Suggestions for a HS Graduate Going into Welding School

Where does underwater welding fall in the overall picture?  I'm reading this thread because I have a young friend in a similar position, but he's certified for SCUBA, and is interested in underwater welding. 

I work for a major heavy equipment manufacturer, in the plant that builds  the frames and large sub-assemblies. It's production work but, in this environment, production is 1-4 parts per day. Nobody is rushed, nobody works too hard, nor is there any heavy lifting involved. I wouldn't want to do it, but if you like welding it's not bad work, and the number of guys in their 60's and 70's is really surprising. 
Welders are so much in demand that, even if you have no experience, if you can lay down a decent pass they'll hire and train you. 

SV reX said:

Where does underwater welding fall in the overall picture?  I'm reading this thread because I have a young friend in a similar position, but he's certified for SCUBA, and is interested in underwater welding. 

When I first got into welding, this was my dream. The high pay, and extended time off sounded great.

More research painted a grimmer picture. The stats I found in the early oughts looked like this: Of all underwater welders, 25% were fully functional people, 50% paralyzed, 25% dead. I'm not sure how accurate those stats are, nor at what point in an underwater welder's career they might be taken, but it was enough to scare me away, and I'm not particularly adverse to risk. The clincher was that most accidents were the fault of the crew, and not the weldor-YRMV.

I'm not trying to make this thread about something it isn't, but it surprises me to no end that more women haven't chosen welding as a career path.  They're a natural fit.  In general they tend to perform tasks like that even better than men.  It's like a hiring manager at a large open-pit mine told me about the haul truck drivers.  He'd hire any woman that applied because they're much more trainable and less ham-fisted.  This is important when your truck can weigh nearly a million pounds loaded.

In reply to A 401 CJ :

Funny you should say that... I remembered after I posted that a month ago our plant hosted a Women in the trades day that attracted a lot of people to tour the facility, see what it's all about, try out welding, painting and even some assembly. We got a lot of interest and by the end a lot of applications. There are a lot women welding in our plant and they're not big burly gals, either. 

Again, thanks for all the info and discussions, all is helpful.

Regarding the lack of women in the field, I suspect that is mostly because there are not a lot of women in the field.  Sounds stupid I know, but being the only women in a shop of men,  is not going to be appealing to many.  As noted though, no reason why they shouldn't realistically.

More useful answers from SpaceX folks: 

- If considering auto-related stuff, find a place that does race car tube chassis fab (they specifically mentioned Brenthel and Kibbetech),

- the more welding certs the better,

- per Wheelsmithy's comment, "underwater welding is super sketchy.  There's a reason they get paid that well."

- https://waterwelders.com/best-welding-schools/

- https://www.elcamino.edu/academics/divisions/industry-and-technology/welding/index.aspx

On the El Camino one, "SpaceX recruits from El Camino heavily"

I have a good friend who works for a proper high end race shop many of you would know, doing everything from tig welding cages to mig welding brackets and whatever else needs to be installed. He's very good at what he does, and makes $50/hr. The above jobs in our plant only top out in the mid 30's. But if you don't mind working overtime, it's unlimited, and a lot of those guys are making coin. 

In reply to Peabody :

I'm sure the benefits are better at the plant gig too. As somebody that works at one of the best fab / custom shops in the country... industry wide usually its piss poor benefits and garbage insurance. Nature of the beast, as small companies can't compete with big corporations as far as retirement and 401k matching, insurance plans, etc are concerned. 

In reply to NorseDave :

OK, great info, thanks.

Quick search shows Welding / Fabrication at these colleges

AVAILABLE CAMPUSES
Cerritos College
Compton College
El Camino College
Glendale Community College
Long Beach City College
Los Angeles Pierce College
Los Angeles Trade Tech College
Mount San Antonio College
Pasadena City College
Rio Hondo College

EDIT , there is also SoCal ROC  in Torrance , it was called SCROC when I went there , I took the welding class and machine shop , 

I just want to throw this out there.  I am a plumber but I do a ton of welding.  Cage fab, restoring cars etc.  The money you can make now as a plumber or electrician is stupid money.  The work is certainly easier than welding and pays two to three times as much.  There is a high demand for plumbers and electricians.  Its a job you can literally take anywhere in the country.  Walk into any larger plumbing business and ask for a job.  Serve the apprenticeship while getting paid.  Get your license and go out on your own.  Work when you want, as much as you want, where you want, and charge ridiculous prices.  People will still be glad to see you every time you walk thru the door.  This is coming from somebody that went to engineering school, wracked up debt, and decided sitting behind a desk wasn't for me.

Just wanted to post a thanks again for the replies.  And to tr8todd, yes, I think it is a great idea to push those also.  I suspect given the options in welding, plumbing and electricians I hope he will find interest / motivation in one of those, because they do seem like very viable options.

I will be seeing and talking to him tomorrow, at his graduation, and I will certainly pass on the advise and notes I got here!

tr8todd said:

I just want to throw this out there.  I am a plumber but I do a ton of welding.  Cage fab, restoring cars etc.  The money you can make now as a plumber or electrician is stupid money.  The work is certainly easier than welding and pays two to three times as much.  There is a high demand for plumbers and electricians.  Its a job you can literally take anywhere in the country.  Walk into any larger plumbing business and ask for a job.  Serve the apprenticeship while getting paid.  Get your license and go out on your own.  Work when you want, as much as you want, where you want, and charge ridiculous prices.  People will still be glad to see you every time you walk thru the door.  This is coming from somebody that went to engineering school, wracked up debt, and decided sitting behind a desk wasn't for me.

It was already happening, but Covid made it clear - if your job allows you to work from home, then someone else can do that job from anywhere in the world, and likely will do it for a lot less than someone in the US.  But if your sewer line is plugged, ain't nobody in Bangladesh going to help you! 

(nothing against Bangladesh - insert any country!)

In reply to NorseDave :

In addition, LOTS of howling about how AI is going to take over jobs.  There is almost no danger of that in these fields (except maybe some welding automation, but that has been going on for a while now).

BTW, the AI, as it is presented now (e.g. ChatGPT) does not scream "AI" to me, just a database search with a good natural language processor attached.  It's still looks to potentially replace some jobs though (if property setup, as in, not ChatGPT as it is)

Technology is absolutely taking a bite out of the welding work demand.  Once upon a time as a manufacturing engineer, part of my job was designing and building workcenters that could produce more parts with less people.  We had stations where everything was automated except for stocking raw material and hauling off finished products.  These workcenters put out what 4-5 skilled welders could do by hand in the same amount of time.  That 4-5 guys was reduced to 1 or 2, and the new job required way less skill and paid less.  It's an unfortunate reality.

Honestly, if a guy is driven to be the best, he probably won't enjoy a "production" shop.  If I was in LA and wanted to weld for a living, I'd be looking for something in aerospace, custom bicycles, or desert racing.  I'm sure there are plenty of other good options, but those are the most interesting to me.  Custom work is almost always in demand, and if you're among the best, you won't run out of work.  If you're mid-pack or worse, good luck.

In reply to bigeyedfish :

There's a discussion to be had about that overall subject in a different thread.  I was wondering if you had a small group of four or five specialists (fabricator, CAD/CAM programmer, engineer, composite specialist, $ guy, etc.) whether you could succeed with taking on various dissimilar projects for customers desiring one-off or specialty work.

In reply to stroker :

Is that question for me, or a general question for the hive?  I don't have a data-driven take on whether or not it's realistic to succeed that way, but my hunch is that it would be extremely difficult.  It would be tough to build a backlog.  Word of mouth marketing wouldn't do much for you because you would never get a bunch of people praising you in the same circles.  You would never be able to spend big money on specialized machines without the confidence that you'll keep them busy.  Your highly skilled people can go start their own shop with a fairly low barrier to entry.

TV shows (the custom chopper shows, and some of the hot rod reality tv shows) used to make this seem like a normal-ish arrangement, but they were selling a shtick, not a product.

In reply to bigeyedfish :

Sorry if I wasn't clear--I had no intent to chide or criticize, simply trying to indicate I thought your point was worthy of further discussion in a different thread so as to not clutter this one.   

Apologies for any confusion.

We're still having trouble finding welders so the company I work for has now started an international welder recruitment program. Employees are being asked if they have any friends or family that weld and are interested in becoming a permanent resident of Canada.  If they qualify, the company will then give them a job and assist them in coming here

Peabody said:

We're still having trouble finding welders so the company I work for has now started an international welder recruitment program. Employees are being asked if they have any friends or family that weld and are interested in becoming a permanent resident of Canada.  If they qualify, the company will then give them a job and assist them in coming here

Wait, I could legally live & work in Canada via welding???