Welder Helpers work closely with professional welders, and their role is to ensure the welder lays down quality welds on every project. As a welder helper, you may assist the lead welder in moving heavy objects, holding down certain workpieces, or handle certain welding tasks yourself.
Welder helpers possess skills similar to lead welders, including brazing, cutting, and quality assessment of welded workpieces. Helpers also identify potential weak spots, clean the work area, understand the work scope, and assemble metal parts.
You can become a welder helper without any formal education; experience and know-how are often enough to secure this great position. However, you may need a high school diploma to secure a rated apprenticeship and advance to more significant roles. Professional welder helpers also need physical strength to handle heavy metal objects and technical skill to operate specialized equipment.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a welder helper. For example, did you know that they make an average of $19.24 an hour? That's $40,027 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 welder helpers 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 welder helper, we found that a lot of resumes listed 12.2% of welder helpers included grind welds, while 10.9% of resumes included mig, and 8.1% of resumes included safety rules. 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 welder helper job title. But what industry to start with? Most welder helpers actually find jobs in the construction and manufacturing industries.
If you're interested in becoming a welder helper, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 5.7% of welder helpers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.2% of welder helpers have master's degrees. Even though some welder helpers 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 welder helper. When we researched the most common majors for a welder helper, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on welder helper resumes include diploma degrees or bachelor's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a welder helper. In fact, many welder helper jobs require experience in a role such as welder. Meanwhile, many welder helpers also have previous career experience in roles such as cashier or helper.