Career in welding

[flynntr]

Hi,
I had done welding works in my home before but now I think to study it professionally and choose it as my career. I love this field but before moving on to it I need advices from experienced persons in this field.Is this a best choice for a good career. I’ve currently completed my graduation in business management but not satisfied to choose it as my career. What are challenges I need to face while selecting the welding career? What can be the working conditions? My friend asked me to visit this website(Welding Training Programs | Welding Courses | Weldtech Canada) of an institution providing the course. Before that I need a clarification regarding my doubts about this career so please share your opinions

[Frank S]

Choosing a career as a welder is a lot like choosing to be a Doctor there are as many diverse facets to welding as there are in a Medical PHD.
You might find that you like standing in a booth welding up prefit up weldements with a mig gun ot a tig torch or even stick . Or you may be more inclined to weld out much heavier items. You could find yourself in a Union shop where you are only allowed to weld on certain items on an assembly line.
All of the previously mentioned will most assuredly be finely monitored by some shop safety inspector and will provide the least dangerous and best protected environments. There is nothing wrong with these is that is your cup of tea.
Another scenario is you could wind up in a repair and rebuild facility where you are asked to do much of your own evaluations in how extensive the repairs will be You will not find yourself in these positions until you have gained years of diverse welding experiences with a knowledge base of many types of welding procedures, as well as being able to determine what type of filler and method of application will be the better choice.
On a somewhat lessor experience level you might find that you like working in a general fabrication shop where you will need to know how to follow a design assembly print sheet these may be either in 2d or in 3d As ancient as shop drawings sound in today's techno world they are still used and very important in the fabrication industry. Many shops and factories now use 3d drawings as their main layout process These can be confusing and easy to read at the same time alot depends on the person who made the prints.
As far as working conditions to be expected these run from the very tame and mundane as in a boot typ atmosphere to the very severe and adverse as in pipeline construction , offshore rig work underwater repairs conditions can be from extreme cold as in Arctic or severe hot as in working in a desert.
I've been in all of these from making a hot tie on a 3000 PSI natural gas line in -40° weather to having to make emergency repairs on Earth moving equipment in +125° or higher in the deserts of Kuwait and Iraq I have had to spend as long as 24 hours in a decompression chamber after spending a little too much time 120 ft below the surface welding on a drill rig
the pay can be great for an experienced hand ,or it can be little more than minimum wage for an entry level tacker.
I might make one suggestion though, should you decide that becoming a welder as a career choice will to be gain as much knowledge as you can about the trade through research and practice , try to find an older hand who is in need of an apprentice and work for him for at least 4 to 5 years before you even think about letting someone call you a welder. and have 10 years of experience before you call yourself a welder.

[flynntr]

Thank you for your advice Frank

[Frank S]

You may find that having a degree in business management will become more of an asset than you can now know, should you choose a career in the trades. Especially should one day you decide to strike out on your own as a rig welder or even maybe open up your own welding shop. Or quite possibly one day go to work for a company as a QAQC adviser.

[C-Bag]

Ditto what Frank said. It's hard to comment on somebody's passion, but you have to think long and hard which it sounds like what you are doing. There is stuff all of us love to do and some could do it as a job, some of us it would kill the love of it to do it day in day out. And like was mentioned the setting can be so varied as to be almost impossible to describe.

My last wage slave tour was with a manufacturer and I was in assembly. I did custom fab and welding, but that was not my main job. The welding shop was separate and was shared with the fab shop and paint. It was incredibly hot, dusty, and NOISY on that side. And both shops worked in uninsulated steel building that had swamp coolers that set on the top of the building in the direct sun. If it was over 100deg outside which it often was from May to the end of September, it was way hotter inside and muggy. Then during the winter it was bottled up and if it was 40degF outside it was maybe 45-50 right in front of the heater. And this was for on average $3 over min wage because there was no Union. I don't know where you are, but if you are listening to the hype of the trade schools, beware. Look in your local job listings. If like around here, they often won't tell you the wage just DOE.

[Tuomas]

I have worked 20 years in heavy metal industry.
I like the manufacturing part. Plate work / assembly etc.
We make parts for the paper machines, gas turbines and propulsion systems.

Paper machine parts are mostly acid proof steel, nice to work with, less dust and smaller welding joints.

Gas turbines and ship motor parts needs to be pre-heated to 100-250 degrees of celsius.
That makes it not so fun, sometimes. ☺
But most times i like it, we make multiple different and big parts, so it doesn't get boring.
If you study and become a professional, get a job from a shop what makes special parts.
Its possible to get well paid. And usually its more cleaner too.

[flynntr]

Thank you all for responding. Your experiences and advice are really helpful....

[Frank S]

Here is something else to think about.in the modern industrialized world that we live in there is not 1 single commercially produced item that you can posses or eat that somewhere down the line a welder was not involved in its existence.
A farmer might say that if you eat it they raised or grew it OK! so where did the equipment that allowed them to do this come from? Or you may hear a trucker say that if you have it it at one time was on a truck. OK! then where did the truck and trailer come from thye list goes on forever.
I'll tell you where Somewhere up the line going all the way back to the mines where raw materials are carved from the Earth a welder had a hand in causing the creations to become tangible products.

[Toolmaker51]

Welding is so vast, impossible to describe scope of importance or where it has greatest impact.
The certainties are inescapable, how far along would we be if everything had to be cast, or cut from solid? How many earth-moving machines would scrap out for lack of a bucket tooth. Ships are always a collection of components, any thoughts on how feasible or long lasting a wooden freighter might be? Oil rigs. Truck frames. Skyscrapers and bridges haven't so many rivets anymore. Cages for roto-molds. Pipelines. Patio furniture. BBQ's. Race cars. Wheelchairs. Convalescent equipment. Buses. Safes. Railcars. Ocean shipping containers. Engine stands. Jack stands. Plumber jacks.............Some less glorious than others, but each made successive modern ages possible.

Welding is a critical process to every honorable, productive industry, even if welding is not present in the eventual product.