Just wrapped welding school and felt the clock start on turning practice into a paycheck, so I built a tight 90‑day plan around one cert, one page, and one portfolio. Posting this in Jump into Welding for anyone mapping those first steps after school. What’s working is a dead-simple habit: 20 minutes right after the booth to log settings, defects, and one photo in a Google Sheet that auto-feeds my resume and a QR-linked mini portfolio.
Example: last Tuesday I booked my first cert two weeks out, pre‑paid to lock it, then ran a focused 25‑minute vertical‑fillet session at 115 A and saved the cleanest bead photo — one entry that became a tight resume bullet with proof. I keep verbs strong and numbers visible (timeboxed practice, pass date, photo evidence) so a hiring manager can scan in 8 seconds and see progress, not just course names. Watch-out: stacking 2–3 cert attempts at once drains c