Lis. I kind of think its a shame someone didnt grab you by the short hairs to the welding store way earlier. I ran across a maintenance guy recently got put out of a job by some kid with whiz tig skills. Shame is he got a pipefitter bro in law, ran him thru my booth and they guy has the talent and would have been a natural with a stinger. A lot of wasted career due to lack of welding skills.
Something that sticks out like the sore thumb is good cut weld skills and anyone going in to mechanical, engineering, the trades doesnt stop long enough to learn a little weld is hampering themselves and a welder can simply do jobs the non cant and follow that up the chain to include some more sophisticated work and its a huge difference between men. Especially trade guys. I know a couple carpenters aint pounded a nail on a job in a long time. Shield Arc being one of them.