Graduate Connections – Meet Marcus Malone

Marcus, 34, born Layton, Utah, and raised in Southlake, Texas, completed the seven-month Electrical Technologies (ET) program at our Tulsa Welding School – Dallas Metro campus in February 2026. 

Thanks for your time, Marcus. What did life look like for you in the years after high school?

When my family first moved to Southlake, it was still kind of a small Texas town, but it had this reputation for excellent education. That attracted a lot of wealthy families from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It became a very affluent community – a lot of professional athletes’ kids went there.

Back then the school had programs geared toward becoming a lawyer, doctor, business professional – but there was never anything for the trades. I came from a very different background. Both of my parents grew up in poverty. My parents came from huge farming families – nine and ten siblings each – in East Texas and Northern Utah. So, I never really fit into that upper-middle-class environment.

By the time I graduated high school, I was honestly pretty lost. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. There wasn’t much guidance toward trade careers, at least not in Southlake. I tried community college for a couple semesters but dropped out because I just wasn’t mature enough yet and I didn’t have any direction.

Had going into the trades always been on your mind?

Yes. Absolutely. I grew up helping my dad build custom motorcycles in our garage. He taught me how to make ammunition when I was seven years old. I grew up around tools, machines, fixing things with my hands. My great uncle was Carroll Shelby, the guy behind Shelby Mustangs, so there’s always been this connection to machinery and craftsmanship in my family. For me, being in a shop always brings peace. It didn’t matter whether I was fixing a toaster, working on a motorcycle, or building something with my hands – once I locked into the work, the rest of the world disappeared. It was almost therapeutic, like meditation. 

So, out of high school, no direction, feeling lost…what came next?

I was in a car accident at 20. I ended up needing facial reconstructive surgery, and that changed everything. The medications I was put on led me into opioid addiction. When I got out of the hospital, I later found out they had me loaded up with 13 different drugs, including fentanyl. This was 15 years ago, when fentanyl was really supposed to be reserved for end-of-life care. It turned into a very dark period of my life. By the time I got out of the hospital, I was already dependent and that led to years of addiction.

New: Industrial Maintenance

Learn About Our New Advanced Industrial Maintenance Program

Tulsa Welding School is proud to announce our newest program offering available at our Houston & Dallas Metro Campuses – Advanced Industrial Maintenance Technology! Learn the skills you need to take on the industries of manufacturing, distribution, energy production and facility maintenance in as few as 7 months.

Learn More

Did you get yourself in trouble?

No, I never did serious jail time. I got lucky in a lot of ways. In 2011, I caught a felony marijuana charge in Oklahoma, and back then any amount of weed was treated extremely seriously. But compared to where I could have ended up, I was fortunate. I moved around for a while – spent time in the Midwest, eventually made my way back to Texas in 2016. That’s when I finally decided I needed to sober up and try to build something for myself, even though I still didn’t know exactly what that was going to be.

Good for you. Where did you go to work?

I started at UPS as a package handler. Within 30 days, I was promoted to supervisor. I think that came from how my parents raised me. They both came from poverty to become leaders in the military and federal government, and once I got into the corporate world, those traits showed up pretty quickly. But no matter how hard I worked, my past always seemed to follow me. I’d apply for promotions and constantly have to explain old felony charges. Most people see that on paper and immediately assume the worst.

Eventually I left UPS after six years and went to FedEx in 2022. I did well there too. I was promoted quickly, but I kept running into the same thing over and over again. I finally hit a point where I said to myself, “This isn’t working. I need to do something completely different because I refuse to go back to the life I used to live.” Most of the people I knew from that old life are either dead, incarcerated, or institutionalized now. 

Well, why not, right?

I saw the writing on the wall and decided I absolutely was not going to become another statistic. So, I quit my FedEx job on a Wednesday morning, and by 12:30 that afternoon I had enrolled in Tulsa Welding School I went to my parents’ house and told them, and they were shocked at how fast I moved on it. I’d spent 15 years stumbling around trying to figure things out. At some point you just have to try something different. 

So, at the age of 33, you’re back in school. Did you have to work while at school?

No, I was fortunate. I had saved money while working at FedEx, and my parents let me stay with them while I was in school; they basically told me, “Your only responsibility is to get good grades and succeed.” My dad has degrees and pilot licenses himself, and he told me, “I don’t want you grinding through this program, exhausted every day. Focus on becoming exceptional at it.” So that became my mission. I took that seriously. I didn’t just want to be decent at electrical work – I wanted to be the guy people called when they needed the best person for the job. I wanted to master everything I could.

Once you start learning electrical theory, you realize very quickly why electricians are respected. Electricity powers modern society. Without it, nothing functions. I’ve had doctors ask me what I do now, and when I tell them I’m an electrical apprentice working toward becoming a journeyman and eventually a master electrician, several of them have literally said, “I think you chose the better field.” 

That is cool to hear.

That’s pretty humbling to hear from doctors. Honestly, deciding to become an electrical apprentice and someday a master electrician has been the biggest blessing of my life. It’s extremely fulfilling work. People don’t always realize that electricians are problem solvers. There’s a reason the trade is respected. I mentioned earlier that I find the work almost like meditation. That’s how I feel every day now. My alarm goes off at 4:40am and I’m excited to get moving because I genuinely love what I do. It gives me the opportunity to not be the person I used to be. Honestly, I also think about the people I knew who never got this opportunity. A lot of them are gone now. So even if I wasn’t doing it for myself, I’d do it for them.

What did you enjoy most about your experience at Tulsa Welding School?

Probably Fridays. We weren’t required to come in on Fridays, but I showed up every single Friday anyway.

To me, school became like being in my own shop again. I could completely focus. I was always ahead in the coursework because I genuinely wanted to understand every aspect of the electrical field. It sounds strange to some people, but after spending nearly two decades grinding through lower-middle-class jobs, being able to focus entirely on learning something meaningful honestly felt like a vacation. 

A vacation! Did the program come easily to you then, or were there days when you doubted yourself?

Oh, absolutely, especially at the beginning. My first class was Intro to Photovoltaics – solar electricity. I remember thinking, “This is why electricians get paid what they do. I may not be smart enough for this.” 

How did you overcome those thoughts?

Every time I started doubting myself, I’d stop and ask, “Do you really want to go back to your old life?” The answer was always no. So, I kept studying. I leaned heavily on instructors and classmates. Fridays became almost like one-on-one tutoring sessions because hardly anyone else showed up. There was another student named Elijah who already had some electrical experience. The first day I saw him wiring a control panel, I could tell he understood things at a different level. I walked right up to him and basically said, “Teach me everything you know.” We became really close friends after that. We still talk every day.

What schedule were you on? 

I did morning classes. But honestly, I stayed as long as I possibly could every day. Even after class ended, I’d stick around listening to instructors talk about life in the trades because those little conversations contain decades of experience. One of my instructors told me, “If you don’t mind traveling, go apply at Red’s Electrical Service.” That advice completely changed my life.

So, is that where you’re working? Red’s Electrical? When did you start?

I graduated in February and started with Red’s Electric in the middle of March. I really wanted to work at Red’s because they’re in Whitesboro, Texas, and it’s traveling work. I didn’t want to be stuck in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. A week and a half after graduation, they reopened apprentice applications, so I applied immediately. My instructor Earl Rogers told me they were leaders in the field, and he was absolutely right.

You mentioned traveling. What kind of work are you doing?

It’s all commercial work. Red’s specializes in massive fulfillment centers for Amazon, UPS, and FedEx –  huge, automated sorting facilities, sometimes over 250,000 square feet. Right now, I’m in Florida. After this project, I’ll head to Pennsylvania in about three weeks. 

Are you happy financially as an apprentice?

Yes, sir. My parents always taught me how to survive on very little. So now that I’m finally making decent money, I don’t feel pressure to spend it all. I save a large portion of my per diem every week. And honestly, compared to taking on massive student loan debt for a traditional degree, the trades make a lot of sense financially. You’re earning while you’re learning. A lot of people my age went to medical school and are drowning in debt. They may drive nice cars, but behind the scenes they’re broke.

Does going to trade school speed up the process toward becoming a journeyman electrician?

Definitely. That certificate and the hands-on training matter, especially with bigger companies. It gets your foot in the door and once you’re in the door, opportunities start opening up. Without school, you can absolutely become an electrician, but you’re often competing for smaller residential jobs without the same level of training or advancement opportunities. The commercial side is a different world. It’s like comparing minor league sports to the English Premier League. Everybody at that level is highly skilled.

What’s the timeline from apprentice to journeyman?

Generally, around 8,000 hours – about four years – depending on the state. Some states track hours very strictly; others are more flexible based on demonstrated skill. Eventually you take a journeyman’s exam where you have to prove you understand the formulas, calculations, code, and theory. It’s not subjective – you have to know your stuff.

What’s your career plan? It sounds like you plan on staying with Red’s long term?

Absolutely. One of the reasons I chose Red’s is because it still feels like an owner-operated company instead of some giant corporation where you’re just another number. The moment I walked through the door, I felt valued as a human being. That loyalty means something to me. The owner invests heavily in apprentices. They have training programs, housing between jobs, continuing education – they genuinely want people to grow within the company. That told me everything I needed to know about the culture.

You mentioned the support of your classmates earlier; do you maintain those connections?

Their help was huge. A group of us from school became really close. We’d hang out outside class, during holidays, weekends – it became a brotherhood. And honestly, I hadn’t felt that kind of camaraderie in over a decade. I needed it more than I realized.

What advice would you give someone thinking about starting at Tulsa Welding School?

Don’t be afraid to take the leap. Some of the scariest decisions I’ve made – quitting a stable job, enrolling in trade school, taking a traveling position – turned out to be the best things I ever did. Especially when you’re young, take chances. You still have time to recover if things don’t go perfectly. But if you stay stuck in something that isn’t working, eventually you wake up and realize years have gone by. And don’t let fear of school stop you. I was never a great student growing up. In fact, part of the reason I became obsessed with succeeding at Tulsa Welding School was because I’d never really succeeded academically before. Sometimes people surprise themselves when they finally find something they genuinely care about.

If you’re a TWS graduate and would like to share your success and be an inspiration to others, please email [email protected] to be considered for a Graduate Connection interview. Please include details such as your graduation date (month/year), program, and campus name (Tulsa/Jacksonville/Houston/Dallas/Atlanta).