Hi, I’m Jesse Srpan from Raw Iron Choppers.
I’m a business owner, an entrepreneur,
a designer, a fabricator, and a metal artist;
but before all of that, I became a welder.
Welding actually chose me.
Between my interests, my skill-set and kind of my upbringing as a kid,
and it really really became something
of interest to me that actually became a career opportunity.
Welding has opened a lot of doors for me
and I know the biggest thing is finding a mentor,
maybe an instructor, maybe a person down the street who owns a shop.
So I talked to my mentor Ryan Eubank
about the multiple paths that welding can lead you to.
Well Lakeland Community College has a lot to offer.
You know, it’s just not the hands-on portion of it
that students need to understand,
it’s also the technical aspects.
It’s the book work.
Because when you’re in the booth,
there’s not always going to be an instructor there to solve your problems.
So if you know the theory that you learn in the class
and then you can take it into the booth and as you’re welding,
you come up with the problems or scenarios,
and you can help solve or create that solution
without the help or aid of an instructor,
that’s when it all becomes a full circle
of being a well-rounded welder or weld technician.
I’m trying to get to the point with my skills
and my work that I have that ability
to go out and do any task
that my foreman will be able to ask me.
It’s go and do this,
I can accomplish that and then eventually
move up to that foreman position
or that assistant foreman position, pusher, whatever it may be.
And I think that’s the one thing that’s
really cool about welding, you create.
You could be an art sculptor,
you can build structures, you can manufacture parts,
it’s got something in it for everybody,
and it can it can always build off of that.
I think that’s what’s essential with the college
and being here is that you can touch on any facet you want,
and if it fits your mold or if you want to further your education
you can go “maybe it’s not time for a college degree now, or maybe it is.”
And vice-versa, you can really get into it
deeper and deeper and deeper to further your education years down the road.
Continuing education is huge.
If you’re not going to school to learn something
it’s just paying attention to what the older guys are doing.
Everybody is able to teach you something,
it’s just are you willing to open your eyes
and look at it and interpret what they’re trying to show you.
You’ve got to understand,
as an individual you don’t want to settle with just a basic job.
You want to know how you can advance
starting out as a basic welder,
yes coming in here and getting a degree or certificate
or a certification is absolutely wonderful.
But you always want to think on how do you improve on your lifestyle.
You make that transition
from welding in the shop to
applying your skills that you learned right in the field.
And it’s an immediate transition you have to make,
but once you do make that, it’s a sense of pride.
It’s a sense of your passion about this
and you love getting up and everyday
and jumping in that tank and learning something new
and keep striving and expanding your skills.
So what does the future hold for the welding field?
Well the welding field is not going away.
It’s only getting stronger.
The demand for the jobs and skilled workers
are better now than they’ve ever been.
AWS, the American Welding Society,
is projecting there’s going to be over
a shortage of 250,000 welding jobs available in North America alone.
From new construction to repair to building ships,
buildings, cars, planes, trains, welding is always going to be needed.
A career in welding can take you in many directions.
To learn more, go to AWS.org to start your path into welding.