Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Welding jobs?

My SIL is a welder. A really good one and a conservative, country boy. His employer loves him but is requiring a lot more extended travel than he or my daughter and 3 kids can deal with. So he is looking for another job and they are willing to move for a great opportunity.

I'd like to see them stay west of the Mississippi (I know it isn't my call).

Any ideas?

Good luck to him. That’s the reason I never did want to work power plant outages. Some guys live for that stuff, but most of them are single.

Maybe get on with a mechanical contractor, weld AC pipe, be a pipefitter.

What part of the country do they like?

Petersen here locally builds all kinds of neat (BIG) stuff for the oil, nuclear and processing industries.

https://www.peterseninc.com/

Shipyard.

https://www.trusteddocks.com/shipyards/7127-nassco-san-diego

Big agriculture well drillers use more welders than you would imagine, they used to hire me, a heavy equipment mechanic with a shop truck, paying full hourly rate.
Many of them are full service, drill the hole to set the pump, to cut fit and weld the discharge manifold piping. He could ask around.

The weld inspector has a much better job than the welder. Ask me how I know.

Google "NDE Inspection".

First off
What kind of welder is he.
Structural , Pipe , Bridge , Boiler?

There are a lot of different areas that a welder have experience in.
Or lack of.

If he chooses an area that does not fit his Experience it may hurt him financially.

I'd think a pipefitter in a large town (localish travel) would do well. The average welder cmakes like 47k in WI so don't come here.

Try to get into a gas utility for welding, the company I work for here averages over 100 grand a year.

My buddy is a welder/fabricator and I know around here they can’t find any welders. He’d have no trouble around here finding work. If that’s something they’d consider send me a PM and I can try to get you guys in touch with one another.

Thanks all! Some great stuff that will pass along and I'll find out specifically what kind welding he does. I know he did some overhead stainless steal welding on a .gov contract he couldn't tell me much about. He mostly does big stuff.

Currently in living in Colorado Springs.

Please keep them coming.

Thanks
SH

Any chance that a move more towards the hub or center of the current company's sphere of work would help? If not, has he considered other fields of work, he could get into either the Ironworkers or Millwrights apprentice programs and with his experience start more towards the end with decent pay. Personally, while I like welding, I wouldn't want to do it 24/7 forever...



Phil

A young guy I know started out as a rig welder when he was 18, he grew up welding and said he would be a millionaire by the time he was thirty. well he's thirty now has a welding service and now has 4 rigs and 3 guys working for him. Pretty sure he's worth at least that million now.

Around here there’s plenty of work for a welder. BUT.

You can rig up a truck and charge $75 an hour and chase rigs or pipelines in the oilfield, IE travel all the time. OR you can go to work for one of the many fab shops catering to the oilfield or one of the trailer manufacturers and work close to home everyday and make $14-17 an hour.

I have a cousin who’s a bang up fitter and TIG hand. He does piece work for several pipe shops and will work an occasional shutdown at a power or water treatment plant. He makes a very good living and sleeps at home every night but his situation is the exception I’d say. He also happens to live 30 miles from a city with a large amount of shops that specialize in oilfield equipment manufacturing.

It’s a tough trade that a talented guy can make a fortune in. But it’s often very hard to be successful at and be successful at having a family.

Always REALLY liked this...

Yeah, George Jr said sleep was over rated.

We are always looking for welders, 95% mig and some tig. I think pay tops out around $24-28/hr depending on code. In a building with air and heat. Cost of living is low and the area is very conservative.

Steady work and paycheck every Friday.

Stainless is a Specialty and if he is Certified in it and welding on Gooberment projects. I would assume that he is.
He could look at food Processing Contractors.
Some Pay real well if he can find the right one.

If he is highly skilled, like you mentioned, there will be opportunities. He has probably already done this, but checking in with his welding buddies and former co-workers is the great way to cut to the chase for finding good jobs. Especially if he can pass the qualification tests. Like all trades, welding is about having connections in the industry when finding the best jobs. I don't think I've ever found a welding job that wasn't from inside knowledge.

Inspection, mid-management, sales, education are all places he can make decent living and not be away from home all the time.

I have a couple buddies in welding sales, that were full-time welders, but now work for the local chain welding suppliers and they do just fine. They get a vehicle, fuel, and get to set up and sell welding machines and all the consumables that go with the trade. The guys that have actually done welding always understand the products and issues their customers face better than somebody that can't walk the walk. All the above jobs are great for the aging welder. Still can be involved with the industry, but not rolling in the ditch or climbing scaffolding at someplace far from home.