Welding Jobs Part II
In the first article, Welding Jobs, I talked about
welding
jobs. Okay, I know, that's a pitiful attempt at humor but I have
no shame. Now I'm going to throw out some random advice about welding
jobs for the greenhorn, the newbie, rookie, apprentice, or whatever
they call new guys (or gals) where you're from.
Rough, mean, sarcastic and lousy is pretty much how you're gonna'
get treated by a lot of people until you earn their respect. When
I went to my first welding job as an apprentice in the Iron Worker's
Union, I had been in the Army, welded in oilfield maintenance and
re-building shop, and welded in a black-iron fabrication plant.
Three years being on welding jobs in shops and I thought I was pretty
cool.
I'd been out to a couple of welding jobs that were in the field,
but only to make some minor repairs on steel fabricated wrong at
our plant. As an apprentice on my first welding job as an Iron Worker
in a HUGE fibre glass plant, I was lost! I was walking around like
a country boy's first trip to New York City. My first real welding
job in the field and I'm walking around wide-eyed, looking up at
the massive beams and girders with my mouth hanging open like a
fly-trap.
I was the only apprentice on that whole welding job. A couple of
guys needed some help and one of them sez "Hey punk, lend us
a hand."
" PUNK???!!! Them's fightin' words!!! Well,
fightin' word anyway, you call someone a punk in the service and
you better duck. I was gettin' ready to introduce that guy to a
knuckle sandwich.
Thank goodness a journeyman grabbed me and told me to knock it
off and schooled me on what was going on! You fight on a welding
job and you get fired. "Punk" is a term used for apprentices
in the Iron Workers Union. It is not meant disrespectfully, it is
derived from "Punkin'." As in "we've got to go punk
that steel." In other words, carrying, moving, dragging steel
that is almost ALWAYS heavy. And there is a lot of punkin' to do
on every welding job in the field.
So who gets to do all this hard, sometimes dirty and greasy, heavy,
sometimes awkward and scary work on the welding jobs? (Walking on
small beams up in the air with heavy weight on your shoulder is
awkward and SCARY! You're worrying about you falling. You're worrying
about making your partner fall. And you're worrying about dropping
the load on someone below.)
Not to be left out, there is plenty of hard, crummy work to be
done for the newbie at the shop welding jobs out there also. But
that's alright because it's how you get familiar with whatever welding
job you start out at and it's payin' your dues. You're showing that
you're there to work, and besides, someday someone will be doing
it for you.
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