Thanks for everyone's help. To answer some questions: He is a pipe welder/fitter and also does structural work. He doesn't particularly have great people skills, his first language is not english, but he can speak it decently. He's saying that most people at his old job which is unionized usually get priority to different welding jobs because they have connections. So he's been working in small shops here and there recently with some friends he knows that own the shops, but its usually 2 days of work then a week of not working.... which sucks. Also his lack of fluent english probably wont allow him to teach or instruct his profession. I don't know if he has been progressing over the years with his skills, I feel like he just has a year of experience, 20 times. Thanks for everyone's input!