Re: tell us about your job
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What do you do? pipefitter/steamfitter/welder
Do you like it? Absolutely love my job.
What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? good at visualizing things three-dimensionally. Good working with my hands. Meticulous but not to the point that it impedes my efficency.
What kind of people do best in your work? People who try their best and take pride in their work. I can train any indivdual to do what I do as long as he or she is willing to put forth an effort.
What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Highschool diploma. You take an apprenticeship test to qualify. The apprenticeship consists of 8000 hours of actual work under the guidance of at least one journeyman at all times plus schooling the equivalent of an associates degree. The classes are real easy and 95% of what you learn you never use on the job. But they pay you your hourly wage for every hour you sit in class so that's not a bad deal. Completing the apprenticeship was one of the easiest things I ever did.
What is a typical day like?
7:30 - Get to the shop. Drink coffee, b.s., and read the paper.
8:00 - go on the job
11:00 - go to lunch, which contractually is twenty minutes, but we're pretty good at stretching it to an hour and a half (you know us damn union slugs).
12:30 - back on the job
3:00 - back to the shop
3:30 - on my way home
Actual hands on work for a day averages around 4.5 hours
What kind of problems do you encounter? Typical of a construction type job; someone measured wrong, poor workmanship, something doesn't fit the way it should, etc. Nothing that can't be easily remedied .
What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? They don't pay me enough to get frustrated. I leave that for the guys above me.
As for elation, that's too extreme but I do get a real sense of satisfaction from building something with my own two hands and knowing I did a damn good job.
How much can one expect to make in your position? I make 28.50 an hour.
Without hitting a lick of overtime that works out to around 60k a year.
The most I've made as a journeyman pipefitter is 98k in a year, the least was 74k. I work with guys who have made upwards of 150k in a year with all the O.T. they've worked.
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