potentially moving to Colorado

I am in the very early stages of moving and Colorado is at the top of my list of places to be. The company my girlfriend works for has an office there in Denver so that would make the move a little easier.

In terms of me however, I'm looking to make a career change into something that has greater long term potential and growth opportunity. I have a B.S. in Anthropology and have worked as a field tech in archaeology for some time after college but got out if the field due to a lack of decent pay. I now work in landscaping and while I like the work I hate the pay and the fact that unless I start my own company in it I'll never make more than $20 an hour.
I've taught myself how to weld over the last few years and have been home fabbing stuff for my trucks as well as doing repair work for friends and family. I really enjoy fabrication and would like to get into it more. I see there are a few shops around denver and was wondering if anyone on here has a shop they like or know of any that are growing.

If I do make a move it probably wouldn't happen at least until spring but I want to really start looking around now so I've got plenty of time to work out all of the logistics of moving 3/4 of the way across the country.

Thanks for any ideas!

 

Hey bud i would try the Colorado bs page, many of the guys here dont know how to navigate out of the bs page unfortunately

 

haha. thanks make, I'll copy this over there

 

bump for any help

 

daily bump

 

IMO you probably won't be able to get work in a fab/offroad shop without any formal technical training or certifications

 

and while I get where you're coming from I'm not asking for anyone to give me a master fabricator job or anything big at all really. I'm hoping someone is looking for help in their shop, looking for a person that works hard and takes pride in what they do and is also capable of tackling almost anything mechanical as well as has the drive to learn. I don't have technical training because I've been told by all the shops around here not to bother, that the people they get that come from those classes are typically useless and just have a piece of paper that says they can stick metal together. I'm self taught and no I don't make the most beautiful welds or perfect products but sense I'm only working with a $200 welder and a grinder I make the best thing I can. I've used nicer equipment and doing so I make better products. All I'd like is the chance to show that to someone who has the potential to pay me and wants to expand. I don't expect a crazy salary off the bat, just the chance to prove myself and hopefully be rewarded for it.

 

Coming from someone who has worked at a street rod shop, oil companies, and production stainless company, there are two things that all of those companies have in common, #1 they don't give two shits about formal training #2 they don't give two shits about certifications (although if you have a cert it could potentially speed up the hiring process). Most places who hire any sort of welder or fabricator are all going to do one thing in common, they will bring you in, put metal in front of you and ask you to weld it, plain and simple. It could be as simple as two pieces of flat stock that they ask you to do a T-Joint, Lap Joint, Corner Joint, or a 6G pipe test, whatever, all they are care is can you do it. Some places will do a stress test, some may xray it. But in the end very few will really care if you have a piece of paper from an over priced tech school or ever certifications (again see above about certs, may or may not help)