Want to say Thanks and a question??

Honestly what I have found is way the hell more cdl driving jobs then there is welding, with welding there are jobs but it's like you gotta know someone to get the good ones. I'm gonna try going Monday morning for a job that is 45 miles one way from where i live now and thats really about all there is. I have seen some way the hell south in louisiana but the pay is like 17 an hour and honestly it's crap I'm not gonna waste my money in gas plus wear and tear on my car to go for a crappy job like that.

I figured it would be nice to learn something else I can always go back to welding. I left my last job at about 21 an hour and I was driving far about 100 miles round trip a day. I know this makes no sense since i want to be a truck driver but at least I won't be paying for the dam gas and if I can make about the same as I did welding while not burning my eyes up then why the hell not.

The jobs are so far to travel for the pay and it just isn't worth it anymore so it's time to try something different.

I'm gonna look into swift because a friend told me they will train you for a cdl and gonna look into maybe getting a grant from the state as well if i can so that would help for school if the swift thing didn't work out.

Chris

 

i still say stick with welding more money, if you're out for an adventure look at over sea's welding jobs something like that. my friend was making 120 an hour welding in the gulf, i dont know if those jobs are there still but he made so much cash, would go out for i think 14 days come home for a week. 21 an hour you can make that driving a local truck but local jobs usually are much harder unless you get on with a grocery store chain and bump docks and dont do much manual labor. most of them however are pretty labor intensive.

 

First off, check HERE. That's a link to welding jobs listed on USAjobs.com. That means they're Fed jobs. Huge benefits, job security is good, pay is good, and if you're not tied down to where you're at, there seems to be a lot of things out there.

Next, you may want to check out KBR and Halliburton for an overseas job for a year. Somthing like the first 80k is tax free.

As far as the truck driving route and CDL training, if I had the chance to do it all over again, I'd go with a company that picks up the tab. Yes, I'd be obligated to them for a year or so but then again I wouldn't have a bill for the training.

I went to Roadmasters. It cost me $4500, I was done in three weeks, and got a job with May Trucking making .34/mile out the gate. They've since lowered student pay but I believe it's still better than most.

I talked to someone a year or so ago who at one point decided he wanted to work offshore on an oil rig and went down to, I think, Houma, LA and just basically went door to door down in the area where those business are ( I guess there's a whole section of them) and he got lots of contacts from talking to people there. Ended up working on the rigs out there and now (about 6 years later) makes about $120k. Not sure exactly what he does, but I'm sure with your years of welding experience that there's a job with your name all over it if you want one.

GL

 

Luzon thanks for the link and the couple of names, I'll check them out. I've got about 5 years now in welding. I'm going Monday to check out a job that came up in the paper but yeah looks like i need to make a decision here soon. There really isn't a lot of drilling out there since Obama put a ban on a lot of deep drilling

 

its all Obama fault

 

Don't forget about RIGZONE.
They have a LOT of welding jobs listed... all over the place.

www.rigzone.com

 

As Luzon mentioned.....look into KBR.

When i was in IRAQ...(have to stop and think what year it was when i talked to this welder/fabricator, i have been too many times over there)

A 1 yr contract....80k...tax free...think he said something about a paid plane ticket to anywhere in the world for 2wks?

A 5 yr contract........guess?





$1mil. Yes, and their were guys over there doing the 5yr contact! Got to know a couple of them really well(driving humvees downtown with roadside bombs going off will tear a up-armored humvee apart). SO we visited them alot!...and thank god for having the opp to see them over and over!!! Might be worth looking into...thought about getting out(of the military) myself and going over there, considering i have been there so many times i should have bought land there!!

 

.....2007/08 i think was the timeframe...

 

thanks for the advice guys but I'm gonna look more into the trucking thing there just isn't that much going on in welding, more and more of these people want to hire you in at like 16 an hour and i just can't stay with this trade much longer. Time to switch a while till things pick up. Just talked to a friend today who also thinks it's a great idea to get into driving who also agrees its beginning to be not worth it anymore for what they want to pay.

Thanks for the advice
Chris