It came up the other day in a meeting that America needs 100,000 welders to keep up with industrial demand. These are jobs on factory floors, construction sites, oil rigs out in the Dakotas and so forth. They are good paying jobs, where people get to work hard, utilize their ingenuity and can-do attitude, and pay well enough to sustain a good lifestyle. In addition, it is good work for those who don't find themselves comfortable moving from the combat or military environment to the sterile and political environment presented by the typical office. If I was to be exiting the military now, I would immediately be enrolling myself in vocational training to be a certified welder while I looked for other jobs. If I hadn't left yet, I would be seeking training within the military to get knowledge of this specific skill. Either way, if you could scrape the money together or find a way to get into a community college welding program that moved towards licensure, it's a great resume builder for a market in need of skilled help. In addition to the skill itself, it says that one more thing on a resume that might punch through the clutter, even in an office job application that shows that you as a candidate are more well rounded, versatile, and willing to take on challenges. In our business we look for people like that, and I feel a lot of other bosses I know are impressed by these types of things when they see them. Looked at through the right lens, it can be a great job that involves traveling to interesting locals and constantly working on new projects that are interesting opportunities to learn new things. Some of those things might lead to other interesting career opportunities. You never know when you might end up doing something completely different, but along the way you might try your hand at something and see how it fits.