Still Building America—Inspired by a heavy metal-playing welder

It can be as simple as looking up to someone in your family.

“I was introduced to welding by a family member, who was also in a heavy metal band, so I thought welding was really cool at a pretty young age.”

He’s in a heavy metal band? Check. He’s a welder? Check. The cool factor was something that stuck with Steve Habbestad as he grew up. He was destined to burn metal.

Steve was fortunate enough to attend a high school where welding classes were offered. It was the one thing in school that he liked and excelled at. How many kids do you know who are lost in school with no alternative available? Here’s another example as to why exposing students to multiple paths is important.

With high school behind him, Steve took a blueprint-reading course at a local community college, and beyond that his skill and knowledge were forged by on-the-job training.

Now he runs his own business, Habbco Welding, out of Sacramento, Calif. Steve specializes in sanitary welding in the beverage/food processing industry, but he doesn’t limit the scope of his work. “We also weld and install just about anything requested.”

The uniqueness of each job is why Steve turned his focus to his trade and this industry specifically:

“It was money, at least at first. Welding was the job I could find that paid more than other ‘labor’ jobs. But I had to keep looking for more challenging work, as I would grow restless quickly once the job became too easy. Once I found the industry I'm in now, I really fell in love with welding. There was no looking back.”

So it makes sense that the favorite part of his job is, in a nutshell, that he doesn’t get bored.

“The diversity of it [is what I like]. I always get to do different things. And with the custom fabrication side of my business, I get to build all kinds of different things.”

Steve Habbestad, Habbco Welding, Sacramento, Calif.

Down the road Steve wants to extend Habbco Welding’s reach around the globe, to weld at an international level.

Steve’s path has been unique: from a family member he looked up to exposing him to welding, to attending a high school where welding classes were offered, to that one college course that taught him how to read a blueprint, and to the extensive on-the-job training that allowed him to enhance his skills as he went from job to job. If you find something that you enjoy, be relentless in pursuing it. There is no one road to success.

All images courtesy of Habbco Welding.

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