Graduate Connections – Meet Jon Holston

Jon, 32, from Tyler, Texas, completed the Welding Specialist with Pipefitting program at Tulsa Welding School & Technology Center (TWSTC) in Houston in December 2019. 

Thanks for your time, Jon. Did you enroll in the welding & pipefitting from the start? 

I signed up for both at the start, purely because I thought the more certifications I had the better.

So, what did you do before enrolling at Tulsa Welding School?

I went to college after high school. I was a Biomedical Science major at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas; it’s part of the Texas A&M University system. I actually got my degree in Biology because I failed one class, and I didn’t want to wait a year to take it again. 

What came next for you? 

I had some personal stuff to deal with after college. I tried different career routes that just didn’t work out, so during that time I worked mostly in a warehouse putting stuff on pallets and on trucks. I did that for two years, while I made headway with the personal stuff. Pretty soon after that, I got married and we moved to my wife’s hometown, about 45 minutes north of Austin. I had nothing but a biology degree and warehouse experience at that point, but I knew I didn’t want to be a biology professor teaching kids.

So, where did the idea of welding come from?

I thought what skills do I have? One of my skills was my hobby, welding. I loved to weld. I’ve had that passion since I was 17, when I designed and built my first trailer from the ground up. I decided to turn my hobby into a job. I thought I’d end up hating it, just like my friends who’d turned hobbies into jobs did! 

Did you first discover welding in high school?

I was part of FFA, Future Farmers of America. It’s a high school thing; they teach everything from animals to Ag Mechanics. My parents have about five acres of land, so I grew up raising animals, but in high school my buddy said, “Hey, you like to build stuff! We need somebody to fill out our numbers in Ag Mechanics.” So, I joined them and eventually decided I loved what they did.

Why did you decide to go to welding school, if you’d been hobby welding for 10 years?

I decided if I was going to do this, I needed to do it correctly. I had a good understanding of MIG and Stick, but no understanding of TIG. I decided to go to welding school to learn how to TIG weld basically. We moved over to Houston with no jobs, no money to our name, just for me to go to welding school.

What did you enjoy most about your time at TWSTC? 

I enjoyed the understanding my teachers had. After moving I got a job at Home Depot. I did the afternoon shift at school and worked overnight. I did 40-to-50-hour weeks while going to welding school for five to six hours a day. I usually stayed late when I could. My day would start at 11:00am and end somewhere near 5:00am the next day. My teachers were very understanding. They realized they were dealing with an exhausted individual who was putting his best foot forward, but sometimes was not the nicest person! 

That’s a tough schedule. How did you find the program with your experience? Easy, hard?

The first phases came fairly easy because they’re very much about the basics. Right after, when we started open root welds often used for pipe welding, well, that did not come as easy!  

How did you handle those frustrations? 

Persistence, and talking to the instructors, asking for help. They’re very willing to help. Some of them have forgotten more about welding than a new welder could ever learn. They have experience. Listen to them, swallow your pride, and understand that you’re not going to be the best welder in the room.

Having done the welding and the pipefitting courses, did you enjoy them both, or favor one?

I enjoyed them both equally because I enjoy the entire process of building. With pipefitting, I got to use my brain instead of just my skills. I enjoyed the math; figuring out how this 2D blueprint is going to turn into a 3D object. I loved that, and I loved being able to weld all of it too!

That’s awesome. So, you graduated December 2019; did you have a job waiting for you?

I got a welding job during my pipefitting course with a company named Schrockworks who built bumpers for off-road vehicles. It was just a MIG job, but I was an active welder which was great experience while finishing pipefitting school. I stayed for about a year. Unfortunately, they closed a couple of years later.

Where did you go from there?

I went to a company that built pressure vessels for oil refineries. I wanted to get experience in a field I knew nothing about. But when contracts at that shop started running out, I was the low man on the totem pole. Layoffs were coming, and that was going to be it. My foreman at that pressure vessel job tried to get me on with a pipeline company, but unfortunately it didn’t work out. So, I went to a traveling welding company, and I stayed with FlexTrades for almost three years. It would’ve been three years this October, but I wanted to come home, I was done traveling. I highly recommend FlexTrades as a company, it’s great.

Did you enjoy the traveling? Did they keep you busy? When you’re not working, you’re not earning.

Yes. They actually did all the way until this last year, and that is not on FlexTrades. A secret for all those welders who want to travel, election years are terrible years to be contractors. They’re always slow. Nobody wants to start something new right before a new President gets into office. And the fourth quarter of the year, October through December, can be hard to get jobs. So, if you’re on a job and they say, “Would you like to stay for the rest of the year?” The answer is, “Yes, please!”

So, what are you doing now?

I just got my CWI license, so I started a job today as a Quality Inspector. I’m working for a company called Pileworks, out of Magnolia, Texas. They make piles, which are deep foundation systems. The piles are shoved into the ground and oil rigs, light poles, buildings, all these things sit on top of these links. 

And this is as a CWI – Certified Welding Inspector?

I recently passed my CWI exam, but I gained a CAWI (Certified Associate Welding Inspector) due to lack of experience. That’s only because Shrockworks – my first job – shut down, which meant my hours with them couldn’t be checked. They couldn’t verify that I had the necessary five years’ experience. I’ll go through an upgrade process next year. The CAWI is a certification level, not an actual job. It’s basically what they give you if you pass the test, but don’t have enough verifiable experience. In the short term, I can do all the QC inspections just as if I was a CWI, I just cannot sign that something is good to code. I have to pass it off to my supervisor, who has their CWI, and they sign off for me.

That’s frustrating. Let’s talk briefly about money – how did you start out?

My first job in 2019, I got paid $13/hour. I barely made more than a Home Depot associate, but I got experience and that’s more important when starting out, especially if you’re young and right out of high school. Just one year of experience can lead to a big pay increase. I went from $13, to $17, to $30+ traveling in a couple of years. With this QC job, I’ve actually taken a step back in pay in the short term. Pileworks is a smaller, grassroots company, but they are growing; they’re actually building another shop on the property. So, I took a small pay cut to gain the QC experience I need to move forward.  

What’s your ultimate career goal from here, Jon?

I can’t say what the future holds, but now I want to continue in QC. We’ll see how the relationship with Pileworks works. I may stay here a long time, or I may move into something else. I’ll stay with QC jobs from here because taking a pay cut for the experience will yield dividends down the road. With even just a year as a CAWI, I’m opening up doors to the future. I’ll probably stay home though, I’m done traveling! 

What can you expect to earn down the road as a CWI, with say five years’ experience?

It will depend on what certifications I get, and what field of quality I go into. If I was to just stick with what I have, I could expect anywhere between $45 to $50/hour at the beginning of that five-year period, to upwards of $100k per year depending on where I go from there. 

The future is definitely bright, and I would say find the people who value you and value your time, but also know your own value too. If you research the market and believe your skills are worth a number, ask for it. Sometimes companies try to get you to take a number. Ask for what you believe your skills are worth.  

What did you enjoy most about being a welder working in the trade?

As far as the welding itself, I liked the fact that once you prove your skill, prove that you can do a good job without being supervised, good shops will leave you alone; they won’t bug you or micromanage you. Get your job done correct, on time, and you may get a, “Hey, thanks for doing that!” and that’s pretty much all you see of your supervisor that day. 

I also enjoy the people. My second job, I worked as part of a six-man crew doing the work of 20 people and we got tight. That’s the crew I base any people I work with off of now. These are the guys that essentially trained me to be way better at welding than I was. 

I will also say I loved the traveling, except for the fact that I had to be away from my wife for three/four months at a time. If my wife could have traveled with me, I probably wouldn’t have quit. But she had a job that she couldn’t leave, and two incomes are always better than one! I will say, even if you’re young and single, traveling isn’t for everyone. It takes a mentality that not everyone has.

What advice do you have for someone to be successful at Tulsa Welding School? 

Even if you learned to weld in high school, understand that you are not the best. There is always somebody better than you. Find that person, learn from them, and you’ll be better than you ever could have been by yourself. Be humble, know your worth, but be willing to listen to others. There are guys out in the field who will teach you, train you, and make you way better than you were…but only if you’re willing to listen and don’t think you know it all.

If you’re a TWS graduate and would like to share your success and be an inspiration to others, please email [email protected] to be considered for a Graduate Connection interview. Please include details such as your graduation date (month/year), program, and campus name (Tulsa/Jacksonville/Houston/Dallas).