There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a structural welder. For example, did you know that they make an average of $20.59 an hour? That's $42,836 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 3% and produce 14,500 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many structural welders have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed detail oriented, manual dexterity and physical strength.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a structural welder, we found that a lot of resumes listed 11.8% of structural welders included smaw, while 10.2% of resumes included fcaw, and 9.9% of resumes included mig. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the structural welder job title. But what industry to start with? Most structural welders actually find jobs in the construction and manufacturing industries.
If you're interested in becoming a structural welder, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 4.4% of structural welders have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.7% of structural welders have master's degrees. Even though some structural welders have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a structural welder. When we researched the most common majors for a structural welder, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on structural welder resumes include associate degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a structural welder. In fact, many structural welder jobs require experience in a role such as welder. Meanwhile, many structural welders also have previous career experience in roles such as welder fitter or pipe welder.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of pipe welder you might progress to a role such as pipe fitter eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title superintendent.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Structural Welder. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Structural Welder Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Structural Welder resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationThe skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 11.8% of structural welders listed smaw on their resume, but soft skills such as detail oriented and manual dexterity are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a structural welder. The best states for people in this position are Connecticut, Alaska, Rhode Island, and Washington. Structural welders make the most in Connecticut with an average salary of $57,133. Whereas in Alaska and Rhode Island, they would average $56,516 and $56,413, respectively. While structural welders would only make an average of $55,338 in Washington, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Rhode Island
$56,413
Avg. Salary
2. Washington
$55,338
Avg. Salary
3. Alaska
$56,516
Avg. Salary