I was asked the same question when I applied for a casino job. The lady couldn’t understand why I wanted to leave easy well paying job to come work for them. Just by chance I had bee welding overhead all week and had plenty of good fresh burns on my chest and back. I told my shirt off and said to this kind lady “you tell me why in the hell I want to leave. Needless to say I didn’t get the job. Truth is no welders got the job because they wouldn’t hire people who had current jobs.

Here are just some of my answers not including the example I posted to Perry which happened quite frequently.

1. I have scars from burns on EVERY part of my body.
2. I have lost my hearing.
3. Had metal and grinding shavings removed from my eyes so many times they are scarred all over. Damaged my eyes so bad had to have laser surgery to repair the damage.
4. Had a hip and knee replacement due to the abuse my body HAD to take.
5. Suffer from asbestosis.
6. Required to work long hours 12 hr. days were the norm.
7. Required to work in all but the most dangerous weather conditions.
8. Hazardous conditions. Saw several people killed and disabled.
9. Equal rights, doesn't necessarily mean equal skills. The better you are the more you get the shaft. All tests are given in a booth but the true welding tests are on the shop floor.
10. They never take a good hand off his tools.

Try it sometime, you will understand. Convince me this is the sort of work you want to be doing in your late 50s and 60s and Sure people left jobs and migrated west. They didn't have to worry about building a house that met any standard, buying land, or child services education and the host of other things that the government requires. Look at those pictures on the SHAPE website and tell me how good those people had it.

There are a bunch of good old welders but very few old good welders.

GP