kim191•1mo ago

Hit 1,000 hours on my certs and finally felt legit

I checked my log book last Thursday and saw 1,000 hours of stick welding on 2G and 3G positions since I started with the union hall in Memphis. That number mattered because I remember looking at older guys with 5,000 plus hours and feeling like a fraud next to them. Hitting quadruple digits was the first time I felt like I could call myself a real boilermaker without cringing. The funny part is it took me 14 months of grind, including a shutdown in Little Rock where I blew through 80 rods in one shift before I got the puddle to behave. My foreman saw me staring at the log and just said, 'That's a good start, kid,' which made me laugh and also made me want to push for 2,000. Has anyone else hit a round number that made the imposter feeling finally back off, or is it always chasing the next milestone? I'd love to hear what number did it for you, because right now 2,500 seems like a mountain.

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terry_wood519d ago

Is 1,000 hours really what flipped the switch for you, or did you just get tired of beating yourself up? In my experience the imposter feeling doesn't care about round numbers, it just finds a new target. Take this with a grain of salt but I'd bet you'll feel the same at 2,500.

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