Has anyone here had to defend themselves from a animal? Here's my experience.

Entirely depends on your area and exactly what trade you get into. Allow me to rant.... For instance, there's subsets. Like there's "welders" yes, but what kind of welding? Are you a structural steel fabricator working in a shop? Or are you a ironworker doing sorta the same thing in the field. Or you could be a steamfitter or boilermaker doing something entirely different, but it's still "welding." The country is huge, and your job market for any one the facets of the welding trade (or any of them, for that matter) can vary vastly. Now everyone from the last 2 generations watched their parents eat the college shit sandwich and be in debt without being able to get a job related to what they studied, so everyone got told "go into the trades!" because they're "in demand" which isn't always the case. Lots of companies want to pay dogshit for skilled labor, and sadly there's more of those than companies willing to pay actual wages for hard intricate work. I'll touch on the "the trades aren't really as in demand as you think they are" point once more and then move on. Long story short, the "I know of X company that REALLY needs people and they pay really well!" jobs are 99% of the time ones where you're working seven 12's on the road with the worst coworkers possible. It rules out people who have or want to maintain a family/at home life. If you're a young guy with nothing nailing you down, then 100% jump at that, work your ass off, make a lot of money. But the reality isn't that for a lot of people, and most literally cannot take that opportunity if it were even offered to them. So moving on... There's a problem with the trades, and here's where I'll bring up unions. Lots of companies do this too, but unions especially. Unions and lots of companies are ran on nepotism, and are generally good ole' boys clubs. When I was looking for a welding company to work for, I applied to several unions, talked to people, etc. Well, what I heard back was this, and I'll tell you how they told me verbatim. "Well if we aren't familiar with you and how you work, you won't really be considered." Extending on this, from speaking to others who are either currently one of those unions, or have moved on from them, the consensus is that if you're not buddy-buddy with someone who's already in (that can "vouch" for you) that your chances of getting in are extremely slim. Think of this, so Terry has been working for local 69 or whateverhtefuck for 20 years. His nephew needs a job. Guess who's getting the job after a short conversation with a higher up. Or Superintendent Joe's son needs a job. You can see where I'm going with this. And also, they might only have like 30 or 40 apprentice slots every year. How many applicants do you think they get? How many people fresh out of high school tech programs or welding school graduates? Yes "welders are in demand" but that's just for experienced ones, and even then you'll struggle to get a job. They don't care about you and your trade school degree because they've got 100 other applicants that have no experience just like you, and they all have that same line on their resume. Companies now want a shitload of experience (3-5+ years) for positions they would've given away to anyone with a pulse in 2018, and the starting wage is the exact same. <--- this is a job market overall issue, not really just a "the welding trade" one. Almost every management or supervisory/QC position is an in-house job opening, and with all of the favoritism that goes along with that too. You can't even apply to be a QC dude at most places. Most welding shops hire outside companies to do their non destructive testing and whatnot. TLDR: The trades kinda suck, but so does every other industry. I'm just speaking on the issues I've seen front and center and have experience with.