Hey brewboy,
Welcome to the forum. You will find a tremendous wealth of information, opinions, guidance and suggestions as to a career path and job positions that are in demand presently and in the future. There have been recent posts by some of the gents here that will give you some ideas of welding positions that are in need, locations that are in short supply, and some wages that are currently offered. You will have to really sift thru all the different types of welding you may find interest in. There is pipeline, rig welding, structural in-house, fabrication, aerospace, manufacturing, and in conjunction, companies seeking those for only specific welding such as MIG, TIG, SMAW, SAW, Oxy-Acet., and their applications of steel, aluminum, cast, titanium, and other processes. My advice is if you are considering schooling, take one that will provide you all the different applications of welding and processes, and learn all you can. There are some wonderful books available on www.amazon.com that will give you information about welding and are very reasonable in price. Start doing your research homework now and read as much as you can to get some ideas of a career choice. Believe me, there is money to be made....it's all in... "how bad do you want it?" Take some time each day and go thru some of the past posts here and you will get some ideas of the jobs the welders here do and like. There is a vast array of welding careers here and each one provides information and input to others to help and solve problems and issues. Been welding over 40 years now, and still love every minute of it and look forward to the next day of challenges and rewards.......Good Luck....Denny