North Texas woman, 19, has found a career she loves - welding
Originally printed in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram by Harriet Ramos
This article appeared in HOLT CAT NEWS.
At 19, Kim Flores is on track to graduate from college in December and is already working in her chosen career - welding.
As a shop welder at the Caterpillar equipment dealer HOLT CAT Irving, the Grand Prairie resident works on compactor blades, excavators and anything else that needs to be rebuilt or repaired.
Kim Flores was introduced to welding in high school and now works as a shop welder at HOLT CAT Irving.
Flores said she wanted to learn welding because it involves making things beautiful.
"You can rebuild it and make it into something of value," she said. "and just something really pretty, like the excavator we were working on outside. It was dented and all messed up and then we repaired it and it looked brand new."
According to the employment website indeed.com, certified welders in Texas make nearly $60,000 per year. For those who specialize in areas like rig or industrial pipeline welding, the pay can be over $100,000.
As a woman welder, Flores is in the minority. According to the American Welding Society, there are 754,000 professional welders in the U.S. as of 2021. Only 5% are women.
Flores was introduced to welding in a high school shop class, but she said she'd always noticed everyday objects created by welding and wondered how they were put together.
Kim Flores says she likes to take things that are old and beat up and restore them like new.
"Everything that I see, it's welding," Flores said. "Whether it's cars, bridges, stoves, anything really. It's just welding everywhere."
During Flores' junior year at Dubiski Career High School in Grand Prairie, she applied for an internship at HOLT CAT Irving. She was accepted and assigned to the transmission shop.
"It's just repetitive, repetitive, repetitive," Flores said. "So I was like, OK, I'm going to try something new."
Flores started spending her lunch breaks in the welding shop, something that the supervisor for CAT Support, Craig Crowe, said made her stand out.
"That kind of caught all of our eyes to the point of hmmm, someone that has that much dedication to a trade, you know, HOLT CAT really wants to flourish that," Crowe said. "They want to put that into, you know, use."
Flores transferred to the welding shop, where she is now a full-time employee.
During the week, Flores is in the welding shop by 6 a.m. When her shift ends at 2:30 p.m. shes heads for the Texas State Technical College in Red Oak, where she will graduate in December with a certificate in welding.
She said it's a long day, but she likes the variety of projects she gets to work on.
Shawn Vales, the HOLT undercarriage supervisor, said Flores is particular about the quality of her work.
"[You] could tell that when the finished product is done that ... whoever did it put their time and all their effort into it to make it look better than new," Vales said.
She's the only woman in her area, but Flores, who grew up with three brothers and no sisters, said workin in an all-male environment feels normal to her.
At 14 she learned auto mechanics along with an older brother so she could repair the family car. She can fix a flat tire, change the oil and rebuild an engine, but welding is where her heart is.
She eventually wants to work as a field welder, someone who welds on location away from the manufacturing shop.
Vales said Flores is a quick learner.
"We have so many different things throughout just this one shop that she could be welding on a machine, she could be welding on a component that goes into the machine," he said. "So there's different areas that she could do and she has no problem in being able to figure it out and take on a task without any issues."
Flores said girls who enjoy working with their hands should consider welding.
"To me, it was like a fun thing to do," she said. "So I was like, 'Why not get a job that's fun?'"
