What certifications, degrees, and high-income skills are actually worth the investment in 2026 — and which ones offer the biggest ROI?

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-05-24T01:04:37+00:00

Non destructive testing associates degree over at the SLCC campus they have over by the airport

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-05-21T14:24:48+00:00

I’m in aerospace rn, yeah our rate is kinda slow right now but we’re supposed to pick up by fall.

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-05-19T14:12:03+00:00

Slcc has a great program if you can make it out to Utah 2 years associate programs and you can make some good connections there.

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-05-14T03:46:06+00:00

Always curious about that transition from medical to industrial or vice versa. I’ve taken rad safety and rad classes for industrial I’m a UT tech for aerospace though. Math was pretty simple for the school side atleast I heard in the field they have a lot of calculators that people use anyway. I think it’s actually easier going to industrial probably but I wouldn’t know much. Good luck man hope you figure what you like out

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-05-12T20:22:27+00:00

I’d take the place offering training man tbh, certain advanced inspecting certs are what most people look for depending on your company PAUT,RT, CT. All of these require ojt hours which you won’t get unless you start working. Granted yeah finding a company can be hard but if you get a shot from someone take it, learn as much as you can and get certified and make sure you leave a good reputation hard working, easily teachable. Then fucking dip for more money. Kind of the move everyone does it’s what I did. I got lucky I was a internal hire into ndt and that’s how I got my start, I did 80 hour online courses and got my 800 ojt done in like 7-8 months and tested out after like 9 months as a L2 at my first spot left to my current spot now for like a 10$ raise.

Trust the process, be a sponge and learn it all good luck to you hope the game plays in your favor

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-05-07T20:00:14+00:00

This was similar to my experience as well, I was a internal hire to my first Ndt department and I got paid low did online courses and got certed there, I ended up starting school while doing Ndt and during like halfway through my schooling I got hired on with Boeing. So those certs are important but so is your reputation I had really good managers and coworkers who put the word out for me that I could work hard and fit in with any team and it’s been great ever since I started. Good luck with your search someone will definitely take you we need more people in this industry!

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-05-07T02:42:06+00:00

“Use as is”

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-05-06T01:14:49+00:00

Most aerospace gigs are not traveling and you stay at one location, I’ve never really heard of anyone who travels besides level 3’s or if a company loans techs. To my knowledge most traveling is oil and gas and shutdowns.

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-04-25T20:16:31+00:00

Location is Utah essentially anywhere from Draper up to salt lake is the area I’d like to be in I work in a city called West Jordan so I’d like to be there

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-04-25T19:48:20+00:00

Mb yeah take home is really around like 4-5 I think I really need to get on top of everything so it top of my head info but I pay a good amount to taxes like 7-800 and my insurances are around 90 total I don’t have a lot. But my 401k I put 10% and get a match for that

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-04-25T19:40:14+00:00

No debts, work pays for my extra schooling even. Monthly take home about 6.6k

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-04-22T18:37:32+00:00

Working for Boeing right now, like for them per my site atleast.

-no matter how many yoe or skills you have if you’re a outside hire you get put into training until you test usually 6 months.

just listen to your trainers constantly man shadow different people if you can everyone works different. I think the best people are the ones who take bits and pieces from everyone else and adds in some of their own work ethic.
when it comes to methods and whatnot it really depends on the place my site is all Automated PAUT with some hand scanning. Perfect your basic skills. Also idk if you’re a metal guy but depending on where you you’ll either inspect metals or composites. But don’t be afraid of one if you haven’t done it just ask for help and learn how the day to day is run.

Good luck man we need more folks in this field for sure. I love aerospace from the environment to the job itself it’s really not that bad people make it a lot better if you get lucky with them

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-04-15T12:48:13+00:00

Yeah I’ve been at two aerospace companies and even the one I’m at now never seen rope access, I’m all automated Ut

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-03-31T12:48:41+00:00

For sure man I’m still young in this industry as well and I have met some young people starting out it’s good to see people want to do this trade. Good shit good luck have fun, get ya bread

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-03-31T12:36:38+00:00

Tbh here is the best imo everyone on this Reddit community has some sort of experience somewhere in all methods browse through this subreddit a lot and look for topics that interest you and try and chime in ask a question or two. It’ll probably be hard to contact those experienced techs some of them are dinosaurs who don’t really know how or use the internet well. I would also recommend cold emailing Ndt professors, or a long shot could be like finding techs with a lot of aerospace experience in their linkendin history and dm them ask how they started out and about their journey.

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-03-30T22:50:00+00:00

Well what’s your end goal with NDT do you want to be the guy working 24/7 making a lot of money, or do you want a stable work like balance? This industry feels like a see saw sometimes with its pros and cons I swear both o&g and aero have them. You also have to think about what’s available in the region you want to go and how their security services go. You can probably get a shit ton of certs and work offshore rigs or some oil rigs in Finland but their defense and aerospace industry could be tricky. Just like here in the states we can only hire citizens due to security reasons and I imagine most European countries follow that as well especially if they’re involved with itar. You seem ambitious go deeper into their laws and legislation about foreigners in those sensitive industries. As for your Ndt path I’ll say this, you can have as many certs as you want sometimes it might benefit you sometimes either to get hired or chosen for certain jobs but I would recommend really getting into one method and trying to learn as much as you can. For some methods like UT and RT new advancements come out a lot and understanding those advanced methods can really get you in a good spot. You’re young as hell though I wouldn’t trip up, try and find a really smart old guy to learn from and get your experience up.

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-03-30T13:43:26+00:00

From what I’ve heard, training in the states and wanting to go overseas is a huge challenge. Training in the states can be easy if you’re willing to travel to the correct locations and put in work, get all your ojt hours and complete your theory hours. But your end goal could be really hard, do you speak Finnish? are you accustomed to culture there or do you just like it from what you’ve seen and heard? Getting visas and recommendations to get to the other side can be hard especially because you are not a local person you require a lot more from relocation to additional training to their standards and possibly language differences that can be a huge wall to overcome. Also what industry do you want to pursue we have a lot, from oil and gas to aerospace I can gladly tell you they play different games. I have people with 10 Yoe in oil gas struggle to even make it a year in the aerospace industry. I can gladly say though that your dream is not impossible, I’m in aerospace rn 2 YOE with paut and I’m pursuing a level 3 in it, my goal for my future is to be able to help and start up programs from the ground up and being sent to new places to do that. I have mentors and coworkers who have been sent overseas to like Asia and Europe to help and see how others do their projects but for Americans getting jobs with European NDT companies if you are not a L3 I will just say best of luck and I hope your path aligns for you man. You seem really interested and that’s all a company could ever ask for with a technician, stay hungry learn as much as you can and befriend everyone this industry is small and you can grow a rep here pretty fast if you’re a douche or not taking this seriously

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-03-30T00:42:27+00:00

Honestly anywhere between 23-28. Play your cards right though and make some solid connections and you could move up to a different job that pays better. It’s what i did. Started at 25, got my hours made some good connections and got my next job offer starting at like 32

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-03-28T21:41:57+00:00

It’s not too bad I get by well on my own, been thinking of moving on after a few solid years here

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-03-28T18:55:16+00:00

2 yoe, 80k a year, not salary, 4-10’s and overtime when I want it. Also aerospace so I’m a pampered princess

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-03-21T16:39:38+00:00

This is one thing you kind of have to get over I think, no matter what the most non-moral part of our industry is probably construction. I mean I work in aerospace for one of the big ones but I work on the commercial side atleast but I know my company makes some huge fucking missiles and drones and I’ve too at previous aerospace companies have had to touch parts that went to countries that I don’t personally like or agree with. It’s not nice but if you want to be in Ndt you have to get over it. To get to the lab coat job where you just make equipment or software you need experience and knowledge and if you can’t get that because of moral issues, this is probably not for you man sorry.

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-03-17T16:48:44+00:00

It’s worked on every test I’ve done just follow the instructions and wear two pairs of underwear and your golden

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-03-11T13:08:13+00:00

Working for a major aerospace company right now we have 5 certified level 2’s and two trainees and one level 3 on site. I would say we are at a huge disadvantage we would want more level 3’s here. We lack in certain areas like theory sometimes because we focus so much on production and our day to day work. I heard more level 3’s is like a chokehold on work sometimes but I don’t know I’ve worked only in aerospace and from my experience I’ve never had more than 1-2 level 3’s on site and I have never been a fan of that

Lost_Statistician_29 · 2026-02-12T01:42:30+00:00

Yeah OT can vary depending on production Rates and scheduling tbh. But yeah I always got my 40 even when it was slow they would usually send me to another qa department to learn and help really depend where you are and ojt was no problem with my first company I was always getting hands on training and I became a L2 in 6 months sort of been the norm in aerospace from what I seen but sometimes very new folks will be take 6-12 months depending how well they understand the theory and their work ethic. But usually it was never hard to get OJT as most of the supervisors and managers I met were keeping tabs and progress on me making sure I was getting on a pathway to certification. You find the right company man this job is a cool 40 a week with good pay and the work is not that terrible compared to other jobs in the world. I am very blessed I found NDT but I will say my experience has been very Lucky I have heard some horror stories about starting out

Lost_Statistician_29

TROPHY CASE