I’ll be honest… I absolutely loved the steel trades.
It was very hard work most of the time but I excelled in that environment. I could read blueprints due to an engineering background along with steelfab. This really accellerated me in the trade. I only had to do 2 1/2 years of schooling when the company put me into the apprenticeship. I could also weld both stick and flux core wire. Materials for us were never thinner than 3/8 inch with 1/2" up to 2" being common. We manufactured the I beams from plate using “robotic” sub-arc welders that can weld a continuous 5/8 fillet weld till the wire runs out. We commonly fabricated 6foot high , 60 to 80 foot long I beams and then used them to fabricate the bridges we built. I have also designed and fabricated for a few off road competitors… roll cages, bumpers, roof carriers, skid plates but those guys have retired from racing these days. I once designed and fabricated an industrial machine, all in high grade stainless. From conception to blueprints to fabricating to installation. That was a really cool job and I wish i could do that kind of work full time.
These days I have an ac/dc machine for stick and tig , a standalone stick machine and a decent flux core or shielded arc (with gas) wire feeder. I also own a 6ft bed lathe and a milling machine but these are 3phase units that I keep at a friend’s due to not having enough power here. I miss having those at hand for projects whenever I dream up something.
My disabilities prevent me from using my skills for a paycheck these days but I still try and get the use out of my tools when ever I can.
I’ll show off my hunting trailer and jeep xj add ons once my trailer is done 
35 year union carpenter welder smaw hold a current ticket for all 4 positions can stack nickels all day flat horizontal vertical but keep your hand on the water can when overheading 
sistered for the millwrights many times in the auto plant shut downs in Windsor. liked the heavy side most for welding, driving piles and building damns.
I went to school for welding when I was younger. Unfortunately, I could not get stick welding down even if my life counted on it. My school had a virtual welding which according to that I did fine but in real life… NOPE! MIG, TIG, or oxy/acetylene I could do in my sleep. I love using the plasma cutter! It was a bummer as it was the ultimate reason I gave up on welding and kind of regret it.
I took welding in high school, vocational school, and a semester at Ivy Tech.
I can stick and MIG, pretty good, TIG, not so much, but I can limp my way through it.
I am a pretty fair hand at brazing, too.
I have never had a welding job, but I have made good use of the skills, over the years.
My dad also made good use of the education he paid for.
He was always having me weld stuff for him and his friends until the day he died.
Oh, bout 15 yrs combo pipe welding and bout 17 years as a pipeline welder. Been growing weed for bout half as long with a long break from growing in the middle of all that.
Thanks and yea it is!
Ive been a welder/fabricator about 10 years now growing indoors for 12. Most of the work i do is highend interior design for company headquarters all over the USA. I mostly tig and mig. I also do custom stainless steel furniture pieces out of my garage from tine to time starting from raw SS fabrication to bringing it to a brushed or mirror finish. I do alot of artsy kind of projects during downtime at my day job, currently working with a customer to make a giant 12ft T Rex for tgeir backyard haha.
Pictures or it didn’t happen… 
Not a bunch but I can the little things that needs it like a farmer can or build cool with scrap metal laying around.
The welds are not pretty but gets the job done. I’d love to get better but I havent put in any time on practicing. More power to you brotha! 
I remember being a greenhorn and working in a lift with a welder hanging some burly galvanized angle. He pinned it to the hang point with the lift and when welding somehow blew huge hole in the lift cage. We came down and he called over the oldest spanish welder on the site and he brought over the red rods and fuckin fixed that hole like brand new in a few minutes.