Welder
You join pieces of metal together using heat — for pipelines, bridges, ships, buildings, manufacturing, or repair shops. The work is hands-on, precise, and often loud, hot, and dirty.
What Tuesday looks like
You clock in at 6am at a fabrication shop. Safety meeting is five minutes about a guy who burned his arm last week. You suit up — leathers, hood, gloves — and pick up where you left off welding a steel handrail assembly. You run beads for two hours straight, stopping only to chip slag and reposition. Your neck aches from the hood. At break you eat a granola bar and check your phone. Next job is harder: a structural beam with a tricky overhead weld that keeps wanting to sag. You redo a section twice before the QC inspector signs off. Afternoon you're grinding welds smooth, which is mind-numbing but pays the same. Your shirt is soaked, there's a small burn on your forearm from a spark that found a gap in your sleeve, and your eyes are tired from arc flash even through the lens. You leave at 4:30 smelling like metal. The handrail you finished looks clean — that part feels good.
Career profile
Career shape
Tap or hover each point to explore a dimension
In the landscape
Tap or hover any dot to identify a career
Salary range
$39K
Entry
$49K
Median
$62K
Senior
$33K floor
$75K ceiling
10-yr growth
+2%
Reward profile
3 quick questions to see how this career fits the way you work.
What school costs — and when it pays off
Certificate program · A short training program — usually done in under a year.
The chart shows your annual salary over time alongside the annual loan repayment. The shaded band at the bottom is what goes to the loan each year — when it disappears, your full salary is yours.
School cost fully covered by year 7, with strong earnings well beyond that.
Entry-level salary
$39K
25th percentile — what most people start at
Experienced salary
$62K
75th percentile — after ~10 years in the field
School & training cost
$8K
+ $3K interest over 10 yrs
Loan paid off
Year 11
$91/mo for 10 years
First year of work
After loan's paid (yr 11)
Salary range reflects 25th–75th percentile nationally, growing from entry-level to experienced over 10 working years. School costs are national averages — yours will vary. Loan assumes you borrow the full amount at 6.54% interest, repaid over 10 years. Monthly figures are pre-tax.
The first years
Trade School / Year 1
You're at a community college or trade school for 6-18 months earning a welding certificate, paying maybe $5-15K in tuition. Days are split between classroom stuff (blueprint reading, metallurgy basics, safety) and hours in a booth practicing the same beads over and over on scrap steel. Your welds look ugly for months before they start looking decent. You'll take an AWS certification test on at least one process (usually MIG or stick) — passing it is what actually gets you hired.
Entry-Level Welder (Year 1–2)
You're hired at a fab shop or small contractor making $17-22/hour. You're doing production welding — handrails, brackets, trailers, whatever the shop cranks out. A lot of the work is grunt stuff: grinding, prepping joints, moving steel, tacking parts together for the senior guys. You're learning how a real shop moves and getting faster, but your back hurts, you're getting small burns regularly, and the pay isn't great yet. Overtime is usually available if you want it.
Choosing Your Lane (Year 3)
You've got two or three years of clean welds behind you and people are starting to trust your work. Now you have to pick a direction, because the money and lifestyle look very different depending on which way you go. Staying in shop fabrication is steady, local, and predictable at around $25/hour. Going into pipe welding, structural, or pressure vessel work means more certifications, harder tests, and often travel — but pipeliners and rig welders can clear $80-120K when work is good.
Decision point
Stay in shop fabrication for stable hours and a predictable paycheck, or chase higher-paying specialty work (pipeline, structural, underwater, rig welding) that pays more but means travel, layoffs between jobs, and brutal tests like the 6G pipe certification.
Certified Welder (Year 4–7)
You've got multiple process certifications and you're making $28-40/hour depending on what you specialized in and where you live. If you went the pipeline or structural route, you might be traveling job-to-job, living in motels or a camper, working 60-hour weeks when there's work and sitting unemployed between gigs. If you stayed in the shop, you're probably leading a small crew or running the harder jobs nobody else wants. Your body is starting to feel it — shoulders, knees, eyes — and you're thinking about whether you want to be doing this at 50, or move toward inspection, supervision, or starting your own welding/repair business.
The path in
Welding Technology · Welding and Joining Technology
Most welders enter the trade through a certificate or diploma program at a community college or trade school, then earn AWS (American Welding Society) certifications for specific processes like MIG, TIG, or stick welding. Employers often care more about your certifications and hands-on test results than where you studied.
Ironworker Apprenticeship · Pipefitter/Welder Apprenticeship · Boilermaker Apprenticeship
Unions like the Ironworkers, Pipefitters, and Boilermakers run paid apprenticeships that combine on-the-job training with classroom instruction. Competitive to get into, but you graduate debt-free with strong wages, benefits, and a clear path to journeyman status.
Welding Technology · Welding Engineering Technology
An AAS adds blueprint reading, metallurgy, and inspection coursework on top of hands-on welding — useful if you want to move into welding inspection (CWI), supervision, or specialty work like underwater or aerospace welding down the line.
Known for this field
One of the largest and best-known welding-focused trade schools in the US, with campuses in multiple states and a 7-month accelerated program.
Run by Lincoln Electric, a major welding equipment manufacturer. Strong industry reputation and short, intensive programs taught by experienced instructors.
A nationally respected welding-only school offering 9-month structural and combination welding programs with high job placement rates.
Offers both certificates and bachelor's degrees in welding — useful if you want to move into engineering, inspection, or management roles.
One of the few four-year welding engineering programs in the country. Strong pipeline into automotive, manufacturing, and energy industries.
Paid 3–4 year apprenticeship through local union chapters. Strong path into structural and reinforcing welding with full benefits.
Affordable certificates and AAS degrees in a city with massive demand for pipeline, refinery, and shipyard welders.
Well-regarded regional program with strong ties to manufacturing and industrial employers in the Southeast.
Related paths
Pipefitter
Many welders move into pipefitting because joining pipes is a natural extension of their existing welding skills and usually pays more.
Sheet Metal Worker
Both work with metal fabrication and use overlapping tools, though welders focus on joining while sheet metal workers shape and install.
Structural Ironworker
Welders with strong skills often move into ironworking, where they join steel beams for buildings and bridges. The pay can be higher but the work is more physical and weather-exposed.
Aerospace Engineer
Both work on aircraft and spacecraft components, but one builds them hands-on with a certificate while the other designs them with a bachelor's degree.