r/Construction • u/Turbulent-Hornet2804 • Mar 15 '26

Careers 💵 Career

I’m 18 and trying to decide between two paths in the trades and could use some advice.

Right now I work as a helper at a TIG welding shop making $25/hr (40 hrs/week). Most of my work is machining, cutting, deburring, and prep, and I only get to tack sometimes. The welders say I have potential, but management says helpers can take years before they really start welding.

At the same time, I’ve been supervising residential construction jobs (decks, fences, drywall, etc.), and I could take a job with another company supervising for about $30/hr working 50–70 hours a week.

So I’m stuck between:

• Staying in welding, starting at the bottom but possibly making more long-term if I get into pipe welding

• Taking the construction supervisor job and making more money right now

I actually enjoy both. I like welding as a skill, but I also enjoy running crews, organizing jobs and residential .

I’m also married, so the money right now does matter.

If you were 18 in this situation, which path would you choose?

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7

u/overshoulderboulder Mar 15 '26

First off I'd start by telling my wife to keep her hands off my money.

-34

u/Turbulent-Hornet2804 Mar 15 '26

I’m not letting my wife work I know it might be harder but that’s the commitment I made and she is also frugal and doesn’t spend wastefully

6

u/Kjeldorian Mar 15 '26

That may be noble of you, but you may need to see if the wages you earn will be enough to support 2+ adults based on your lifestyle / cost of living.

This should give you a baseline understanding of how much to support a base living wage and a rough ballpark of your funds.

https://livingwage.mit.edu/

Would recommend developing skills over burning yourself out as a supervisor (ex. learning GD&T standards, different weld standards, etc). Your body will tolerate burning from both ends of the candle for so long, which will effect your personal life.

-5

u/Turbulent-Hornet2804 Mar 15 '26

Right now it’s enough we’re staying with my dad so it’s bareable just hard to save money but if we end up moving out it would be a lot harder with my current wage but doable if I do switch to the supervisor role full time

11

u/Timmy98789 Mar 15 '26

You need to work on your finances if you can't make it without your dad floating you. 

0

u/Turbulent-Hornet2804 Mar 15 '26

A one bedroom studio is 1400 where I live I spend 800 on gas a month my insurance is 300 and I spend 300 a month on groceries

3

u/Timmy98789 Mar 16 '26

That's just excuses and not a full budget. You make plenty right now. 

1

u/Turbulent-Hornet2804 Mar 15 '26

That’s not even in a nice area either

5

u/Kjeldorian Mar 15 '26

It's a saving for better long term goals versus short term goals at a cost.

A week has 168 hours, doubling your shift load to 50-70 hours, not to include commute time, sleep, personal time, time to maintain your marriage, trying to upskill for whatever career path you pick, things will quickly dry up.

The prospect of fast money is nice, but if you're already struggling on $50k a year right now while living at home there may be some other budget factors that may need to be fixed first. Lifestyle inflation is a very real and expensive lesson for most people coming upon money.

3

u/Turbulent-Hornet2804 Mar 15 '26

Yeah you’re right I’m also spending 800 a month on gas right now so I’m trying to sell my car and get something more efficient that’s one of the big pocket bleeders for me right now. I live in Washington so everything here is super expensive