Cody Rager, a Welding Technology major, has been working at Walton & Company in the Summer of 2025.
Walton & Company is a full-service mechanical contractor and metal fabricator, that features design, build, and service capabilities.
We asked Cody to share about his experience!
How did you find out about your in-field work experience opportunity?
I learned about the opportunity at a Career Fair hosted at Thaddeus Stevens College.
What does your day-to-day look like?
I work on the field side of welding, so my day starts with unloading the truck and setting up pipe stands, welding shields, and laying out all the tools needed for the day. From there, my day varies from being outside all day fabricating pipes into place, performing field welds where the pipes are being installed indoors, or a mixture of both. Regardless of the specific type of welding task, it includes prep work such as double-checking measurements and leveling and squaring the pipe. That can take as much time, if not more, than the welding itself. The last hour of each day includes clean up and prep for the next day while one of us stays on fire watch.
What is something you were surprised to learn in your time at work?
The different ways of making sure everything is fully measured out correctly, spaced, and leveled to ensure it will all fit together were something I learned. While in a booth welding small parts, something may look square, being off by a fraction of an inch or a few degrees in pipefitting welding can throw off the whole project, and sections will not fit together.
What’s been something challenging about this experience?
It’s been challenging to complete field welds. Learning how to weld in a booth teaches the fundamentals. In-the-field welding I’ve had to tackle had me wrapping myself around pre-existing pipes or ductwork, working to keep the correct angles for a good weld, and it’s a process that is perfected over time. The differences in some of those hard-to-reach places can be astronomical, and requires a lot of learning and adapting beyond the basics I might have done in the welding booth.
What has been the best thing about this experience?
Learning about all the tricks all the people I’m working with have developed over the years in the field to make the job easier. A lot of what the people on the job have to offer is from their years of experience, and you can’t get that kind of education from a textbook. Even just welding in a pipefitting setting, I have learned extra skills I can bring with me to any welding field in the future.
Share a story about something that happened as part of this work experience.
One day, when I was outside welding, it began raining heavily. It was my first experience with welding in the outside elements since previously I had only welded in shop settings. The response to the weather is simply to put up a canopy and continue the welding work. The work doesn’t stop just because the weather isn’t ideal. The rain helped the temperature stay down outside, which was better.
Would you recommend seeking out in-field work experience to other students at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology?
I would highly recommend seeking an in-field work experience because you learn so much beyond the classroom. The real-world circumstances on a jobsite and experience in the field will teach you how to learn and adapt to real situations. Each person you work with likely has insight on how to best do a job, and you get more perspectives this way.
How do you think this experience will help you in your future?
Having workplace experience will be very beneficial to everyday life on any jobsite. Real working conditions are different than a booth, and you can’t learn how to adapt to the new conditions of each job without doing the job. It is a start to what I will be learning for a very long time.