The alarm goes off at 5 a.m. You get ready by gassing up your dually truck, filling up your cooler, picking up your helper and heading to work over an hour away. This is 26-year-old veteran Daniel Benavides’ daily morning routine as a welder; a pivot from his initial idea of becoming a lawyer one day.
After graduating from United South High School, Benavides made a decision that would help shape his life. He joined the United States Marine Corps. “There I learned I didn't want an office job,” he said. He also learned most of his management skills and how to carry himself from participating in meetings with his commanders. These skills would come into play later in his story.
After four years in the military and earning the title of sergeant, he finished his time in the Marine Corps, returned home and took his parents’ advice of going to college. Benavides decided he wanted to learn a valuable skill that would give him the fulfillment he felt in the Marines. “I remember thinking…‘I want to work outside’,” he said.
After hearing about the vocational courses available at Laredo College, Benavides used his post 9/11 GI Bill and enrolled in the Welding Program to earn his Structural Combination Welding Certificate and Combination Pipe Certificate.
While progressing through the program, he was able to recognize a welding rig in his neighborhood. “You have to network,” he said. Words that would spark his success in the world of welding. Benavides went to his neighbors house and spoke to the owner of the truck with the intention of asking for a ride-along but ended up making his first professional contact.
After earning his certificates and with a phone full of contacts, he put any fears he had aside and began his dive into a career that matched the fulfillment he felt in the military.
Now, Benavides conquers certification after certification using the fundamental set of welding skills he learned at Laredo College. “I can’t think of anything that I learned here that I don't use out there,” he said.
He plans on being a successful welding business owner by taking what he learned at Laredo College and welding that knowledge to his management skills learned from his military days.
Benavides also shared three pieces of advice for new and current students.
First, he encouraged students to pick their instructors’ brains, second, use every minute of your lab time effectively and third, start networking. “A good place to start networking is with the person to your left and to your right…a year later, we still have a group chat,” he said.
“It’s who you know that gets you in and it’s what you know that gets you to stay,” he concluded.
