re: Im an EBR teacher thinking about being a welder. Tell me about being a welder in Louisiana

I have Bachelor’s in History and a Master’s in Education. I spent ten years in the classroom, taught AP and Dual Enrollment, served as department head and content leader, taught summer school, and worked in administration. The most I ever made was $57,000z I left and went into operations for an oil and gas company. I was making six figures within two years. It was the absolute best decision I ever made. If I were you, I’d go to trade school for instrumentation, electrical, or process technology. If I could do it all over again, I would have skipped college and went straight to instrumentation school.

I've worked Industrial construction for 32 years. Welders have it pretty good on construction sites and always make top money (respective to the area working).
Physically, it's not to demanding, but your still outside dealing with the elements.
Depends on how good of a welder one is(as with most crafts).
You could work maintenance,welding/fab shop, shutdowns, pipeline, or chase projects.
If your good, show up to work, have good attitude, you'll stay busy.
Now days, be ready to spend time in hours of orientations, safety classes, etc. This project I'm working on, took me 5 days to hire in, get cleared for background check, drug test(hair follicle),safety council, and company orientation.
Also, on large projects usually have to park and ride bus to work site.

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Anybody can make two pieces of flat bar on a bench, stick together. A good welder can make a leak proof weld, while laying on his back, under a flange, that’s 12” off the ground.

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"everybody wants to be a welder, until it's time to do welder isht"

You'll definitely make more money, depending on certifications, and I had a teacher that worked maintenence during the summer. Maybe you should try that to test compatibility.

If you can't weld pipe, don't bother wasting your time.

Do welding as a last resort (felonies etc). Do HVAC or Plumbing if you are a smaller slender guy. Truck driving if you don't mind being away for extended periods. Electrician apprenticeship is 5 years but paid starting at $18/hr last I heard.

I’m guessing you have a degree, so why don’t you enter a PTEC program at one of the local community colleges, finish it and you will be set !

You have to be able to pass two things to get a good job as a welder --- the welding test and the piss test. If you can't pass one or the other you won't make much. If you can pass both there are plenty of opportunities, especially after you have a few years experience.

Man, there are a lot of other things you could get started in the industrial field. There’s some $ to be made welding working double time outages/ turnarounds but that shite gets old after a while. Over the years I’ve seen welders who bust their balls in a shop and guys in the field who may only make 1 weld in an entire week.

You obviously have a degree. I would look to get into procurement/ supply chain and learn the industry. There are some engineering firms that are paying anywhere from $35- $65 an hour for Material Controls/ Material Coordinator. Then possibly move up or get into Planning and Scheduling. You could actually enroll in a trade school at night and take your courses to get NCCER certified now. We are in bad need of Planners and schedulers right now and almost every plant in our area are looking to hire.

Go work as a boilermaker this summer and begin trade school immediately. I can tell you now some of these companies aren’t even looking at how much experience a person has in the field. Many just want someone who’s educated and willing to learn.

A good bit of the time you’ll see jobs posted that say planner/ scheduler which in my experience the last several years they’ve really separated those roles, especially project or turnarounds. I worked on my tools for maybe 5 months when I was 19 then was asked if I’d be interested in expediting and working in the supply chain side of it. I enjoyed procurement and did it a couple years until I got into Planning & Scheduling.

Planning and scheduling at the same time can be stressful unless you’re just doing everyday maintenance. I went into projects and turnarounds where the money is better. More $ to be made as a scheduler but companies are struggling to find good ones. They just want someone they can mold. 2 years ago I took a guy that was similar to your situation and we trained him up and he’s one of the better schedulers I’ve seen. A degree doesn’t matter but will get your foot in the door easier and they really don’t care what your degree is in. The best scheduler I’ve ever seen/ worked with is a guy who’s only education was his GED. He’s in his early 40s now and is the Global Project manager for a huge company. Dude worked his arse off to get where he is. It can be done and never too late. I’ve been in project management a few years now and wouldn’t change much except getting my degree. I would’ve gotten where I am now sooner.

Seriously look into planning. It’s an easy job 90% of the time as long as you don’t have a tendency to procrastinate and you can make a great living. I had no desire to become a PM until an opportunity presented itself and I took it. The only reason I make little more now then from when I was last a scheduler is my bonuses are a little bigger.

Sorry for the novel I wrote above but I’ve seen young and older professionals struggling with all the Covid fallout and think things can’t/ won’t get better but it will. Covid did a number on our industry in early 2020 but all these companies cannot make enough product quick enough. Especially on the chem manufacturing. Poly and vinyl units world wide are running 100% to meet demand and are struggling to do it. We need the workforce. The opportunities are there. Expansions that were deferred in 2020 are now beginning to start construction or into detail & design.

Yes eyesight becomes an issue. But like others have mentioned, he’s got a degree, he can slide into office job. We’re paying Primavera guys very well if you’re okay with sitting in front of computer 10-12 hrs a day. Plenty of opportunities for people with common sense and ability to understand how things go together. This shite isn’t rocket science, otherwise we’d all be screwed.