If you ask us, welding is pretty misunderstood.

Perhaps more so than any other profession in the skilled trades and manufacturing, people think of welding, and they think of nothing more than just a “job”–a 9-5 with little potential for growth.

As with the rest of manufacturing, while that may have been the case a few decades ago, it couldn’t be further from the truth today. Welding today is a career–not just a job. And here’s why:

• There’s lots of potential for growth. Even if you start in an entry-level position, a career in welding offers you a lot of opportunities for growth as time goes on. The more types of welding you can master, the more you can earn, so don’t write off welding as a stagnant field.
• Welding isn’t just for people who want to weld. As we hinted at in our first point, a career in welding isn’t just for people who want to weld. Like sales? Consider a career as a . Love STEM, and specifically, engineering? Don’t rule out . There’s an incredible amount of career diversity in the welding world, and there are opportunities all over–even if you want to do more than just weld.
• Welding pays well. As we’ve said before, even though your first job in welding may not make you rich, after you gain a bit of experience, . Making $100,000 isn’t out of the question if you’re great at what you do, and even median wages for welders hover around $45,000 a year–without the burden of much student debt.
• Welding gets you hands-on where other jobs don’t. Ultimately, one of our favorite things about welding (and about careers in manufacturing in general) is that it gets you hands-on. You won’t be sitting behind a desk–you’ll be out on the shop floor making things, and doing substantive work. It’s hard to put a value on that, but it is certainly a benefit if you’re looking for an exciting career.

As you can see from what we’re saying here, welding has depth–much more than people might think. So don’t write it off just because it doesn’t sound like something you’d be interested in. There are a lot of great welding careers out there, and we bet that the versatility of the field will surprise you.

Want to learn more about welding? Check out , an absolutely incredible resource for those interested in learning more about the trade. Their website is full of information about different career options in welding, salary info, profiles of welders, and even fun facts about welding. It’s definitely worth a look.

And of course, if you’re actually looking to kickstart your welding education, all of the community colleges in Nebraska offer welding courses. With a little bit of education, some reading online, and a desire to go out there and get involved, you can be on your way to a great career in no time. Why not give it a shot?

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