I saw the hand writing on the wall many years ago that all the shop detailing jobs were going overseas and got out. I do design work now. There are still smaller shops that use local guys, but all the big fabricators use overseas detailers now.

There was a time when a good structural steel detailer could get a dollar an hour raise just by changing jobs. They were great paying jobs for guys with high school diplomas and no college. I worked with a lot of guys who had college degrees that could make more money as detailers.

Now most of the old detailers I know work in design and it pays very well. In many cases on par with someone with an engineering degree. Unfortunately now a lot of engineering is being outsourced overseas as well and good jobs for designers are kind of hard to find too.

Where are you located in lower Alabama? I know quite a few fabricators who do work for me and our company and can make some inquiries or at least give you the name of a contact. Do you have a resume?

Do you have any NDE certs? I came across a couple of openings for that around Decatur a while back. If you have your CWI you can make a killing on the pipeline but there's really no opportunities for that around here.