’s wrong with a machine is the same skill set no matter what it is. It’s logical thinking. Learning the principles of a new machine doesn’t take long.
But that’s the problem with the Prussian schooling and how people are trained to follow procedures. People try to apply that where it doesn’t apply.
Anyways I get recruiters calling for me to work in industries I haven’t worked in for many years and industries I haven’t worked in at all. But the problem is they are clueless and generally don’t understand why I am not interested in the job or their mentality. They come to me with a job they are trying to fill and then act as if I should be chasing after it. Um no. They came to me because of my skills I didn’t come to them because I need work. The internal recruiters are worse than the firms on average.
Go commit a crime and get a felony first. A criminal record and no college degree has proven to be my ticket into pussy paradise.
I worked with a guy who had a missing four years of his life. When pressed he would say he was in prison. Reality was a undergrad science degree from a top school for that degree. I suppose it worked for him to say he was in prison.
Maybe I’ll submit an article on how to run ex con badboy direct game. It’s the only game I know cuz of how I learned it. Obviously it’s facetious to actually cop a charge just to get that kindof pedigree but hey if you’re one of the guys out there facing some shit don’t hang your head too low because if you embrace your convict roots afterwards there is plenty of vagina to be had.
The key is to not let the experience make you shrink yourself because you’re afraid of social stigma. I was like that for years with an adopted stance of apology…until I learned game.
Despite the circumstances, adopting and developing natural alpha male traits is still the answer to overcome that social stigma.
If anyone is curious about this please get in touch.
The market doesn’t seem to be that bad.
Although there are two kinds of engineers. The good at school institutionalized ones and the kind that can actually work with their hands. Depending on the companies he’s applying to one or the other can have a lot of trouble.
You’re obviously creating a hostile work environment for all the strong independent women clamoring to become welders.
Welding tools are elongated as phallic symbols of the patriarchal oppression and misogynistic white cis hetero scum opposition to vagina-shaped welds with sexist “scientific” evidence that you’d have ships falling apart faster than you can say rape culture.
You sexist pig! Yarrr….
If feminists want to be welders, they can spend a twelve hour shift welding all day until they’re covered head to toe in soot. If they can do that, then maybe… MAYBE they can become welders.
Not since World War II… meaning the man who made all that possible was…. ol’ Adolf >_<
A tinge of irony there, perhaps, as (literally) Hitler said that a society has failed when its women are doing the high-risk jobs traditionally done by men.
In a sense, the nut might’ve been right as the US and Soviet society did go into the toilet.
Sometimes, I feel like we need a new Cold War. It’s almost like having a nemesis to constantly think of keeps people from having too much of a disconnect from reality.
I’m from 1980, my first 10 years were spent with a background concept of nuclear doomsday. We’re a fairly well-adjusted generation all in all.
Now take millennials, their biggest fear are baaaad wooooooords, and they think people over 5 years old have the right to think they’re a unicorn and have people call them by their favorite made up words.
There goes my appetite.
good point but most likely these feminist would rather spend 12 hours doing their nails.
I saw a video of a woman who went to school to become an auto mechanic. Then she started her own school to teach other women basic auto mechanics so they could avoid getting burnt at the shop or maybe even change their oil if they got ambitious. Throughout the video she’s going in and out from under the hood of a car “like” a real mechanic. All the while her hands are clean, her nails are done and she’s sporting a bright white shirt without a speck of dirt on it. *We Can Do It* my ass.
Some can hack it – just a Steeltown girl on a Saturday night…
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/45662840ba50573c13f775b502f6dbcbf7b8bd53f8a97204aa3173bb70ba27e2.jpg
But she’s a maniac.
*tries to resist*
aaaaaaw heck…..
AND SHE’S DANCING LIKE SHE’S NEVER DANCED BEFORE!
It doesn’t take much to figure out that all that started when she got her clit burned with a white-hot ember that day she came to work in a mini-skirt with no panties.
dont fight it!
Looks like a model. I’d have to see the video of an actual woman doing real work for twelve hours to believe it possible.
Its from a dumb 80s movie “Flashdance”
Yup, I knew it was fiction. Or rather a %99.99 chance of it.
Thats a plasma torch
Well, Clitler will solve that with #draftourdaughters!
What, all two of them on the face of The Earth?
Might be hard to take innumerable selfies while welding. Plus I don’t think yoga spandex and a low-cut shirt that says “OMGGGG GLUTES ALL DAMN DAY!” or some trite clichè nonsense are conducive to safe welding. They’ll cope!
Good
Just started an ibew Sub-station apprenticeship. All it took was a $25 application, CDL permit and a 8 month wait to get called to work
$23/h with 35 per diem working about 48 hours a week. Payed lunch and anything over 8 hours a day is overtime.
As a journeyman you make just under $40/h.
Not to bad for a starting pay in Ohio.
Your compatriots make more
Huh?
Sounds high to me, out west IBEW appretice were making 14$hr which is why I didnt do it.
It can vary as far as apprentice wages; it has to be a percentage of the Journeyman’s prevailing wage, IIRC. I’ll use Seattle Public Utilities as an example. Their electrical apprentices start at, conservatively, $22/hr and goes up with each year. I got the skinny on that when I tested for Seattle City Light about 3 years ago. There were 300+ examinees. I was one of about 20-30 that passed. Did a hands-on test, pretty easy, but wasn’t selected to do the interview, etc. Wasn’t told why.
$22/hr at Seattle Public Utilities?!
Folks should be up in arms over the way taxpayer bucks are being burned.
Admins and engineers for the city (electrical and otherwise) make waaaaaaayyyy more than $22-35 per hour!
Selling your soul to the union…and having to personally finance loser politicians who’d love to snuff out your job and dance on its grave.
Been there, done that, I dunno if it is really worth it.
Took some welding classes in High School, outstanding experience!
Great article, never knew much about welding. If you combine welding with scuba diving, I know underwater welders can make BIG bucks. But having a masculine, non-feminist job, is priceless.
Plus, it’s great for those like many here who prefer to be location independent. You can move anywhere in the world, and as long as you can communicate, you can find a job welding.
The problem with offshore welding underwater is you usually make more money the deeper you go and over the years all that pressure on your joints and organs wears you down. But you can make a lot of money quick but you can make six figures on land and have a better time.
I predict that orbital welding will become a thing in the near future. Rocket jockeys will ride up on cheapo maintenance rockets to service satellites, the space station, and so forth. Start training now.
Finally, an article about an industrial art. Welding and machining are the last bastions of the blue collar middle class. As a PE; I routinely recruit skilled welders and machinists. We get our shit done and that’s all there is to it. I strongly encourage every ROK “reader” to learn an industrial art. And if you read ROK frequently enough make the jump to metal fabrication and fuck home depot or lowes. Go outside and fire it up
Welding: A tremendously valuable skill I wish I’d learned. No seriously.
Serious question though…..
If I (legally or not at all) migrate up North, given the lack of supply, WOULD it count as taking away the locals’ blue collar jobs?
Thing is in Latin America, those jobs generally pay crap because it’s “just grunt work”. But you made it so damn tempting -.-
Problem is you’d need a permit and insurance. Plus you’d probably suck if you think its just grunt work.
I don’t think that, hence the quotation marks.
My job to look up the requirements and figure out how to meet them before moving abroad.
But we have our own immigrant/jobs issues in Panama hence my question. WOULD it count as “taking locals’ jobs” if I get all my paperwork done right and do NOT undercut the locals? Genuinely curious on that issue.
A good question. I respect your honestly. America should pick you.
Sweet, I’m gonna give this article some though and do some research on that kind of jobs where people are NEEDED NOW.
Being a tourguide is fun and rather well paid but ultimately a dead end job which for its nature ALSO demands being ultra nice AND opinionless >_< The best tours, that said, tend to be with blue collar kickass lunatics who incidentally seem to have their lives in pretty good, stable shape.
Nah man, doesn’t count as taking local jobs. Taking local jobs is an issue when people come illegally, are undocumented, work for lower wages and therefore become more desirable for employers. You’re good as long as you do everything within the process imo.
If there is a shortage of welders and you come legally, I have no problem with it. It is the illegals and H1B workers undercutting wages that make people angry
It depends if you “immigrate legally”, or if you’re brought in via an equivalent to the heinous H-1B visa program (ie: brought in specifically to undercut legals).
That said, you might never dodge the accusation that you’re stealing jobs (at least until Trump gets the economy out of the crapper) no matter how you should happen to get here.
I would say be very good at what you do, don’t cut corners and don’t break laws. If the law is fucked up take advantage of it. Fuck what other people think. If there is a loophole you can use do it. But the second you do it illegally it is a different ball game.
Well, can’t be liked by EVERYONE heh heh heh but that’s ok.
And screw “special” visas. To quote a drunken friend: A poorly run errand is that which you run poorly. *grin*
Hunt around long enough and do enough quality work (for less at first to justify the extra visa and hoop jumping by your employer) and I’d bet money someone would pick you up and sponsor your Visa.
Its not taking someone’s job if its available.
More like get proper basic training here, I’m sure it can be done in half a year (nothing FANCY, region lags on some elegant procedures).
THEN get my visa with that to show and a list of places that I plan to contact for a job/training (One should never say no to or be ashamed of getting free training if you plan to be an asset to the company providing it).
THEN visa in hand contact employers with basically “say the word and I’ll book a flight”. Spend my first wages on having my shit shipped over once I know things are working out, if not fly back and rethink strategy.
Why I like Trump.. if he’s for real, there’ll be less illegals competing against me, better wages for everyone who’s legit ^_^
Have a buddy who welded pipes at a nuclear power plant and made 120K one year then payed off his mortgage in one shot.
It was good while it lasted now the trade is saturated, there’s a welding school that churns em out, with a lot of low skill type positions paying under $20 some more but most temp work..
Local economy is not the best here..
Still if you have your shop and fix and fabricatestuff it can be a decent and enjoyable living I’m sure..
The best money is traveling going job to job and then taking time off when you want to.
I do commercial kitchen install. Become a union welder and you can make $65 and hour welding. I met a fab welder at a local bar and he makes that $65 an hour and works 3,000 hours a year, with all that 1.5x and 2x time he’s making SILLY money.
Also met a man who’s son just graduated a 2 year program at a tech school. His son was like 21 and making $38/hr right out of school. Fuck me right?
The downside is that welding will punish your eyes. I tried it once and though its tempting to pursue I noticed deterioration in my eye sight within an hour of welding. Maybe its because the visor was older or I was hunched over near-sighted for a couple hours, but I have a hard time justifying sacrificing a part of my body for money. Even the guy at the bar in his mid 50’s was wearing glasses and had trouble seeing. The gas involved with TIG welding is also linked to Parkinsons.
Place a blower fan behind you to blow fresh air at you and to blow the gas fumes away. I’d use a super bright spotlight on the spot being welded and darken the goggles with double lenses (2x dark). When you’re comfortable, fresh air, weld spot is clearly visible (50 million lumen spotlight)
http://s474.photobucket.com/user/Blue22photosS/media/08120920041.jpg.html
then you can concentrate.
“. The gas involved with TIG welding is also linked to Parkinsons”
I thought that Parkinsons was connected to a virus.
A quick search leads me to think that the effects are inconclusive. Generalizations sometimes work that said so let’s just agree that inhaling welding gases of any kind can’t be good for you heh heh heh
Agreed. Supposedly the Parkinsons that afflicted Michael J. Fox was acquired via a virus.
Hard on the lungs as well but they make really good respiratory protection these days..
It’s not the shielding gas, per se, that may cause Parkinson’s. TIG uses argon, carbon dioxide, and/or helium. It is likely to be the vaporized metal. Stainless steels have nickel and chromium, which are hazardous when vaporized or in fine particulates. As the comments below mention, good ventilation or use of a respirator will keep you safe.
I’m not too well educated on the matter. A 15+ year long union welder informed me of the gas causing Parkinson. Whether its the argon gas or the vaporized metal doesn’t matter, inhaling gas (in the scientific term) while welding seems to cause Parkinsons disease.
More young men need to investigate the trades, if they are not doing so already.
I work in a nuclear power plant as an “instrumentation and control technician” We maintain/repair everything that the mechanics don’t. I came into the job as a licensed electrician and I now mainly work on control systems for motorized and pneumatic valves. I make 140 to 150k a year. I was talking with a new hire the other day who was in a three year tech college program in electronics. He skipped the third year because he got hired after two. In a few years he will be making in excess of 50 an hour plus double time for OT. He is 22 years old. That’s a pretty good return on investment for his education.
Welding is a great skill for men to learn. It’s right up there with certified diesel mechanic, electician and machinist. Think about it. You can hop to anywhere in the world where there’s a grid and civilization and have work even if you don’t speak the language. Even in a crappy war torn shithole with struggling infrastructure, a good mechanic or welder is as valued as a doctor. There will always be slop on the table and women for the machine man that has game.
The key is really the game. I’ve known great mechanics who were skilled as hell, but were beta out the ass. Take a typical auto service shop. It’s all about keeping the customers happy. Mechanics get chewed out for leaving grease on the steering wheel of some nasty bitch even though they ingeniously made the piece of shit run. And they jump to lick the toes and recieve bread crums from some hot female customer and still SHE knows the hand she’s dealing with at the auto shop. She knows how the wrench monkeys are mostly beta knights. If they aren’t married to some lower tier grab bag chick, they’re often still ‘game simple’ and can be easily manipulated. That’s probably true with all trades. Hardworking skilled tradesmen but their women kill them with their cuckery and percieved domestic entitlement.
Game and knowledge in the art of control/management of the shebeast is so essential. It goes hand in hand with achieving the full and well rounded tradesman life experience. Smoooth running machines and smoooth pussy to clock your dick into when you clock out.
Can confirm this. A single woman will fuck up an entire shop
I suspect the days of “headlight fluid” aren’t in the rear-view.
Eeh, I guess I can make wine out of that one. How many mechanics see this
https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3077/3267686358_a403b0646f.jpg
and they go “uuh yeah we’re running a special on the seven point tune up starting monday. Come back and see us and fill out the customer satisfaction survey for a 20% discount.”? Shit the dude missed the queue completely. DANGLING TITS! And the back seat is right there. Your knuckle boo boo is worth kino and you’re shoulder scrape easily becomes a massage. It’s too much zombie work while neglecting the game to spit. She’s likely wet and her female mind is floating left and right like a firefly. She’ll part ’em for some dick swinging schlum if you don’t. And then once she’s done helping you test the rear suspension, she can put on some scrubs and help you wipe down your tools and clean up shop.
http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-5/1-sexy-pinup-girl-with-rat-rod-car-jt-photodesign.jpg
unfortunately it’s the business. Female customers do complain about even the littlest problem with their car. Sometimes I remember we had female customers come in and complain about her car but we found no problem with it. We could have took advantage of her and just brought false problems and made her pay bill but most female customers are nuisances and always complaining and never satisfied.
“…most female customers are nuisances and always complaining and never satisfied.”
BE GLAD that it’s not you who’s married to them!!
It doesnt sound bad, but 50k after 5 years? That is not cutting it anywhere.
I think plumbing is probably a good way to go.
I am a stem guy but seriously thinking about going into the trades as I see the writing on the wall. Maybe also military if trump wins.
I’m also a STEM guy (80% through a mechanical engineering degree) who is considering the trades. I can do office work, but I’ve found that I’m far happier doing blue collar work.
That is the most important part — happiness. Men should always live the life that brings them more fulfillment.
“…Men should always live the life that brings them more fulfillment.”
AGREE 1000%!!
Which is also why men should increasingly avoid spoiled, psychotic Western women and become MGTOW.
I like spoiled psychotic western women. You just need to know what they are good for and what they are not and you will have no problems
Remember — “DON’T stick your dick in crazy!” Who needs a false accusation from some psycho bitch, you know?
i like girls whose agenda is very clear. I’ve been doing this a long time and have a very good track record.
Well, best of luck to you.
Thanks brother. You too!
I weld and you can make 100k in 3 easy if you’re good at it and willing to travel and follow the work.
Yes union welders here in New York (especially guys with x rat cert) I’ve seen making 150-200k/yr once their overtime is figured in
I made closer to 70K my first year and only worked maybe 9 months out of the year. Of course I was traveling. Big difference in working on the road vs. shop jobs (which don’t pay for shit typically). I saved close to 40k that year and began buying a welder and the tools necessary to open my own shop. Gotta love it though. I realized I enjoyed working with my hands and working alone, so hood time is perfect for me.
Working on the road gave me more insight into myself and human nature in general. It also taught me more valuable life lessons than If I had stayed home. Yeah it can suck: long hours, shitty living conditions, dangerous work environment, shithead coworkers, and lack of a social network, but the saying goes; ya can’t be a pussy and a welder.
what are the health hazards?
Depends where you work, if you’re worried about the fumes you can wear a respirator, other than that your eyes might give out quicker depending the shade of lens in your hood but it’s not that bad. You’ll get burned quite a bit depending on what type of welding you do. It’s all worth the money and freedom tho.
tnx 4 the info.
“Mr. Amnesty”, Marco Rubio, said that Americans ought to go to trade schools and become welders. That profession was singled out.
Having seen how the slime in DC operate, it’d be far from paranoid to interpret that as “DC wants foreigners to come in and usurp our welding jobs”.
Great article. Some of my friends who are on trades did pretty well, although it is “tough life”, no office job, I mean.
Funny how the more technology progresses, the more percentage of betas you find in society. Alphas get even rarer.
Oh well, slaves are put out of their suffering eventually. Good riddance.
nothing to do with technology except as a tool of the ruling class. It has to do with the strength of the ruling class over a society. A strong ruling class wages war against independent and/or would be dominant men. The ruling class wants betas and deltas while using omegas as a weaponized underclass. It fears alphas and gammas.*
In ages past such men would simply be murdered or channeled into things that would get them killed but in this age they have the schools, the TV, and much more to prevent them from being in the first place.
The proportion of betas and men pretending to be beta should vary with the strength of the ruling class.
*going by the chart here:
http://www.infjs.com/threads/alpha-beta-delta-gamma-omega-sigma-personality-archetypes.30329/
Great article…keep these coming. It’s cool to hear about different occupations….
Good article. And the author is correct that there are no women in the welding field. In high school I was dating a girl and I took her to see the, at that time, the premier of the movie Flashdance. Yeah…. sure…I was so convinced that the lead character – a slender, feminine trophy skank of a female was a welder [/END SARCASM].
“5. Welding offers a level of creativity, solitude, and seeing the fruits of your labor. Studies show that welders, machinists, and other blue-collar trades have lower suicide rates than many white-collar professions.”
I know a friend of mine who welds and does sculpting on the side with welding.
And indeed the lower suicide rates have to be because one is not dealing with annoying power bitches and the toxic environment one sees in today’s work place.
Why do women live longer than men, because they don’t live with women.
And women have the men as an emotional tampon.
Interestingly, it’s a fact that of the two types of married gay couples, it’s the gay men who have marriages that are happier, less stressful, and experience less domestic violence than those of married lesbian women.
When I heard about that, my first thought was, “Sure — it’s because the gay men aren’t living with a woman”.
Maybe about the guy guys, but at least several gay guy couples I’ve known, one of the parties had to take the role of bitchy female.
I was taught to mig and stick weld by a random friend I met in a bar one night. He was an engineer for the fabrication company, lived above the shop, and taught me how to run a bead at night. Got me a job there building mining structures. I worked there for 1.5yrs and moved to a cellphone tower fabrication company and few years later to a highway signage company. I welded for 5 years before I ended up unemployed during the big recession.
3 years of unemployment I used the money to buy the proper equipment and education to teach myself how to tailor clothing. The skills with my hands from welding easily transferred over. Today im the only custom tailor in the Allentown, PA region.
I’m a college dropout and a convicted felon with a record so bad I could so jailtime for jaywalking but I own the business and I own the market. No competition. My network is the envy of every finance guy.
I drive an older but we’ll maintained hatchback Kia but wear $2k suits on the regular.
Yeah, I’m one of those weirdos, but thanks to learning game, I landed a 9 feminine respectful Russian/Ukrainian/American bombshell who drives an Audi and seems to exist in a constant state of wetness. Doesnt give a fuck about record or the fact that my apartment is a mess. Doesnt give a fuck that I smoke pot on occasion, drink like a fish, curse like a sailor, insult fat women, make weak beta men hold the door for me when I’m suited up, and carry myself like the asshole I am.
And thats the world we live in fellas…take control of your lives, learn game, and go Donald Trump the shit out of some 9’s and make grabbing their pussies great again. Just make sure your shit is on lockdown and the world is yours.
Respect
Philly is still a battleground. Pa is critical. Load up your welder on top of your truck with a huge homemade sign that reads TRUMP JOBS, paint your truck, yourself and your hot woman up in red white and blue warpaint and drive through philly honking your horn like it’s a tailgate party and hand out tootsie rolls and reeses. Get rid of that leftover halloween candy. Three more days and polls are still swinging. I often think what can I do right now.
What I wouldn’t give for a decent fucking tailor
I have a friend who is a Mexican immigrant from long ago. He is a native Spanish speaker, but is the good immigrant that came here to be an American, not to remain a Mexican living in the US. He is a skilled tailor and makes a very good living. Skill always can produce an income.
but when I talk to women im a professional tooth pick restorationist. Or a cig lighter repairman. Or an orgasm coach. Midwife. Women’s prison guard. Coffee table decorator. Butter knife sharpener.
Hey don’t laugh business is damn good.
killin it
Excellent stuff man.
Just curious but what did you do that landed you in prison?
I can’t quite answer that specifically in this comments section but I can say that it has no more power over me because I built a life that is unaffected by all of it. I have a level of freedom today being my own boss in my industry that I have to pinch myself.
My last name is Houtsch. I own Rogues & Regs Custom Clothiers.
Roguesandregs.com
Apply for a pardon.
Nah. The stigma and its effect have already been fully realized, internalized, and eventually overcome.
This may sound Uber spiritual and lofty in the God clouds, but I perform for an audience of one. The approval of other people in this world means next to nothing to me. The more i embrace that and give the middle finger to the world, the more free I am to be the me I want to be. I can’t go fucking with that by getting pardoned.
Unless trump gets elected and PA goes red for once then I’ll apply just for shits and giggles.
Good job, man
CNC (CAD/CAM) is also a good racket to get into, and less physically demanding and cleaner. Not sure if it requires more training or not; it’s more technical certainly.
You have to have basic computer programming skills plus the knowledge of a machinist and a few other details like fixturing. You want to be the guy who writes the programs* or makes the fixtures. The cnc operator who takes the parts in and out of the machine and other basic tasks won’t make much.
*there are software programs now that make that much easier than it used to be. I learned how to write them from scratch manually just as the first of those programs were coming out.
Very good article. A guy I know got his x-ray certs and works on gas lines. The money they pay him is extraordinary. It all falls under the plumbers union here which is a very strong union that will see you well compensated and with a good pad for retirement. Welding is def a good option
Nice article. The timing couldn’t be more right.
I agree, it’s totally useless for anyone to enter college UNLESS he was majoring in STEM especially engineering and even then good luck because competition is fierce and make sure you have VERY GOOD and TIGHT connection because nepotism can be favored a lot via hiring process. If you do not know anyone or do not have tight connection, try to make it up by having good internship and top score grade but if you go to college and your major is Not any of STEM then you are wasting your time.
Blue collar job is still here because there are things that computer robots cannot even replace and I can name few like Auto Mechanic jobs and This welding job and few other construction jobs where human judgement and human labor is still needed. The thing is with our culture, young men are encouraged to go to white collar job and work in “safe” office environment so even though the demand for blue collar job may be high, most young white males are not willing to get their hands dirty for that. This is why the blue collar job will be quickly filled by recent immigrants, hispanic labors and soon they will dominate in these fields.
I would encourage young white men to also work in blue collar job because there is no shame in working to pay for your bills. A job is a job.
One good thing about blue collar job is that it quickly weeds out the unwanted, feminine girly men. Men who also backstab and gossip are not tolerated either. I mean there are some hardened assholes who will try to make your life living hell no matter what, most blue collar job are performed by men who are straight shooter which means if you fuck up, you are going to get yelled at and you have to get used to it because some blue collar jobs are very dangerous because working with machines that can tear and shred so you need to be focused at all times. Also men are known to take a stab at each other with harsh jokes and you have to get used to that as well since some men form brotherhood and camaraderie by busing each other like that. If you are easily offended and pansy type then those type of job are not for you.
Even in today’s day and age where die hard feminists do all their best to make men-women equality in your face, nature does not lie. Women cannot handle men’s work. Women can’t even handle most simple functioning office desk work where all they do is punch in numbers, staple papers and file paper and hit “submit”. God forbid the last thing you want are women working in fixing elevator machine, paper mills, repair cars, etc… That day would be a total disaster and it’s good reason why those heavy duty jobs are only done by men.
The exploding female paperwork career managerie is a blanket tax the bureaucratic architects have created and placed over the economic engine in feminized economies. Females are working biological machines, not paper pushers.
http://ladydeelg.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/breastfeeding-moms-on-IG.jpg
“Try and outsource my feeding machine elitists . . neh”
That was my point. They aren’t meant to work in career.
Women are going to have a problem when the so-called elite start growing the people they need in pods.
Informative article. As a structural engineer, I agree with most of the points raised. Living in Ohio, however, I have seen no evidence of a welder shortage (at least not in the construction industry). Elsewhere, I can’t help but wonder how many welders are being displaced in factories by robots.
One important item that needs to be stressed that was not covered above is that welders should make sure they get the appropriate AWS certifications. I know our steel specs always insist on it, in the name of quality assurance.
@meistergedanken:disqus
I’m in the same industry and have seen the exact same thing out west.
Your comment should be the top, up-voted, post, BUT, nobody will likely see it nor read it and possibly will not understand what you just described.
I’d also add that becoming management or transitioning to something like safety, is ESSENTIAL, if someone starts out as a young welder and wants to work in the same business sector for more than 10 years.
I hope people here realize that their bodies will be FINISHED when they hit late 40’s to early 50’s. The risk of on the job injury over the course of 20+ years is VERY high and even if someone is fortunate enough to make it those 20 years, accident free, their neck and back will end the possibility of continuing to work in the field, beyond the 20 year mark.
Thanks. Yes, laboring in obscurity seems to be my lot.
Your comment about age/occupation-related deterioration is also quite relevant. Reminds me of my firm, where we have a group of bridge inspectors – talk about physically demanding work! Between the physical exertion and the constant travel most of the guys burn out after 8 – 10 years. One guy is still holding out in his mid-50’s, but I can’t imagine he will be up to climbing around on trusses in 104 degree weather for much longer. But he is not the right type to transition to management, like the other two oldest inspectors.
There are parallels in other fields, like fire-fighting. One of my best friends cleverly took the extra classes and went from being a firefighter/EMT to a state fire marshal by the time he turned 40. He now makes more money than the fire chief of his department, and gets off work every day at 3 pm!
These all have something in common: you have to have a long-term plan (e.g., being elevated into management). and craft a strategy to actualize that plan, which often requires additional learning of some sort. A lot of people neglect that. This would be a good topic for a RoK article, but since I suspect the readership is so young I doubt it would have much appeal, even though it could be very helpful.
My brother-in-law was a welder. Started his apprenticeship right out of vocational high school. Made a lot more money than $50k. Spent 25 years as a welder then a safety inspector and retired with a sweet pension.
There is no reason for a man to be taking burgers out of a microwave at McDonalds or serving syrupy coffee to yuppies. There plenty of work available to someone who shows up when he’s supposed to, has a drivers license,is willing to work and has at least basic mechanical skills and a little bit of sense. I can’t understand why a man would be working selling clothes at the mall while thinking he’s too good for a blue collar job.
I have an office job and started my own auto detailing business a few years ago. I eventually hope to do it full time but right now I just detail cars on weekends and a few weekday afternoons in the spring and summer. And by detailing I don’t just mean washing cars, I mean doing paint correction, polishing, cleaning leather and carpets, and soon I’ll learn to fix foggy headlights, repair torn leather, and things like that. Not that I regret any decisions I made when I was younger, but it’s made me wonder what things would be like if I had never gone to college and got into detailing when I was 18. A couple of weekend long technical courses in auto detailing might cost you $4k, and having all the right tools, chemicals, and marketing materials would cost about the same. This is way better than spending 4 years at a liberal arts college and then spending months looking for a job so you can pay off hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt. Working in an office sucks. Even without the office politics, there’s just something about it that drains me. When I’m detailing cars, I get to work outside, I work alone so no drama, and I’m my own boss. It is very physically demanding but I would rather be tired at the end of the day from lots of physical labor and actually see the results of my work (very dirty disgusting car looking almost like it’s in showroom condition) than emotionally drained from being in an office all day doing paperwork and a bunch of other meaningless tasks
Thanks for sharing that and nice plan you have going. I am as well in an office, and stick out like a sore thumb among as the writer said an office full of dysfunctional women, emasculated men, drama, backstabbing, cat-fights…” I have staff and lots of production I oversee. Fortunately I can use some of my creativity as I as well act as a production artist which at the end of the week I can at least point to something that I created. I too would do things differently to not end up punching an 8 to 5 clock in a nearly windowless building.
Foggy headlights, meguiars ultimate compound and elbow grease x 2
It sounds interesting but how will it fare with the current trend towards automation? This is an honest question, considering that even ship captains are unlikely to keep their jobs in the future https://gcaptain.com/first-unmanned-and-fully-automated-offshore-vessel-planned-for-2018/
That’s where you have to always expand your abilities.
Say I got me that sweet welding job, like the article said it opens the way for other areas.
So if I settle and stick to “welder” all my life, someone designing a good welding machine could spell doom for me.
However, if I’ve also learned to fix some of the machines, run a few of the others, and while at it polished some computer skills, odds are I may be kicked off the welding job and promoted to maintaining the new robot, the 4 machines around it, and still get to throw in some overtime welding when goddamn R2 breaks down and you got a 3-day wait for that one key spare part.
I agree with Nicolas. Reminds me of a friend who at middle age went from computer programming to being a machinist. After three years he was already a part inspector. Plus he helps program the machines. So, in our hypothetical case, even if machines in the shop perform the welding you still need inspectors to examine the welds, and perform testing on them per the building code. And the automation you refer to doesn’t really enter into welding performed in the field at the job site (just the welds done in the shop). In my construction projects about half the welds are field welds (roughly).
Is that for welding?
Between structural welding, combination welding, or pipe welding, which would you suggest?
Pipe welding, especially if you can do 6GR. Bonus if you can weld stainless pipe and tubing which requires shielding gas on the inside for a proper weld.
If you can do the above welding on stainless, you can pretty much do any other type of welding other than underwater or maybe some superalloy like Inconel.
Welding can be interesting but the reality is that you gotta work with drug addict divorced baby boomers who are bitter cause they have shitty home lives or that they have nothing to show for it.
20k-40k is a myth you’ll be lucky if you get 12 an hour.
Toxic work environment, every weld shop/plant I’ve worked in is full of simple minded low information people who think their gods gift to the trades and are more dramatic and backstabbing little high School teenage girl.
90 percent of the people you work with are backstabbers and will rat you out in an instant under some sort of pretense of getting some sort of raise or promotion by management but a lot of time to doesn’t happen it just creates animosity this is especially true with the Baby Boomers most cowardly rat-faced generation out there.
I was the only guy who was not divorced multiple times and proud of it. A big red flag is when some one man or woman brags about how their spouses couldn’t stand an. Maybe that’s just a regional north east work culture thing idk.
People you will work for will be cheap an want something for nothing, run into the ground if you let em.
If you are working in some ones house doing work often times the well off people are the worst most difficult to deal with and will give you a hard time over every little thing. And the poor customers are the nicest and will feed you tip you give you bottles of liquor or smoke with you.
The egos, every one I ever met in the trades esp roofers n welders think their the greatest tradesmen that ever lived and should be paid bob villa money when in reality their simply delusional and their work is shit
So if this sounds like what your look for I say go for it.
10 years working in the trades, Construction,Welding,Roofing,HVAC
I like both OP’s post and yours equally.
Don’t listen to this bullshit. The author is probably someone who failed in getting a good white-collar job and is now promoting low-skilled blue-collar jobs. In my country these types of jobs are done by the lower classes of society, which means these people have below average IQs and/or are immigrants from third world countries.
Same here in Panama, considered “grunt work”.
But to be honest, should we really have some underpaid undertrained cholo building 50+ story engineering marvels?
White-collar is necessary but the world NEEDS way more skilled blue-collar to keep it all running. What good are 50 million scientists if no one can get that 5-ton girder welded to make the first starship’s launch pad?
And it’s best if the guys welding said starship’s launch pad and frame know exactly how to do it and WHY it has to be done THAT way.
Same goes for pretty much everything “engineered” to use a massively broad statement.
And as the author said, white caller is described as “full of dysfunctional women, emasculated men, drama, backstabbing, cat-fights…”
I see that everyday.
Tech school for 18 mo then making $25 an hour to start is where it’s at.
Not university bogus paper degrees for 80k in debt. 16 million unemployed evidence this.
Unrelated, but still huge to us – PHALLELUJAH!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/412d40a90b851fcda4b2e21923346660c35b35478177c73b1486114cf5c5d8fc.png
But notice how it was the school admin’s (a woman) libel suit that was important enough to go to trial. The suits of those actually accused of the fabricated rape weren’t.
I’ve thought welding sounded like a great trade in the past. But the idea of it kind of died for me because the 4 or five welders I’ve known nearly all battled cancer. Some lost.
Maybe it had nothing to do with the job,
No the fumes you breath in from the argon shielding gas isn’t good for you at all
Downside: welding is like having a vasectomy. Or upside, depending on one’s viewpoints and situation.
I grew up doing blue collar work in my teens and very early twenties, then transitioned to high paying white collar in completely different field. I think it’s good to have these skills, because I can always fall back in them if needed. In fact I still use this stuff in my own time rebuilding hot rods, or home building aircraft. It’s too bad most schools do not have shop class anymore.
There are welders and there are good welders. While it may seem like any dummy can pick up an electrode and blob some shit together, you’re not going to be a “goto” guy because your welds suck. Learn the sciences behind it and apply that to a steady hand. To those saying it’s a dummy job are wrong, there is a lot of science that goes with being a good welder… metallurgy being a huge part of that.
Good article.
There are dummy’s in all jobs. Anyone who looks at blue collar work as a dummy job is a fool…welding doesn’t just take smarts but it is also an art so it takes creativity
I have yet to meet aanother welder that didn’t drink heavily or do mad drugs or both. The reason why most welders are old men is cause the new generation don’t want to spend 40 years working with a bunch of bitter degenerate drama queens.
Its a dying trade for many reasons.
Much like mom an pop shops they can’t compete with Walmart
I was a welder and fabricator for a while in Odessa. I flipped between that and Plumbing. I found that service Plumbing is the only job that’s always there. Welding was great….and then we were laid off until the next contract. Money was great, but…..and you’re not telling these guys how it is.
Service Plumbing is the best bet for a year round job, bar none. The reason is that folks have to have water, gas, and a toilet. Yep, you’ve got them over a barrel. Welding, well, lots of oil field production stuff can be made anywheres….like Korea, for instance. Pipelining is great…..but, well, that’s a hard row to hoe.
Thing is this……we, as older guys, should try to gently suggest possible ways to go. Robotics are going to be a huge thing going forward. Don’t laugh……a robot doesn’t have a meth problem, does it?
Here’s the hard thing…..service work requires a much smarter man than just a regular worker. Most men aren’t up to it. Service work requires a tough mindset. Your momma ain’t with you fixing a leak under a house. You see, if I’m getting dirty, I’m making good money.
I’m a 20 year old apprentice plumber and i take my hat off to those boilermakers, i do a bit of pipe welding (MIG) and oxy cutting myself. My old man once told me there are two people, people that can weld and people that can’t. They get paid slightly a bit more than plumbers in Australia unless plumbers are running their own business. Keeping the pool nice and hot and in a nice round shape for good consistency and penetration is always a hard thing to master for most but some just get it naturally. I’d recommend this trade for those with good hand dexterity and concentration.
I always wanted to learn a trade. However I about to be 30 years old soon. Am I too old to become a welder?
It’s not too late. I’m about to turn 27 and just started learning. Thankfully I’m a natural so that will speed up the process. .
Maybe it is good strategy to follow a manual labor path, in USA and some other western countries. In first world countries, probably the rules of safety and work times are still holding, somehow, despite the pressure from illegal immigration. In third world and on the road to become third world countries, it is very unhealthy and dangerous to have manual labor, even as a freelancer. Because if you wish to follow the necessary safety measures, the cost will be higher than the mainstream antagonists. Also typically safety and environmental measures, just to protect yourself, require more time for the same work. You will soon become non competitive and you will need to either change job, or start cutting corners about your safety measures, protection apparel and equipment, and quality of tools and materials. Finally university degrees are indirect, partial at least, protectionist safety nets. Not many illegal immigrants can work as eg civil engineers.
If we look in to old times where the economy was more flat, not exponentially growing like in industrial revolution, for example in medieval times in Europe, there was the system of medieval guilds. I am not going to analyze it but I think some elements of them and national syndicalism is the solution for the complete deregulation of jobs and job market in the West and Europe.
During the controversy over the construction of a new nuclear power plant on the Central Coast of California in the 1980s, the leaders of the obstructionists were largely professors from the local mid-ranked college.
Someone mischievously pointed out that the nuclear-qualified welders building the plant made twice the income of the professors.
Yes, welding is a good job.
Welding is a job that people need to continually recertify. The book knowledge is one thing, but then there is a skill level that not everyone can achieve, especially nuclear -qualified or similar liscencing. I have a friend that does repairs under ships with scuba gear. He makes a better living than me as an engineer, but I don’t envy him. He was telling me of one time that as the tide was going out, he got pinned under the the ship and pressed down into the mud. All he could do is wait 10 hours or so hours for the tide to come back in to be freed.
Our youngest son just started a 7 month welding program (C) & will follow into another 7 months program (B) after that.
The author knows what he’s talking about and understand it’s called the skilled trade for a reason.
So far 25% of his class have stopped showing up because welding turned out to require a lot more skill than they thought. Which shows that it’s very important to have the opportunity in high school to try different trades to see if you have any aptitude for them.
This article is golden. I was working in an hospital and the amount of bullshit I had to put up with everyday was staggering. While working there, I was wasting my time in college, not knowing what to do. Then I decided to move to a blue collar environment by studying to be a millwright. It was the best choice ever. Now I’m only with guys and I can say whatever the fuck I want without the fear of the big fat HR cat lady. Also, by learning a trade, even if you don’t end up working in this branch, you become self-sufficient and this is priceless.