Daz, I am a NONE-Degreed Welding Engineer, with a Senior CWI and one who has GLADLY proven myself again and again and again.  I am also a Journey-Level Boilermaker/Welder and Pipefitter Inspector.  Over the years, I've been fortunate to gain MANY, MANY grey hairs and as such, I ask what is your problem???  Pay your dues brother, do it without complaining or move on. We all have.  For those who think you "know it all" or even a large part of it, guess again.  There is Soooooo much to our field even the best of the best could NEVER have a chance.

My advise, keep moving forward you've got LOADS of road to cover!!!!!

EDIT: By the way, one of my very best friends is Vice Chair of ASME IX and I've been studying it since 1984... ya think your good??? There's always someone better my friend.

Best regards, Jon

Well brother, I feel your pain.  I've been dealing with this situation for close to 10 years now.  Being an inspector, especially a younger one, you're going to get looked down upon by people older than you...especially the ones who probably have been welding longer than you've been alive.  It just comes with the territory.  The only thing that YOU can do is do your job to the best of you abilities, input your thoughts when asked or when necessary, and have a good attitude.

I don't have near the credentials that you have, but I went to school and earned my AAS in the QC and NDT field.  I've been in QC since I got out in 2000.  One of my major shortcoming is my lack of real world hands on welding experience, and when the "welders" find this out, it makes the respect very hard to come by.  That, coupled with my age (then and even now) makes me feel the respect will never come.  That's when I revert to my advice above. 

I have a feeling the respect will only come when you either: A) somehow prove yourself to the guys you currently work with, and/or B) you work with guys younger than you with less experience than you and who "beleive" that you know more than them.

Hang in there man.  Respect does not come easy in this field, ESPECIALLY to a young inspector.  I always ask myself this - "what attitude would I have if when I'm 40-50 and have 20+ years of experience and some 21 year old is coming to inspect my work?"  I can see where they're coming from, so I just do my job and roll on.

I qc'd on my 1st boiler job 2 months after my 1st tube test. I was 25 or 26. I had pleanty of veteran welders, suoerintendents, etc.. that didn't really care much about me doing what I was doing. I still continued to try to do what was right by the company that was paying me.

Doing QC is often times a thankless job. Welders don't like you marking up welds, supervision doesn't like you slowing down production, engineering doesn't like you bringing up any discrepancies in drawings or specifications, an I am sure other things.

If you are young I would soak up all the crawling around you can. I love it myself. I would rather someone else handle everything on the ground. I like to keep the dust from settling on those boiler door openings. I like crawling in the hole where I was not expeceted to go only to find the backside of a tube not welded or a cut from a wafer diisk 90% through the wall of an adjacent tube. I get to see the craftsmanship of welders, the struggles they go through etc.

Supervision has considerable pressure to perform. Discretion regarding findings and how when and where you bring them up, non-judgemental attitudes, understanding that not all people know all things, and the willingness to share your knowledge with others when "explaining" can all be a great assets to you on the job.

I have welded for many years and performed QC on a few jobs. When you start to loose respect for the skills and abilities of those around you its time to do a mirror check and see what they may be thinking of you. Don't let your own skill in welding be used during inspection. If you decide to mention it, be prepared to show it!

I have had to prove myself on every job. Still do. I went into the Boilermakers as a 1st year apprentice. 20 years prior to that I made my 1st RT'd weld in a mirror on a nuclear power plant. I had journeyman that I "worked for" that were still breastfeeding when that happened. But I could still learn from them. Some of the things I learned were good. Some were bad. But I still learned.

I still struggle with trying to set aside my pride and ego when I work with others with different skill sets when they begin to venture into my area of work with their words. An understanding of their viewpoint can be helpful.

I have been "fired" by supervsion on boiler jobs only to be called at the hotel by them asking me to come back and thet they would cut out the tubes without MTR's, or they would stop someone from welding that I had indicated as no longer able to because of quality etc..

I have never QC'd on a boilermaker job in my own area. I can remember a quotation from a VERY wise man indicating a man was often times not repected as well in his own home town. This could apply to your situation possibly.

I wasn't even allowed to weld much on the last one. I spent two months rigging and flagging a crane. Can you believe it! ME a CWI, Ex QC manager, Consultant, Common Arc with 14 contractor for CS, SS, and Inconel ! Well I NEVER !  I'll tell you one thing, though I wasn't very good at it, I was very proud of the fact that I didn't injure anyone or damage any equipment. It was a humbling experience as I was instructed by some that knew I was somewhat out of my comfort area yet did not bother to bring up my shortcoming publicly. One thing I had failed to do in the past many times as a welding inspector.

I strongly suggest keeping on "getting some" whenever it is suggested. The salt from your sweat will eventually melt any "slugs" around you ! But understand that some of those people on the ground may very well have worked in your shoes or even worse. Don't think that those who sit by and grin as you complain about those issues are just grinning for the fun of it. They very well may have been there and are enjoying the memories that come back to them.  If it gets to be a pain, go back on your tools for a bit then go back to QC. That way you are always aware of your need to improve each skillset.

Have a nice day

Gerald Austin

You have to respect seniority and take care of your elders in this trade for every aspect of it.  One day you will be in there shoes and and will watch the young pup go up to take care of business.  Do you ever think that you get sent up top or in the hole because they want someone with good eyes or good skills to go and do the job that you were sent to do? Sometimes the only thing for the bucket warmers to do is the gravy because they don't trust them with anyhting else?

If your frustrated having to prove yourself you are in for a long miserable career. I've been doin this stuff (welding/welding supervision/welding engineering/QC'ing, etc) for more than 30 years and I, right now, in a new fabrication shop am having to prove myself AGAIN. You have to prove yourself to your employer, to the welders, to your customers, and to your colleagues (especially if you write papers-talk about no mercy). But since I'm tougher on myself than anyone else could be its a piece of cake.
It happens.

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Dazwelding,

I've been a CWI for over nine years, and I weld every day.  I write PQR's, WPS', and Qualifications to AWS D1.1, D1.2, D1.3, D1.6, D17.1, and more.  Customer codes include Department of Defense and Navy, Automotive, ISO (European), and others.  My most recent code is AWS 9.1.  I never even heard of it.  I never heard of this forum until searching for help while using D9.1.

I'm certified to weld many (I've never counted) different processes, materials, thicknesses, and the like.  The list grows with every passing year.  Who cares? I've judge the VICA (Skills USA) welding competition for the past nine years in my state.  I enjoy that.

I have an undergraduate and masters degree, though not in welding.  My most recent speech for one of the investing groups that I belong to was the relationship between the cycles of an economy (GDP), a stock market, and individual stocks.  I explored the time periods between cycles, the price ranges, and the lag times between each cycle.  I learned from another speaker that night about forecasting using the Elliot Wave and Fibonacci Numbers...Dow 4,000 in three to five years.  Watch out!

The point is that I consider myself lucky to be able to somewhat understand what is coming at me every day.  I'm thinking about learning D1.5 (bridges?) because of the new president's infrastructure plans.  I taking the ASQ Six Sigma Black Belt exam this spring.  I'm also working with our IT (Information Technology) expert in developing an ACCESS program that will link all the Codes that I use to prepare welding documents.  I never thought I would be a programmer.

A good point presented earlier was that of age.  Experience counts.  It's kind of an unspoken gesture of respect to at least help your elders.  Try "killing them with kindness" if they're mean. 

I got my Mother a job as a greeter at our local Meijer (like Wal-Mart).  She had the same type of reaction to humans.  Some people are mean.  They were telling her stories about her evil employer.  I told her to consider all of her co-workers.  Are they all mean? No.  Do they all tell the same rumors? No.  Some people are friendly and some are mean. 

Be positive and learn something new every day. 

Keith