Welding Tips and Tricks

When we hire welders it is a pretty straight forward process. Fill out application, background check, welding test/interview, drug test. The girls up front will call you and tell you a date and time to come in for your welding test after you pass the first two hurdles.

If at all possible show up ready to go. Have your own hood, welding gloves, safety glasses, steel toe boots and dress appropriately for welding.

Numerous times guys show up in tennis shoes, and a Justin Bieber tank top or some shit and that's it. In all fairness I don't know your circumstances so I will let you borrow a hood, grab you a new pair of welding gloves, give you a pair of safety glasses and give you those goofy ass temporary duck looking yellow strap on safety toes.

And know you have to pull the trigger on a MIG gun, not tap and strike it against the work piece, not joking, it happened once.

It just occurred to me......I have become my grumpy Dad

Man you're picky, although I can't imagine someone would risk burning a hole in a JB tee shirt. And if your MIG units don't have HF starting capability they must be really old! [/sarcasm]

If you wear the JB shirt you only have to take one test.....1/4" 7024 Overhead, I don't discriminate.

Wanna add, get your nicotine before. Seen some people freaking out cause it's been 3 hours since they had their fix. Granted a few were in need of some other type of drug..... I don't know where some of these people come from but you don't see me signing up to be a chef. I wanna give everyone their chance but I definitely don't like my time wasted.

Lol I am from Illinois originally, it's called Meth.

Was working a job on the Oregon coast years ago and staying with some friends. I had been there several weeks so decided to give them a few days privacy and I drove around Washington. Dropped by the hall there to visit with another friend & he wanted to know if I wanted to test for a job there - long term job so I said yes. Turns out I showed up to take an all position unlimited thickness plate test with a borrowed hood wearing a pair of Tony Lamas ostrich skin boots, and a nice western shirt. I remember the weld tech giving me "the look" when he gave me the coupons. About four hours later I was done, straps bent and gone to work without any holes in the shirt or boots. That job lasted 9 months of 7-12's.

Now let's be fair Bill lol,

I'm talking about the boys with fender washers in their ears. I see an old hand walk in with Tony Lama's on and can tell in 3 seconds after he strikes an arc this ol boy has been doing this a day or two. I pull you off the test and take you out to lunch so we can discuss how much we need to pay you to stick around.

I am originally from Illinois and no offense against Florida, or at least where I am at......it's different. I gave one fella my whip with my twist stinger and the rod fell on the floor twice before he put 2 and 2 together.

EDIT: In all fairness I have a guy with fender washers in his ears and a nail in his tongue and he is a damn TIG artist, can't judge a book..........

DLewis0289 wrote: It just occurred to me......I have become my grumpy Dad

Some time back i realized i have become my Dad, too. I embraced it- he was a smart guy, and good looking too!

DLewis0289 wrote:Lol I am from Illinois originally, it's called Meth.

Yea good ol IL. I need to get out of here. I can remember in high school kids doing lines in the bathroom between classes and coming back from lunch out of their mind. Sad to see. I'd say out of 20 applicants, 12 will fail the drug test, 13 will fail the weld test, 15 the math test, and 16 won't show up the first day or get fired in a week from not showing up. Can't believe you give somebody a job and they don't even get out of bed or come sober.

Bout right 75%

A local factory here in Wooster told me several times they will take 10 applications, 2 will pass the drug test, out of those who show up, and eventually one will stay on long term. Sad really. The drug test is the "killer" here. I just don't understand that.

A friend that works for a company that builds pressure vessels told me a story of a young kid that showed up for his welding interview in a full suit. He obviously had to take his weld test as he was dressed.

There is such a thing as dressing for success but when you will be wearing a welding jacket and gloves don't show up for a welding job dressed how you would never be when employed. I will also agree that there are to many who show up for a weld test not prepared for a weld test. A place I used to work wouldn't test you if you didn't bring your own gear. I agree with that. If you want a welding job and I call you in for a weld test and tell you to bring your welding gear and you don't bring it, well, you just don't need to work for us.
-Jonathan

Superiorwelding wrote:...and tell you to bring your welding gear and you don't bring it, well, you just don't need to work for us.

Call it the "can he follow instructions" portion of the weld test.

^Well chances are, if he doesn't have his own gear he isn't a welder. Just sayin. I bring my own with a 2nd pair of gloves, lenses, extra wheels, even my die grinder comes with sometimes.

My first weld test I got an email saying when to come in for the interview. I figured "Ok this is just the interview part. So I'll dress casually nice" when I got there he asked if I was ready to take the test in those clothes.... Thankfully I had all my gear and a change of clothes in my pickup! He never let me live that down.

Superiorwelding wrote:A local factory here in Wooster told me several times they will take 10 applications, 2 will pass the drug test, out of those who show up, and eventually one will stay on long term. Sad really. The drug test is the "killer" here. I just don't understand that.

A friend that works for a company that builds pressure vessels told me a story of a young kid that showed up for his welding interview in a full suit. He obviously had to take his weld test as he was dressed.

There is such a thing as dressing for success but when you will be wearing a welding jacket and gloves don't show up for a welding job dressed how you would never be when employed. I will also agree that there are to many who show up for a weld test not prepared for a weld test. A place I used to work wouldn't test you if you didn't bring your own gear. I agree with that. If you want a welding job and I call you in for a weld test and tell you to bring your welding gear and you don't bring it, well, you just don't need to work for us.
-Jonathan

Its a killer in most places. Sad but true. Anytime you make good money there is a chance of drugs.

I don't work in a welding job, but in an aerospace tooling company that still requires a drug free workplace due to the industry rules and various customers that we supply with tooling.

We have preemptive drug testing upon the offer of a position, option of random testing, and mandatory testing if there are any accidents, all listed in the employee handbook, and briefed before someone is even offered a job.
This seems to cut down on how many are using and trying to work there, but in any group you get some who think that they're above the rules, or just think that they won't get caught.


The military is the same way, but I was shocked how many idiots thought that they would somehow escape being tested. In the 1.5 years that I was in one unit at Fort Lewis in Washington, I am fairly sure that we were sending ~10% of the unit for samples every week or two, random selection based on the last number of your social security number, as rolled by the first sergeant that morning.
A few years later I was working with an Air Force unit and went from no samples given for 4 years, to doing them 3-4 times in a short period of time. "Random selection of personnel" they say...

In both situations, it was amazing how many idiots got popped for one or more drugs. Heroin, pot, speed... One military school did a drug sniffing dog search of the barracks while I was stationed at the base, and caught one student with ~1kg of cocaine, among other things! Not only warned numerous times before enlisting, but then possession of "dealing" quantities on a federal installation, making it a federal crime. Extraordinarily idiotic, whoever that person was.

I work in a place where the boss would not bother with random drug testing (the performance requirements of the job would quickly give away a user and get him a for-cause test), but, like Josh's situation, our clients want to see a "drug-free workplace" program in effect.

The concept bothers me personally, but not professionally. I understand the need to be assured that we don't have some tweeker blasting through the work we do, or some stoner burning one at lunch before doing critical work.

It bothers me personally, because it's a presumption of guilt, requiring one to prove innocence, which is the opposite of the American justice system.

It's a catch-22, as there is no present way to tell if one's positive result comes from relaxing Friday night, or from having a "wake and bake" breakfast.

I'm willing to accept it as-is, though. It's a matter of priorities. If smoking a joint on Friday night is worth risking your job, your priorities are wrong for my workplace. If you're in to Meth or Heroin, you have bigger problems than simple priorities. We had one painter's helper who was in to Heroin. He stole about $45K worth of stuff to sell at the scrapyard for maybe $600. Something the boss said somehow got me on the suspect list (I got a public apology for that), so he and I went in for questioning. I think the cops had it figured... He rode in the back of a cop car, and I drove myself to the station for questioning. They put us in adjacent rooms, and left me alone. I got to hear him questioned through the wall, and learned a great deal about him I did not know. In the end, I was only asked one question... I was shown a picture of a stolen part found at a scrapyard, and asked if I could identify it.

This kid's dad then tried to bribe my boss into dropping the charges, so that tells you how he was raised...

So I don't complete the hi-jacking of this topic, I'll add that I, too, have dressed nice/casual for the interview, but always carry all the gear I need to test. I went to one interview, where I was told in advance I would not be testing at that time, but took my stuff anyway. When they found out I had dual-shield experience, they asked me to schedule a test. I told them I only needed a place to change, and could test now. They hired me halfway through the test.

Steve S

oops, something went wrong. I'll sort it out later...

Diesel wrote:

DLewis0289 wrote:Lol I am from Illinois originally, it's called Meth.

Yea good ol IL. I need to get out of here. I can remember in high school kids doing lines in the bathroom between classes and coming back from lunch out of their mind. Sad to see. I'd say out of 20 applicants, 12 will fail the drug test, 13 will fail the weld test, 15 the math test, and 16 won't show up the first day or get fired in a week from not showing up. Can't believe you give somebody a job and they don't even get out of bed or come sober.

Wait ... I add up those numbers and come up with 56? I thought you were testing 20 guys? Where did the others come from? Did they hear it was going to be a weld test and show up to buy drugs from some of the other guys testing?

Boomer63 wrote:

Diesel wrote:

DLewis0289 wrote:Lol I am from Illinois originally, it's called Meth.

Yea good ol IL. I need to get out of here. I can remember in high school kids doing lines in the bathroom between classes and coming back from lunch out of their mind. Sad to see. I'd say out of 20 applicants, 12 will fail the drug test, 13 will fail the weld test, 15 the math test, and 16 won't show up the first day or get fired in a week from not showing up. Can't believe you give somebody a job and they don't even get out of bed or come sober.

Wait ... I add up those numbers and come up with 56? I thought you were testing 20 guys? Where did the others come from? Did they hear it was going to be a weld test and show up to buy drugs from some of the other guys testing?

How did you come upon this again lol

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

How did you come upon this again lol

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk[/quote]

Well, you start with 20 guys, then you have 12 fail the drug test, 13 fail the weld test, 15 the math and 16 who won't show up the first day. I see my math is wrong. I think I forgot about the extra 16 guys who won't show up the first day. OOPPS! LOL! But I think that the assessment is just about spot on!
Gary

I see what is meant by this statistic....

Out of any 20 guys who apply, if the drug test is given first, 12 will fail... If the weld test is first, 13 will fail... If the math is first, (the guy quoting this statistic will fail... ) 15 of them will fail, and if you just tell 20 idiots they're hired, 16 won't show.

"There is no truth, there are no facts. Just data to be manipulated." Joe Walsh--"The Garden of Allah"

"When they own the information, they can bend it all they want." John Meyer--"Waiting on the World to Change."

Steve S

Figures never lie But liars can figure.

Poland308 wrote:Figures never lie But liars can figure.

I like that. I might borrow/steal that.

Steve S

That's how I got it