In this episode of the Dusty Jobs Podcast, we sit down with welding student Jackson Morgan from Gateway Community and Technical College in Kentucky at FABTECH 2025. Jackson shares his experience attending the show and his passion for building a career in welding.
Narrator: Welcome to the Dusty Jobs podcast from Imperial Systems. Industry knowledge to make your job easier and safer.
Donovan: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Dusty Jobs podcast. We’re at Fabtech 2025, having a lot of people stop by our booth, and who we have a lot stop by are students. We grabbed one of those guys and had them come in to be on the podcast. We got Jackson Morgan, right?
Jackson: Yep.
Donovan: Jackson Morgan, you’re out of Kentucky.
Jackson: Yep. I’m from Kentucky.
Donovan: You guys came the whole way up from Kentucky to see the show, which is awesome. We love that we have students all over. We had some students that are very close to us in Erie, PA, stop in just a couple minutes ago too. So Jackson, first of all, let me ask you this — what do you think of Fabtech so far? Is this the first time you’ve been to one of these?
Jackson: First time I’ve been to Fabtech. First time up in Chicago. Any big event like this, and it’s a lot, but I love it.
Donovan: So, you’re saying if there’s another student out there somewhere and they have the opportunity to come do this, you’re like, jump on it.
Jackson: Absolutely. If you’re given the opportunity, it’s great experience. You’ll learn a lot. You meet a lot of cool people. And it kind of just gets you really involved in the whole industry. It’s great.
Donovan: So, so far, other than hanging out with me, what’s the highlight of the show for you?
Jackson: So far, I’d say I got to get a hands-on with laser welding, which was really cool. Definitely something I never thought I’d ever do. But it was really neat, and it’s definitely the big future of welding for sure.
Donovan: Yeah, without a doubt. Without a doubt. So right now you are a student at?
Jackson: Gateway. Gateway Community and Technical College.
Donovan: Okay, and you’re learning welding, right? But this isn’t your first go at welding, right? You’ve had a little dabble at welding before.
Jackson: Yeah, so I had a little bit in high school, but this is my first like definitely official, kind of professional environment.
Donovan: Nice, nice. So, we were talking about this a little bit before — what’s your hope? You’re getting into welding. What do you want to do? What’s your end goal here?
Jackson: So, I want to inevitably become an engineer. Draw blueprints, design stuff. I’ve always been a little bit creative and kind of think out of the box, but I want to use my hands-on welding experience and knowledge that I’m getting in school and in jobs that I work, and apply that to drawing those blueprints because I think it’s really important to have that.
Donovan: Yeah, without a doubt. That’s great. And I know for us, a lot of the guys in our own shop have had some chances to come out in the shop and do welding. They’ve all said it’s been a great experience to actually have that hands-on experience, and it helps inform them more of what needs done on the drawing side. So, I think that’s incredible, man. That’s just great.
Jackson: Yeah, yeah.
Donovan: So, do you have a specific realm that you want to start getting into, or are you looking for — like if there’s some potential employers out there, what would you want to get into?
Jackson: I know a lot of my schoolmates, they go Mazak. A lot of them go Mazak. But I’m definitely interested in more structural stuff. I’ve always just liked the big, heavy materials, working with them.
Donovan: Yeah. And you know what? Right now in the industry, we need a lot of people that can do that — that can go and work and get into this larger structural steel. Having hands-on experience building that to then go back and design it, I think that’ll be incredible for you, man.
Jackson: Because I mean, designing when you have the experience — you know what works, you know what the efficient ways of getting things done are, and you can kind of work the drawings around that.
Donovan: So how long are you in school for?
Jackson: So, I had my one year of high school at Gateway. It’s an associate’s, so I got my first year done. I’m in my third semester — two years for that. And then when I transfer to the local college, NKU, Northern Kentucky University, it could be anywhere from two to three years. I’d be coming out with an engineering degree and the welding associate’s.
Donovan: Well, that’s great. Are you planning on welding while you go to school? Are you going to try to work while you’re there? What are you thinking?
Jackson: Whatever kind of comes my way. You know, I might do welding jobs. I might see if I could get like an internship somewhere. Really, I just think it’s good to have a wider view, so kind of just whatever comes at me.
Donovan: Well man, it’s exciting to get to talk to a student and get their impression of Fabtech. How do you like our booth?
Jackson: Oh, it’s really nice. I love motorcycles.
Donovan: Oh yeah, it turned out great. Really clean.
Jackson: Yeah.
Donovan: Well, hey man, thanks for coming on. We really appreciate it, and hopefully maybe in a couple of years you’ll stop back in, and we’ll do this again when you’re an engineer.
Jackson: Yeah, that would be amazing. That’d be great.
Donovan: We’ll be excited to see that. So, everybody out there, thanks for listening, and until next time, stay healthy and stay safe.
Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Dusty Jobs Podcast. Breathe better, work safer.
