Welding Career?

Anyone here on the board a professional welder?

My kiddo (23 now) is still in college and struggling a bit.  He seems to be a little more focused now that he's taking business classes instead of mechanical engineering.  Talking to a recruiting friend of mine earlier today, he recommended my son drop out of college and focus on a trade.  His argument is that the trades are basically recession proof and pay much better than people expect.  Especially if you can make a business out of it and get a few folks working for you.  He met a plumber recently (early 30's) who just sold his plumbing business to an investment company for $12 million.  This recruiter places IT engineers in Austin and said the trades are the way to go for anyone college age these days.

My son is currently the only welder for a custom shop and makes $20/hr.  The shop needed some extra help to get their cars to SEMA so the owner hired a welder off FB for $100.hr.  After his first day, he told my son he has no idea how my son can not only maintain the pace of the shop, but still lay down quality welds. 
Although he's been welding since high school, he's never gotten any certifications other than what he got in high school welding.  He welds everything and taught himself to TIG weld and can lay nickles like a pro.

I've talked to him about making a career out of it, but his biggest concern is eye troubles when he's my age.  Apparently(?) even with quality helmets, welding takes a toll on the eyes that after a career in it, most welders have serious eye issues.

So, any advice for those who have made a career out if it?  Is is a "safe" career to get into?  Is it better to work for a shop or try to strike out on his own?  Do welding certificates matter in the industry or do you just need to prove you can do it?  If he finds a different welding job, is he going to be the young grunt treated like a 2nd class citizens until he "proves" himself to the old guys?  Could he make more than $20/hr as an apprentice?
He doesn't own a welder, currently.  Should he save up to buy his own equipment?

-Rob

In reply to rob_lewis :

I'm not a professional welder nor have I ever been involved in the industry.

But I keep seeing shows about various builds- pipe lines, ships, buildings- that all use very specialized welders.  Maybe I'm seeing it wrong, but it sure seems like a great trade to know, especially one if you are good enough, you travel a lot.

Hope someone in the trade can confirm that impression.

Seems that if your son is so good to make that positive of impression on a fab shop, the apprentice time would not be long and he would move to the $100/hr scale reasonably quickly.

AWS D1.1-certified welder here. I use it for work but primarily these days focus on running the business(es). 

Welding can be a lucrative career but there are caveats. If your son wants a 9-5 with clean hands, welding won't be it. He may work up to CWI or weld engineer or something where there's less direct welding, but it's still a trade. Basic skills (flat MIG and similar) will not pay well because those are easy processes to learn.  The greater pay is in more specialized welding: sanitary TIG, pipeline (think 5G/6G SMAW), ironworking, etc.

Eye troubles? That's a new one. Wearing a quality hood will filter out all of the harmful wavelengths and intense lights. Obviously that's not counting foreign object debris: ALWAYS wear safety glasses. Seriously. (I have had eye surgery twice to remove FOD from fabrication-related processes.) 

Is it safe? It's as safe as any trade, really. It's going to be physically demanding and there are always the risks of burns, cuts, etc. Certs will be required if he wants to earn good money for a good employer. Yes, he'll have to "prove" himself; you can't just walk onto a shop floor acting like you're the big swinging dick until you have the chops to back up the attitude. Could he make more than $20 as an apprentice? Very possibly, depending on what he's doing and where he is (I usually start my guys at $25). 

The bigger money is running a shop of his own but that's going to be down the road a fair ways. 

As far as owning a welder: That empowers you to do SO MANY THINGS. Seriously. I started by buying a wire-fed welder and teaching myself to weld a bunch of years ago. Now I have probably 10 various welders at my home shop and as many more at the warehouse, and I own a business that employs people; I'm a licensed contractor and fabrication is one of the primary arms of the venture. This wouldn't be possible if I hadn't bought an inexpensive, used welder and had the wherewithal to practice myself. 

I've in sales but I've been involved with large facilities welding S/S metal hose assemblies the past 30 years. 

1. This is production welding x 40 hours + OT x inside a building outside of elements.  Many guys have back issues welding all day in a chair.  We always had prep and testing guys as we always believed welders only weld.  

2. We had a weld shop in Houston and we lost guys to the refineries - paid much better. Then they returned as the long hours and outside welding projects in July sucked compared to welding inside an air conditioned building. 

3. The production welders paid $25-$35/hour and they always told me they can make double welding some other stuff but they never left.  We had a welder that was on his air pods all day long talking to (???).

4. A few guys moved up to leadership positions and did pretty good with overtime.  

5. We had prep guys we offered to teach them welding - their time, after work and you can use up all the materials you want - Burn up $300 in rod? We don't care.  Funny thing is a lot of guys had a softball game and had no interest.

6. Most of our good welders had equipment at home for side work.
 

There are lots of welders out there, but most cannot layout and fab to a high standard. What is your sons temperament? If he leans smart and creative, I think that welding would be a drag over time. But if he can combine welding with fabrication, it can be a pretty interesting field. Personally, I couldn't stand to lay beads for more than a couple of hours a day. 

You say 23 years old, how much college does he have left?

Weldor here- only recently learned TIG. It is fair to say my skills are at the lower end of the spectrum.

You gotta get the high end (TIG, Aerospace, etc.) jobs to last. I'll share some of my experience over a 20 year career.

Eye trouble is real-more from metal in the eye than the light, both are absolute risks. Good hoods, and always wearing glasses and a cutting shield or maybe even goggles can mitigate the risk.

Back trouble-yep, moving I beams is not easy. Get a good, clean Tig job welding indoors in the AC, and it's a different story. Those high end jobs are usually much lighter than a 40' truss, or whatever. Same thing with knees. Lots of kneeling, climbing, squatting, and lifting when you are swinging big Iron.

Hands-grinders ensure f'd up hands. Double carpal tunnel release surgery veteran here. Holding a MIG trigger for hours is also no joke.

Lungs-maybe the biggest thing here. Grinder dust, paint fumes Dual shield fumes. Unless you are in the high end jobs mentioned, your lungs take a beating. Special note-Galvanized. It makes you sick, and it is amazing how little some employers care that you are breathing poison.

Long hours-my experience, like most trades was that nobody wanted a straight 40 out of you. This was great at the beginning, but now, at 53, less so. 60 hours a week of welding is too much, in my opinion.

All this sounds like I'm discouraging the young man. I'm not. Welding can be a great career, but it has its caveats like anything. I found it incredibly satisfying to fabricate. The geometry, problem solving, challenge to improve, as well as expansion of abilities I craved all were a form of self actualization for me. I can't stress enough, that to last, those high end jobs I'm talking about are the way. A lot of the time, someone else does your fit-up, so no grinding dust. TIG is clean, quiet, and you are usually on a stool, not out in the field, or contorted on a concrete floor. Seldomly does the TIG guy have to paint. He just TIGs. Get certs, treat it like a professional job (it is). Build a resume. Become the best, and people will pay you well to use those skills.

Just like any industry, the real money to be made is from running your own business. It will also keep your body in better shape, but perhaps not your sanity!

Sounds like your son is enjoying the business classes. Maybe he should take a few more classes, get his certs and apprentice somewhere while thinking about and saving for what kind of business in the welding field he should start.

Datsun240ZGuy said:

I've in sales but I've been involved with large facilities welding S/S metal hose assemblies the past 30 years.

3. The production welders paid $25-$35/hour and they always told me they can make double welding some other stuff but they never left.  We had a welder that was on his air pods all day long talking to (???).

4. A few guys moved up to leadership positions and did pretty good with overtime.  

5. We had prep guys we offered to teach them welding - their time, after work and you can use up all the materials you want - Burn up $300 in rod? We don't care.  Funny thing is a lot of guys had a softball game and had no interest.

6. Most of our good welders had equipment at home for side work.

I work for a heavy equipment manufacturer, expensive specialty equipment.  From what I see there, I agree with everything above.

When I think about a welding career, my first thought is not welding heavy frames like we do at work, but what can I do, and where can I go with this? There are many opportunities for advancement in career and skills. We have about 200 welders in our plant, most of them doing very low production mig work. They might build a frame, or a frame section, in a day. We have one guy who only builds racks for the parts to be hung on awaiting production. A few guys that only build jigs, a handful of guys who only work on small precision assemblies, and a few dozen who only operate the robots, which is pretty decent work. There's more, but you get the point. There is no heavy lifting, every bay has at least one crane, and the company provides top notch equipment to make the welder's job easier and more manageable. Nobody is beating themselves up on the job here.

You can always specialize, find work building custom equipment, or even race cars, but there's probably more money in industry. I have a good friend who was the lead fabricator for a high end race car manufacturer that everybody here would know. He loved the job, but left to be a firefighter. They asked him to come back part time so he said he'd do it for $50/hr - a reasonable number, and they turned him down. I think he maxed out at about $35 when he was full time, about where our welders do.

There can be good money in the trades, but welding is one of the lower paid ones. Millwrights and electricians make at least 25% more than welders, though few of the above welders would be licensed, and most would have little to no formal training. Welders are near impossible to get right now, and we'll hire kids right out of high school if they can pass a simple weld test and we'll train them. They start about $23-$24/hr.

Two of my nephews went to the Modern Welding School, One dropped out, the other works in the field and makes a good living. 

My friend's son went to the school and got a job welding together dumpsters.  After a month there his helmet and gear looked like he had been through a war!  He could lay a good bead though.  From someone he met at school he got an offer to work for a race track driving school in Phoenix, and a few years later got picked up by a NASCAR team.  He's quite comfy now in Charlotte.

The country is lacking blue collar talent.

USAJOBS.Gov

Have him go to a Shipyard.

DM me if you want to talk about it.