And I could be a cute midget chick ! Besides , unlimited lives so who cares if I fight monsters ! <| sep |> What did your formal education teach you on the subject ? Care to name a text ? <| sep |> Yeah , I wasn ' t sure if I could celebrate or not . Lol <| sep |> What is it like after you finish your 18 week class ? You train one week out of the month at the Hall , how does this work with potential contracts ? after the welding program you might enter as either an apprentice or journeyman . I recommend serving at least a portion of the apprenticeship if you are new to the trade . it really depends on how they are running the program where you are . time off for school will absolutely not be held against you . depending on how busy your area is you may get put to work immediately or you may have to wait on the out of work list until your name comes up . How does contract jobs work in general ? Coming from the army where everything is very structured this will be a big change for me . Do you pick up jobs that last a month , or a year ? Is there an average ? you call the hall and they give you a list of jobs available . some are short 16 weeks , most are 34 months and there are long term jobs too . you work what works for you . some people prefer jumping from outage to outage with time off between short jobs . I like long term . my average job over the past 4 years is 8 months per job shortest was a 1 month nuclear outage , longest is 1 yr 7 mo and counting with 2 weeks off between jobsWhat kind of equipment do you need ? I don ' t mind owning my own equipment , but I am asking this because I feel like I might need a work truck to get gear around . Right now I primary ride a motorcycle while the wife uses the car . if you get into pipeline work you need your own rig . on all other jobs the tools are provided for you . the only thing you need to bring is your lunch . Do you know anyone who is in the National Guard or Army Reserve ? How does this effect work ? this is outside my scope of knowledgeOutside pay , what changes from Apprentice to Journeymansome locals don ' t let their apprentices travel so this is huge when you become a journeyman . you gain access to jobs across the country . journeymen also have more responsibilities and may be assigned an apprentice to look after . Last , though I am sure I could go on , being in the Army and 32 years old I have to think about my knees . Right now I can work and have no problem , but 10 years from now that might change . If my body prevents me from working welding , is there job growth in the union it self outside of taking welding jobs ? if you like politics you can run for office in your hall and eventually run for business agent top dog of the local if you so choose . there are also instructor positions for teaching apprentices . jobwise you can transition into management or pursue a cwi or go be an engineer . however , the union jurisdiction ends at the superintendent level . you ' re on your own after that