Tnwelder, Hey great attitude walking into a shop with your WHOLE 2 yrs. experience and belly ache'in about what proccess you would like to use!!!! Maybe you should go back to school and take a course in business 101. MIG is used for 90% of the welding out there, WHY? because it's COST EFFECTIVE , LOW SKILL LEVEL to learn, PROBLEM FREE SET UP, and can lay alot of BEAD in an hour. A structural or misc. shop will LOSE it's ARSE if it didn't use MIG. In my shop I have even adapted it's use to field work , I put new cutting edges on buckets and can do it for 2/3 rd's the cost instead of Stick , my competetors can be bullheaded and say "IT'S ALWAYS BEEN DONE WITH STICK/ I LIKE STICK" but they won't get the work and I will because I can get it done more effiecently, and that youngster is the name of the game in business. PROFITS!!!!!! If you LIKE to run TIG get a job in a misc. shop making S.S. pipe rail or aluminum rail , plenty of TIG'IN there. But STICK isn't the process used most anymore except field work where the enviroment can't be controled. Another bit of advice DOEN'T tell your boss/owner what process you would like to use because most likely he's been in the business alot longer than you've been alive and couldn't give a SH** what process you like to use, just put your hood down and GET TO WORK!!!!!
Look at the time to do tig and SMAW on tank building. That would go over like a fart in a diving bell. Making money owning a welding business comes down to quality and speed. In tank building you do not have to meet ASME B31.3 Severe. So why weld a tank to it.
You have an opportunity to learn a different business than pipe welding. But it is a different world. Look at this as an opportunity instead of a place holder until a "real" welding job comes up. You say you have been welding for 2 years and are "certified" in pipe. Well go to who ever you "certified" to and get a job with them. Or did you get this "certification" from the school you attended for 2 years. That "certification" and 4 bucks will get you a Vente @ Starbucks.
Get over yourself. You are 2 years into a long career. Two more years of education will NOT make you a better welder. And judging from how you view the company that has given you a job you need to learn how business works.
Two years at this place and continue to improve your pipe skills and you have 4 years experience. But you now have 4 years with experience in all welding process' with background in pipe and tanks. Take another two years and do pressure vessels learning some about NDT and after that you have 6 years experience. You take that experience and get your API certs in Piping, Pressure Vessels and Tanks, throw in a CWI and at that point you are in a six figure income in a business that you can do for 40 years and not break your body down.
You chase money when you are your age instead of training and experience you will wind up with no money and little experience. You may be a good pipe welder, but there are yellow school buses full of good pipe welders.
Keep doing what you are doing with the attitude you have and when your turn 40 you will be testing for a 40 year old that does see the opportunity you miss.
Congrats on the job, I myself like the stick and tig.
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