Kruges,
I am a senior in college, and the last two years of high school I took welding at the Tech Center in my area. Loved it, bar none. When I came up here, I had already had my sights set on being a part of a small group here on campus that builds a small competitive machine, and was quickly able to become the "welder" on the team. I also quickly got a job in our department's laboratory, kind of a mix between a machine shop and a laboratory really, and basically my duty there was to do any of the "specialty" welding jobs that came in. I have welded up everything from an aluminum greaseless/oilless popcorn maker to a small ethanol plant. Now I'm looking at a job as a prototyping engineer, where I will get to build what I design.
This university also does not offer welding as an in-depth class or field of study.
What you need to find out is what exactly you want to do (if welding is it, DO NOT hold back simply because everyone wants you to-I made a 31 on my ACT and was griped at by several teachers at HS for making the decision to go to Tech school, and it was the best decision of my life). Second, figure out who industrially needs what you want to do.
To answer your question, welding has never been a setback for me, and probably not for anyone else on this board. Education DOES NOT mean books. It means understanding what is in those books, and I have a superior understanding when compared to my classmates that will be graduating with me when it comes to metallurgy, circuitry and electricity, chemical reactions, fluid mechanics, structural design, etc., simply because I had to build the stuff in the field and the shop.
Hope that helps,
gls
I,m a Fabrication Planner now and I have about 45 guys that are under me. I'm also a level II CWI with MT,PT,and UT. The jobs are out there when you get the certs. Welding opened many doors for me and I always can a living in many areas. If you do it, do it to be the best you can and learn as much as you can. You'll get back what you put in. Good luck!
Freshman, your parents are dead wrong. My advise for you is to do welding first and what comes after, will be easy. I have been in the welding business over 30 years. I began as a welder, then advanced to supervisinig jobs, next i studied to become an inspector (that came easy because i had plenty of welding experience), and now i teach welding.
Good-luck with your decisions in life, its a long journey.
I've been in the business for 25 years. I went back to school after welding for nearly 15 years. I work in a lab now testing materials used in bridge construction. I don't weld for my job anymore. I do have my own shop and continue to weld on the side. I will tell you this, being a welder first, then and engineer or inspector will put you head and shoulders above the rest. You gotta walk the walk before you talk the talk!
As someone else said, being a welder first will make you a much better engineer or NDT expert. But are you talking about dropping out of college to become a welder? Or switching to some other college where you could do both welding and another related field?
Leaving school is a risky proposition because it's hard to give up salary and come up with tuition once you've been in the working world, especially if you've started a family in the meantime.
Is there any way you can play it both ways, work part-time as a welder while getting a degree in a related field, and then you have the choice of careers when you graduate, with the degree to fall back on if god forbid you become physically unable to weld?
Hg
Question; what does a person with a Liberal Arts Degree with 20-40,000 dollars worth of student loan debt say to a welder?
Answer; ...will that be with fries? ...or should I super size your order?
Get the degree, it doesn't matter what it is in. A degree in underwater basket weaving is still a piece of paper saying that you know how to learn. I run a printing press for a living, and have a degree in the field- not worth the paper its printed on except I've got it and someone else dropped out!
Finish it. My brother owns a marketing company and has a degree in English literature, who cares, he is educated and he has the paper saying so.
Peace,
In a machine shop I work with sometimes, the machinist who was promoted to supervisor was the one with the liberal arts college degree. Other factors? Maybe, maybe not. He thinks it was the degree that did it.
Hg
I've been in the welding field for 28yrs. Would not want to do anything else. For me, being facinated by being able to put two pieces of metal together and build something has taken me to many places. I started in High School metal trades class. Took a course in Jr. College, Been a weldor ever since. So for what it's worth. What ever you do, stay in college and finish. Like another post said, get that paper work with your name on it. I have a friend that works as a piledriver. He has a MBA in History. He could be a teacher. He too likes to weld and work with metal. So what ever you do, Give it your best and follow where your heart leads you. Welding is not a bad thing to do. It has been good to me. A good weldor can find a job in any place they travel. All you have to do is pass the cert. I think welding is the only occupation, that you have to keep proving yourself over and over. GOOD LUCK!
By BC3
Date 08-06-2005 21:22
Let me see, drawbacks as a welder.....Hmmmmmmm I guess that
would depend on you as an individual.....because welders, good welders
seem to LOVE their trade (I do) you could probably make more money doing other things.....I hear Bank Robbers do pretty well..ha ha
but other than some long term health issues (which can be avoided
with proper safty equipt.) Its a great trade. I mean if you like the feeling of being a "Magic Man" welding can do it for ya......
BC
Dude, You'd be way stupid to quit college to learn to be a welder. I'm in the medical field and I see these 30 year welders come in and their bodies are shot to hell. They get COPD and are at high risk for ENT cancers breathing in all that garbage from the rods and wire. Women won't give you a second look when you tell them you're a welder. It's dirty grimy work and you smell like smoke and sweat after work. Get in a field where you can make 6 figures and not put your body through hell-- it ain't welding Dude. ---Zippy
You have about as much welding knowledge as my 10 yr old son.You talk like work should be easy. Welding makes you sweaty and you smell when you get off of work. That is why it is called work.I started welding when I was 18 and enjoyed it a whole lot more than the desk job I have now.
News flash for you in my shop we issue the welders respirators that the welders are required to wear when welding.
Plus that "women will not give you a second look" comment was uncalled for.I would rather see my daughter marry a welder and be happy than for her to marry a doctor and be miserable. But then agian I am trying to raise my daughter to have values and self respect. I want my daughter to fall in love with a man not a dollar.
By -
Date 09-19-2005 19:33
I agree with you 100%. Ratboy69 just said he was in the medical field. That can be anything from cleaning bedpans to mopping the floor, which is probably what he does. It is pretty obvious that, from his comments, that he is not an educated medical person. Oh well, it takes all types. If he is so down on welding, what is he doing in an AWS Forum?
Chuck
Zippy,
The welders that sometimes work for me are regularly making 6 figures these days. And they don't work year round.
I can hire degreed engineers all day for less than the welders make. These are highly skilled pipe welders tho, not trigger pullers.
JTMcC.
By -
Date 09-19-2005 20:34
Good points...Where would this country be without welders and welding engineers? These "medical field" geniuses would be without a place to ply their trade if it weren't for us. It took sweat and smelly people to build this country, not a bunch of medical people. Ratboy69 (his moniker tells it all) doesn't have a clue about our trade. My sweat and smelly belly put two kids through college, one of whom is in the medical field, and he does not make the 6 figures that I make. Both are very successful and thank their Daddy every day for making it possible for them to better themselves. I will not mention this again, but I took personal offense to every letter of Ratboy's comments. Stating one's opinion is one thing, but to attack our profession, which is as honorable as any on this planet, is totally uncalled for. But, I guess we need to consider the source. No offense intended, but if he can state his opinion, so can I.
Chuck
Ratby69,
what are you doing on a website like this. you should go on some panzy medical site. I'm a welder and i can all the hot chicks i want. I can tell that you are a little prissy. I've been welding since i was 6 and i'm in perfect health.
Charles Richards
ps. what does a med student in debt say to a welder?
welcome to macdonalds. can i take your order? or would you
like fries with that?
I started out grinding welds for welders and actually moved up to an apprentice welder.I owe everything to this sometimes dirty trade and sometimes air conditioned bench work on aircraft parts.I have made as much as 140,000.00 in one year that directly involves the fact that I took up this trade in 1988.I am a Full Time Welding Instructor at a College and CWE/CWI and I am the Program Specialist.I have never turned down training or quest for knowledge of my trade and earn as much as a Doctor..........I was earning 35,000 a year right out of High School while friends were busy(Still) delivering Pizza,cutting grass,digging ditches or wasting Daddy`s money partying at some University for four years then getting out of school with that Bachelors and earning a crumby 24k a year and still living at home.BIG MYTH,people actually think that if you spend eight years in College that you are worth paying big money.YOU ARE NOT WORTH PAYING 10 bucks an hour.....Why should I be a welder??????????
Welder6G I couldn't agree more. I grew up in the trades, (Auto body) I have always welded and fabbed things and seemed to be the person all my friends came to when stuff was broken. I was making 5- 600 per week while still in high school form side work and my pay at my father's shop. After HS I went to work at a larger Dodge dealership and was making double what most of my friends were with less stress. Three years out of HS I became an ASE certified master auto body tech. Two years later I joined the Marines and became a military intelligence analyst. I have during all of this obtained an AA in Auto body Technology, an AA in Foreign Language (Russian) and a BA in Eastern European Studies. When I got out of the Service I went back to my trade. I am going to take the skill the military gave me and go to work for a Defense contractor and pull 6 figures like our doctor friends and believe it or not I could have done it with out the degrees. It's the MI experience they are paying for. Why would I do this if the trade is so good? Simple.....I want to put aside some money so I can have some capital behind me when I start my business. Education is good but with out some real skills to tie it into just useless paper. Doctors and medical types have a skill with their papers, but what about the professional students with BA in B*ll Sh!t. Our Country is flooded with store clerks and bartenders with degrees and no real skills. The whole problem is everyone steering people away from the trades. I guess what most of us are telling him is stay in school AND learn to weld. The best thing my father ever did for me was to put a hammer in my hand and teach me to use it. There is nothing wrong with honest pay for honest work. Will I stay in Intel more than 2 years?????? No. Well just my $.02 have fun
Well, I was in college years ago to be a tool and die maker. Spent two years and had the college loans to prove it. Upon entering the working world, I saw what the welders were doing and saw that it's an art , a craft. I went back to school to be a welder. The college experience didn't fail me but the welding sure as hell took me further. Would do it again too.
Yes it's a hot, dirty job but hey I knew that when I started. Yes people will give you a sideways glance because you work with your hands. But, I put two kids thru college, bought my house, and put my wife thru two years of MIT (She loves me too :-)) So ratboy.. Stay clean, make your opinions based on what you don't know, and leave the welding to US! There will always be a place for us....Isn't that a happy thought!
Listen, If you're going into the trades, become an electrician or plumber because they make the coin. Welders by and large don't make coin. Just go online and find the median income of welders in the country. Don't take my word for it, check yourself. If you like to weld , make it your hobby not your job. ----Zippy
dont listen to ratboy69, he obviously doesnt know anything about welding and hes just pissed because some immigrant that wants to work hard is taking his job that he complains about.
If ratboy's job is so great why is he always putting down mine.I know why he wanted to be a welder but daddy and mommy wanted him to clean bed pans for a living and he did not have the guts to stand up to mommy and daddy.
Bottom line ratboy, if you want to tell somebody what job they need not do it should be based on what you know from experience not from what you think you know.
I do not go to a medical forum and tell people if I were you I would not want a job that would force me to give a 90 yr old man a sponge bath.
Our welders make between 65 and 100K - obviously some OT there but not much.
Get your degree and be a welder with a degree. The thing with that is that you have far more opportunities at that point.
LOL especially if you like NASCAR or Formula racing, since their pit crews tend to have engineering degrees in addition to great skills.
Kalroy
What do you mean welders do not make money?
Do you know what a good pipe line welder makes ratboy?
They can and do make doctors wages!!!!
Even in shops they make a killing welding pipe and in Canada the wages are going up all the time.
I didn't say they don't make money. In fact if you're willing to travel constantly all over North America and the world and work 60-72hrs/week you can make 100k a year (or get a job at Prudhoe Bay et al). If you can find a job making 45-50US you can make the same amount in a 40 hour workweek. Or...You can get your degree and with your welding experience work your way to being the person in charge of the other welders or the welding engineer or the third party welding inspector.
Myself, I took a pay cut to stay home and don't even top 50k/year anymore, but I love the 40hr work week, three-day weekends and a level of quality not found in industrial pipe welding (other than cryo).
I don't know what they make (base) in Canada, but the pipe welders I know in the US made their wages because of all the overtime they constantly worked.
Kalroy
Shops right now are paying guys $45 an hour for HPPW.
And there is no travel involved or overtime unless wanted. Alberta's oil industry is booming lol.
Pipliners- some get paid to do all root passes down the line and get over $100 per root pass. and can do more then one per hour downhand.
I was just trying to say that certified welders make money its not like people think we all make $16 an hour and have to do labour work!
As far as welders having bad lungs thats why they have respirators and air hoods, 3m makes them everyday.
By Kalroy
Date 12-12-2005 15:16
Sweet.
I'm in the wrong business. It's a lot lower in aerospace nowadays. Long gone are the cold war wages of $45US (in 80's dollars) but I love the work and it beats chemical demil anyday (though not in wages).
I'd still consul getting that degree though. It gives you far more upward mobility than not having it. I'm with you on the respirators and air hoods. The industry has come a long way in that regards and employers have come a long way in respecting employees health in that regard also.
Kalroy
