Interview 12: Erin, a Welder and Lab Manager
Erin is a welder and lab manager at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO
Women Who Weld, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that teaches women how to weld and find employment in the welding industry, has launched a new program - Arclight - in which we showcase women who create, ideate, and collaborate across specializations and trades.
Erin Kelley is a welder and the Powerhouse Lab Manager at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. Erin holds a bachelor’s degree in literature and Spanish from Kalamazoo College and spent a decade working in education before pursuing an associate’s degree in welding fabrication technology from Schoolcraft College in Southeast Michigan. Below is an edited and condensed interview between Samantha Farrugia, the founder of Women Who Weld, and Erin, a former Women Who Weld participant, in January 2022.
Where are you calling from?
Colorado State University’s Powerhouse Energy Campus in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Where did you grow up?
In Metro Detroit, Michigan.
Why did you move to Colorado?
For welding work specifically. When the pandemic hit in 2020 and Detroit shut down, I was still at Schoolcraft College and they told us that school was going to close for two weeks, which I foolishly believed; I mean, who would have known what was coming? So, I came out here to work for what I thought was going to be two weeks with somebody I'd previously interned for and I never left.
Do you think you’ll stay in Colorado?
Absolutely. Yeah, I'm putting some roots down; I purchased a home and my parents retired out here.
You received a bachelor’s degree in literature and Spanish from Kalamazoo College. Why did you pursue this degree?
Being a little bit green, I think, and not thinking through what education would do for me in a career capacity. I was always a really good student. And I love reading, and I love literature, and I love learning, and I loved going to a liberal arts college. And that can be what your life is all about, but you need a job. So, the Spanish degree was purely based on interest and not on foresight. I get so amped talking to students about the trades as well as a quality education, as they are both so important, but I think what's more important is having a plan for what you're going to do afterward.
Are you fluent in Spanish?
I am.
Do you regularly speak Spanish?
No, which I would say has been my one drawback to living in Colorado. A lot of the years in which I was using Spanish, I was living in Texas and I got to use it on a daily basis. Much less here now. But as a welder, I have come into a lot of shops and worked with a lot of folks who haven't been able to communicate in their workplace and I've been able to have a moment or two to speak Spanish. Unfortunately, Fort Collins is just not a super diverse area like Detroit, or like Austin, Texas. But I’m definitely seeking out opportunities and finding ways to stay in touch with that culture.
Do you ever think in Spanish?
Yes, they say when you actually learn a language that you think or dream in that language, so yeah, especially like funny phrases or catchphrases.
How many years did you live in Austin?
From 2008 to 2016, so eight years.
Why did you leave?
I left for a job opportunity in Michigan, which is how I ultimately ended up in welding school. I took a job at Kalamazoo College to get out of Texas. Austin is a really vibrant city, it has changed so much in the last decade, and the traffic and the population growth…it's a lot. It's a really big booming city now, but when I moved out there, it kind of still felt like a big town, and the traffic wasn't as bad, housing prices weren't as bad. And it's gotten to be quite crowded and quite expensive. I like a little bit of a smaller town, a slower pace. And it's definitely big city life there.
I hear a slight Texas drawl in your voice.
Probably from my years there. And my “y'all-ing” came from my years at Kalamazoo College, because when I went to school there, they had a really strong emphasis on campus of not using ‘you guys’ because it's gendered. So everybody started using y'all, and when I moved to Texas, it was like, “Well, I've already got that part down, that’s easy.”
Where did you work before becoming a welder?
Before I was a welder, I was a third-grade classroom teacher and then I worked as a language translator for a couple years, and those were my Austin years. Office life and that sedentary thing is not for me, but great for my language skills. Then I ended up working with students doing college admission work at Kalamazoo College.
Why did you leave education to become a welder?
I wanted to improve myself, I wanted to make more money, and I wanted to have a bigger impact on my own personal growth and not be as stressed. It was very stressful teaching; you give a lot, you give 110% of yourself as a teacher, and you're impacting little human lives. I think the moment you start feeling burnt out, and I certainly was, you know it is time to do something else because those kids deserve to have you at your absolute best.
I really feel for teachers now, having to work through these times. I was so grateful as a welder through the pandemic to be in my own 10 by 10 booth with a hood, and I felt very safe. I did not feel at risk working as an essential worker, and it really made me reflect on my teaching days. I have a whole ‘nother bucket full of empathy for them working in these conditions. Because working as a welder has been…shhh, don’t tell anyone…awesome.
Why welding? What sparked your interest?
I've always liked working with my hands, not that that brought me to welding, but really, it was a little storm of things. I was doing college advising, looking at a lot of careers for the students I was working with and pulling up jobs that were high yield, high return on investment jobs. And they would say, “Well, I like science,” or, “I like reading.” Ok, great, do you want to be a doctor? Do you want to be a lawyer? Because those people definitely need to go to school and this is what you need to do to get to that path. But if you don't know that yet, you're gonna spend $50,000 this year trying to figure it out – and that's really expensive. So, I was talking to students about sonogram tech, and trade schools, and HVAC, and I was also reading about welding. Then I started to poke around on Instagram, and I saw that Women Who Weld had held a workshop that I had just missed, so I reached out to you. And then, in the same week, there was a story on NPR showcasing the trades. The story was about college graduates getting a four-year degree in computer science, which seems like a logical and very good degree to get for a lot of people. They followed college graduates with a computer science degree who applied to this big company – there were 300 applicants for just three job openings. Only 10 people were interviewed of the 300, and it was narrowed down to three so their chances weren’t awesome. Then, at the same company, it was like Bosch or Siemens or something, they had a posting for one welder and two welders applied; and they were both good, so they both got the job, even though there was an opening for only one! And it hit me like, “Well, I want to be there! I want to be the person that's really needed and really employable.”
Fall semester was starting at Schoolcraft and I was able to do college counseling work and go to welding school at night; and be the example of what I was talking to some of my students about. In the second year of the program, I quit my job and became a full-time student and took a student worker job at Schoolcraft. I was a 31-year-old student worker at Schoolcraft, sweeping up floors, and then I graduated at 32. So to everybody who tells me, “Oh, if I start now, I'll be like…” Well, if you don't start now, you're never gonna finish!
You participated in one of our introductory workshops in 2018. Did it inspire you to pursue welding further?
At that point, I had taken one summer class at Schoolcraft and I was loving it. And the Women Who Weld workshop confirmed the track I was on, it was a big inspiration for me. To participate and know the teeny tiny bit that I did about welding and apply it and get in touch with that community, it all made me feel like I was on the right track. So yeah, the workshop definitely made me want to sink my teeth in more for sure.
Before taking the summer class at Schoolcraft, had you ever welded before?
No. Like never. Never met a welder, had never touched a welder, never thought about welding.
Since you participated in the Women Who Weld workshop, have you welded with other women?
Yes, at Schoolcraft there were four women out of about 30 folks in my program at the time, which I thought was unusual in a typically male program. And that group of us have done two sculptures together since then.
How did your degree in welding fabrication technology from Schoolcraft College prepare you for a career in welding?
Schoolcraft gave us so much drill and kill practice. I felt really confident in my welds, and working as a student worker gave me a lot of shop preparation by having to fix the machines, order consumables, keep track of gas – the stuff that is extremely helpful to any shop. I think in those really practical, hands-on ways, the program was A+. And with the academic component, they covered some basic metallurgy and have a CWI (Certified Welding Inspector) preparedness class, so you're really thinking deeply about inspection and the codebook. What Schoolcraft prepared me for in the real world was knowing how to do the work, and knowing what's happening on a molecular level while doing the work, because you have to understand that to do it properly. An academic foundation and knowledge of weld science helps you make better decisions in the field.
So even if it's something they hadn't totally prepared us for, I still know where to start my search or inquiry if I have to change a gas, or a process, or a different kind of metal, or maybe something I'm just not totally familiar with. I don't have the attitude of, “Well, let's just get it done,” which has been my experience with some folks I've worked with who are like, “I’m a welder, I have a rig, just do it!” And it's like, “Well, there's probably some science behind it, and if we change a gas, or we change a setting and just stop and think about it for a minute, there might be an easier way, a better way, a cleaner way, a safer way to get it done.” So I'm really happy now to be back in a university, in an academic environment where that kind of chest out, “This is the way we’ve always done it so it's just got to be done this way” attitude doesn’t exist here and it's really okay to ask questions and dive deeper. And I know that that's not what everybody's going to be dealing with in a shop, but I hope that’s where we can take our trade because welders are really smart people. It takes a lot to weld and to fabricate and to do math, and I feel like welders and fabricators don't always get the due they're deserved.
The best welders and metal fabricators are those who understand metallurgy and the science in welding. In Women Who Weld’s intensive training program, we focus on welding technique and science. We present welding as a STEM career because a welder should understand the science, technology, engineering, and math that goes into welding for either artistic or structural purposes.
“The Women Who Weld workshop confirmed the track I was on, it was a big inspiration for me.”
Do you have any outstanding debt from your associate’s degree in welding fabrication technology?
I do not, because associate's degrees, especially at Schoolcraft, are very affordable. Between what I paid for that program and the scholarships I got through the Schoolcraft Foundation and the Detroit section of the American Welding Society (which are extremely underutilized, they go unclaimed every year!), I was able to recoup what I had paid in school, books, everything in under two months after I started working. And that’s unheard of for an undergraduate degree.
What did “school, books, everything” cost you?
I spent, out-of-pocket, just around six grand. As far as economic choices, that’s a pretty darn good deal.
Would you recommend a community college program for someone interested in pursuing welding?
Yes, 200%! You can transfer credits at a community college, so if you ever decide to move or change programs, or if you decide to extend your career and go into welding engineering or something more in depth, all those credits are going to carry over. Also, community college instructors generally work in the field and they teach at night, so they're bringing in a lot of real-world experience.
Since graduating from Schoolcraft College in May 2020, where have you worked as a welder?
At first, I was contracting with a company where I did a little bit of oilfield work, a little bit of residential work, but 90% of the time I was at Lightning eMotors building electric vehicles. Then I was hired as a full-time employee at Lightning. When I started, it was a start-up, so it had the energy of a start-up, like the stay-here-till-midnight-and-make-it-happen kind of a start-up. Then the company really grew, went public, and hired on a lot of people.
If you don’t mind sharing, what were you making per hour?
I don’t mind sharing at all. When I started as a contractor, I was a first hand; I had to bring my own tools and truck. I showed up, they had a welder for me, and I had to weld all day. I was making $35 an hour doing that, and I was making time and a half when we did overtime so that was sweet, but paying taxes as a contractor sucks at the end of the year so you have to think about that.
And production work is a great space to start your career – you get lots of practice in print reading and thousands of hours of welding under your belt. A good shop will give production bonuses. A really good shop will facilitate your upward mobility, allowing you to expand into design and prototyping, CAD, managing, machining, etc.
And now you are back in education, but in a different capacity.
In the right way though, it's the right amount of everything. Like today, I was working with a student who needed to TIG weld an aluminum cylinder for an exhaust system that they're building on one of their test pieces of equipment. These students are brilliant engineers, and they need a little help with welding. I am very willing to help with that. It's such a unique role that I'm in here.
What does your current role as Powerhouse Lab Manager at Colorado State University entail?
I started in December, so I’m brand spanking new. It will be 60% fabrication and welding and 40% outreach, but it's not quite that right now, it’s more like 80% - 90% fabrication. Right now, we're doing a big engine install; the facility I work in has engine testing sites for engineering students and for companies to test emissions, to test efficiency, to make different alterations to their engines or power sources – anything that has to do with energy, we can measure and test here.
For the outreach element, I work with two groups of students: graduate students who are in the engineering department, and undergraduate students who are student workers and generally help us around the shop doing woodshop maintenance, building maintenance, things like that. I get to work with students in different capacities, which is really nice for me.
I’m so grateful for my decision to change into the trades, because there's no way I would be in this role otherwise. The number one requirement for the job was someone who could weld and fabricate, and number two was someone who could do educational work and speak Spanish.
It sounds like the perfect role for you as it touches on multiple areas for which you have a background and interest in.
At this age, at this time, and kind of after a little bit of traveling and being a little bit of a tumbleweed, it feels good to have all the experiences come together in a way that feels cohesive and feels like where I'm supposed to be.
What’s your schedule like, including start and end time, each day? Which days of the week do you work?
Monday through Friday, eight to whenever we're done.
What was your schedule like at your former welding job?
I was always pushing for that overtime. I was always like, “I'm just gonna hit it hard. I’m gonna do 5-10s, I’m gonna do a Saturday.” I would get into the shop at 5 a.m. and maybe clock out at 4 or 5 p.m. It's a different grind. I miss the early morning, but I don't miss the crazy hours to make the paychecks feel good.
Are you currently making a similar amount of money compared to your former welding job?
Yep. And that's why I decided it would be a good move for me. It's salaried and higher than what I was making and I'm coming in at the bottom rung here, so there's four levels of growth above where I am that I can actually achieve. It feels good. I can pay my bills and it is a stable and sufficient kind of work.
Describe a typical day on the job?
I'm so glad you asked because I’ve been keeping notes! And this would be a tip that I'd give to female welders: take notes – even if it's just a handful of notes – with the date of the things that you've done, of the projects you’ve finished, or of the things that you've accomplished. Take just two to three minutes a day to do this, because there are so many tasks that women do that we do not get credit for because we're assumed to do them. If you're the one cleaning up the kitchen every week; if you're the one taking out the trash every week; if you're the one taking notes at meetings – it's notable.
Yesterday I built a subfloor for an area we had moved an engine out of, which left a huge opening in the floor. I fabricated the sub-floor, covered it in metal, and then built it up with wood so it was good for people to walk on. Then we did some demolition of a large engine and moved it with the crane. And during part of my demo, I got really good with the porta bandsaw, which is one of the things I made note of because I was not really proficient with it before yesterday.
Which process of welding do you primarily engage in?
I've done a little bit of everything here, but mostly what I'm doing is a lot of fix-it-quick repairs, so a lot of MIG for that. But I had to do some tractor plow repair the other day, which involved hard-facing padding, so I was stick welding for that. And this morning, I TIG welded on a student’s project. But primarily MIG because it is just so functional, and easy to roll around the shop, plug in, and go.
What’s your favorite welding process and why?
I think TIG is my favorite; really any metal in TIG. It's just so meditative. You have to be so calm and so in the space and it’s so, so, so dorky, but, like, one with the puddle. It's such a calming activity, I really enjoy that aspect of it. But I love the ease and accessibility of MIG. They’re all really wonderful.
Are you a certified welder?
Yes, I have AWS (American Welding Society) D1.1 certification in short-circuit GMAW and in FCAW. I would really like to get a TIG certification. I got to pick three certs at Schoolcraft, but I missed out on getting my TIG certificate because of Covid.
We tell Women Who Weld participants to not get certified unless it is required of them, or if their employer, school, or union will cover the cost, as welding certification is costly, specific to a welding process, and not required by all employers for all projects.
I would agree with that sentiment. I’ll get my TIG/GTAW cert if I can get it at Schoolcraft at no charge, not if somebody else isn’t paying for it. But, if somebody is paying for it, go for it!
Did certification help you secure your current and former welding jobs?
No, not the fact that I had the certs, but the fact that I put in the work – the blood, sweat, and tears to earn the certificates is definitely something that prepared me for the workforce. The pressure of the CWI over your shoulder, sweating you, this is all stuff that is going to happen in the shop. So, in that way, the prep and preparedness helped, but, like, nobody at the shop I worked at even knew what D1.1 meant, they didn’t care.
Did you have to weld test during the interview for your welding jobs?
Yeah, for every welding job I've had, a weld test was pretty much the first thing I had to do. It doesn't even seem like they want to talk to you too much until you show them what you can do.
What sort of tools and equipment do you use regularly?
Grinder, spud wrench, welpers, a good hood, and a good pair of gloves.
I saw you were recently injured, what happened?
It's not even an exciting story. I got in a car accident. I lost my truck. It was a real bummer. That was in September, and I had sustained a lot of injuries to my left hand and I broke a finger. I got surgery – they put pins in it – and then that surgery failed, and I had to get a second surgery. And I'm still in physical therapy to recover full mobility in my left hand. That was definitely a setback. I mean, I couldn't work for nine weeks, I was out of work, which was very challenging mentally and physically. It really makes you think about protecting your hands, your body…if you're working in a physical capacity and you injure your body, you can't work and that’s a really tough reality to comprehend for a lot of people. It was for me and I'm so grateful that I'm back to 80-ish percent mobility in this hand, but I'm still working on it. It's an ongoing battle.
How old are you?
I am 35.
Has your income gone up or down since transitioning from education to welding?
It’s gone up, and I’m happy with what I’m doing every day.
What are your future career aspirations?
My future career aspirations are to grow in this position as much as I can. The two people I'm working for have a combined four decades of experience in this role that I'm training to help support and be in and expand. I get the impression that this is the type of place in which you can really do that. I'd like to take my role at the Powerhouse as far as I can, and get as many people interested in engineering, welding, fabrication, the trades, and the STEM umbrella, and get them in the door and get them on track.
Do you ever see yourself as a welding instructor at a community college or somewhere else?
It's a dream job. Yes. I would love it. And like I said before, a lot of the instructors teach singular classes, so they work in their industry jobs during the day and they’re very much in touch with what's going on. I'd like to be one of those instructors, you know, “Hey, I welded all day, and I'm here at night to talk to you about welding and help you get better at it!”
What do you like most about being a welder?
I love the satisfaction in making something and finishing it, usually in a day. Regardless of however long it takes, you can start something from a pile of scrap metal or a piece of paper – a thought in somebody's head and it’s drawn out on a napkin – and you can make it. I'm still astounded every time I build something big and step back and look at it. I love it and it makes me happy.
What are some challenges you’ve encountered as a welder, if any?
A lot of challenges. Some, I think, related to being a female; just walking into a shop or a room and being the only female can be challenging to deal with. Are you gonna let a comment roll off your shoulders and just try to be one of the boys? How do you navigate these environments?
I saw you in an interview and you have a really strong stance on how nobody should ever feel uncomfortable at work, at school, in the shop, that it's not about gender necessarily. It’s about making everybody feel included, that we're all here for a reason: because we can weld and fabricate. And focusing on that is how I've dealt with some of those stereotypes, because people want to say some really goofy things. And I think it behooves you as a female to have some preparedness and what you're gonna say back to, “Oh, you're a female welder...” “Yep, you don’t meet a lot of us, we’re only about 4% of the welding workforce. Lucky, you!” You just have to be ready for it and ready to move on and just do the work.
One of my first weeks as a welder, I had to crank out these big battery frames. I had to take them off the jig, and they were pretty heavy, 85-90 pounds to pick up, hang, and put in the powder coat. And after the first couple of days, one of my supervisors said, “You know, you don't have to pick those up and down, you don't have to prove it because you're a lady.” And I replied, “I'm not trying to prove it because I'm a lady, I'm trying to prove it because everybody else is here doing the job and it's part of the job, and I'm just here to do the job.” And he smiled and was like, “Oh, okay, cool.” It was never an issue again after that.
You have to be open to building relationships with people. I've seen so many women who want to snap back in a situation, or be sassy, or dominant in some way. It's never gonna help you, we have to be a little bit smarter about how we approach these situations at times. And that has been one thing I've had to navigate and learn; you have to have somewhat of a light heart because if we don't laugh, we cry. You just have to let some things roll.
And you'll find out that most people are good people. Most people haven't worked with a female welder and it is unusual for them. But I have enjoyed the opportunity showing that it doesn't have to be anything different and that I’m just a really good welder and you should be lucky to have me on your team!
“I'm still astounded every time I build something big and step back and look at it. I love it and it makes me happy.”
Do you have advice for women who may be interested in pursuing a path in welding?
Do it! No, really, my biggest advice would be to take one of Women Who Weld’s workshops, or find something like Women Who Weld where you can at least try; maybe a summer semester class at a community college, something with little commitment to get your foot in the door. What's the worst that can happen from trying something new?
What do you like to do in your free time?
I like working with my hands so when I moved to Colorado, I started taking pottery classes. I love throwing and doing ceramics. That's become a second hobby of mine. Also gardening and working on my house. Just handy stuff, doing home improvements. I'm renovating my little house. So those things keep me busy. And I'm in one of the most beautiful places in the country so I'd be I'd be scolded if I didn't say hiking.
If you were not a welder, which career path may you have chosen?
Something like landscape design or civil engineering – something that involves how humans interact with their space – would be really interesting to me and feels similar to a hands-on type of creating-something-path.
If you could travel anywhere, where would you go and why?
I’ve had Poland on my list for a really long time. I’m half-Irish, half-Polish, and I've been able to meet my relatives in Ireland, but I have not gotten to meet my relatives in Poland and I would really like to!