good welding job
Learning
from all the old hands after being hired as a new, green hand at the oilfield/agriculture
repair and maintenance facility I started my career at.
bad welding job
Finding
out I was to be treated like crap and do every lousy job that no one else wanted
to do because I WAS the new, green hand. Nothing like being in that nice warm
shop on a day when it was 20 below wind chill factors outside and having the boss
tell me I needed to go power-wash the cow manure off a bull-dozer from a cattle
feed-yard so I could weld some cracks on it! That meant I got to fight a high
pressure water hose, and dodge cow dung as it shot back at me while getting soaking
wet in the biting wind. It was so cold I had to thaw my words with a cigarette
lighter just to hear myself gripe!
good welding job
Hiring
on at a "black iron plant" for more money and eventually becoming the
lead welder there. I ran FCAW (flux core arc welding) on beams, columns and other
fabricated parts for erection in the field.
bad welding job
At
that same plant I got pulled off my nice line job and put on the welding gang
that had to come in at 5AM. We welded overhead crane beams, five stories up, with
pigeon droppings ALL over the place. And I again needed that lighter because it
was below-zero weather most every day!
good welding job
Getting
hired on with the Iron Workers Union (International Association of Bridge, Structural,
Ornamental, and Reinforcing Iron Workers) at more than double the pay I was making
in the shop. Even better…catching the end of a shut-down (where the plant
is shut down and we worked seven ten or twelve hour days.) and bringing home a
thousand dollars as an apprentice
bad AND dangerous as heck welding job!
Too
dang many to mention! I'll say this though; the bad jobs make a better person
out of you, and make you REALLY appreciate the good ones! However, safety and
conditions in the shops and worksites have improved vastly in the last ten years
or so.
In
conclusion, there are good and bad jobs out there. One nice thing about the welding
trade is your ability to hit the road for a better job if you get stuck with a
bad one. Just remember not to burn any bridges; you never know when you might
need to cross back over them!
