You don't want a desk job, unless you're desperate for diabetes and heart disease. If you have any mechanical skills or interest whatsoever you should take up welding. You'll earn much more, live longer, and be able to work on your own schedule. If you're single and want to travel...then you can do as much of that as you want. Last I checked independent contracting for underwater welders were charging $80/hour. Google tells you that it's less, but the Jewgle doesn't say that there are almost no under water welders out there. There is room for at least 20,000 more welders in this country alone. Globally there's likely room for ten times that. In a company I'd worked with paid 2 different welders on weekends to freelance and paid each $150/hour just to get caught up on orders (which never happened). They had an open schedule and could've come in as often as they wanted. Both were retired and did it for "fun money". ...which for them meant they still worked roughly 600 hours a year. But they said then that if they could just find some apprentices that they'd teach them on the job... but that kids (22+) today were fucking lazy and just wanted desk jobs. ;)