The 2014 Graves County High School graduate decided to go straight into the workforce. "I spent several years at a shop here in town, Universal Technology Inc. I learned a lot there, left, and went on to join the Boilermakers Local 40 out of Elizabethtown and have been there ever since. That's the boilermakers' only union local in Kentucky, but the members are spread throughout the state."
Dowdy continued, "I get dispatched to short-term jobs. I like them because you get to go to somewhere different, see the places, make a bunch of money, and then come home. Welding will take you anywhere you want to go. There are jobs everywhere. The employers are wanting people all the time. (In power plants) we work about six months out of the year. I say it's the best part-time job you'll probably ever have," he said with a laugh. "The work revolves around the outage season, when the plants shut down in fall and spring because there's not as much demand then for electricity."
The 21-year-old Dowdy said, "I help keep powerhouses and chemical plants working. Powerhouses keep the lights on and chemical plants are what keeps the products in your home and business. I'm proud to be a boilermaker, helping to keep those things happening. There's nothing wrong with using your brain, but I like using my brain with my hands."
Many students prefer working with their hands. "I've had students like that and I can identify with that," said Mayfield-Graves ATC welding teacher Charles Price, who has taught there the past 22 years, starting before Dowdy was born. "There's just so much of a pass or fail mentality and no repeat chances in a lot of school. Welding is all about repeat chances. You will learn this skill and then spend the rest of your career trying to perfect the skills you learned in high school."
Price continued, "We have some (ATC students) who go on to West Kentucky (Community and Technical College). We've even had some students go to Tulsa (Okla.) Welding School. This year, we have two students going to Lincoln Tech (Welding School, which includes a campus in Nashville, Tenn.) I tell the students when they come in here that they are not doing what they're doing for me. Really, they're doing it for themselves because the higher skill level they develop when they graduate, the more money they can make. I tell them it's the first class they're taking that they're going to use directly to make money in the long term. Students at this level don't know where they're going to wind up. Maybe, if they're lucky, they know where they're going to start."
"A lot of people don't realize you can come out of a trade school wherever you are and make decent money," said Dowdy. "When I came out of school at 18, I made $40,000 right away."
"Matt is serious about skill development," said Mike Miller, principal of the Mayfield-Graves County Area Technology Center. "He pushes himself to earn these certifications. That's the key to raising that salary. In just his second year in the boilermakers union, he's already getting 90 percent of a journeyman's pay."
Price added, "I've always told the students, if you don't have any kind of skill, you are competing against everybody else who fills out a resume, but, if you have a specific skill you're applying to fill, you eliminate everybody else out there who doesn't have that skill, a large part of the population. Then, if you show up to work on time and be a dedicated employee who will work hard, you eliminate a lot of the other people who have that specific skill."
Dowdy concluded, "The sky's the limit. It's nothing for somebody to make $100,000, but you have to go out (to various places) to do it. Making $60,000 is very doable. What a good career opportunity a center like this (Mayfield-Graves County ATC) can provide directly into the job market."
