I’m a 24 year old man from Massachusetts who has been working as a lab technician at a hospital laboratory. I don’t hate the job, but the more I learn about advancing within the field, the more I realize it is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. I’ve also realized recently that I love working with my hands and having a more tangible product of my work, whether that’s been doing landscaping projects on my property or small, youtube mechanic projects to keep my car running well. Because of these realizations, I’ve begun to search for a new career. My first instinct is something within the umbrella of woodworking, as that is what I’ve had a strong desire to get into as a hobby. I’m posting this to ask the community for advice/recommendations. Pay is a concern, as I realize I won’t make as much as I currently am (60k), at least at the start. What are some career paths with good pay where I can develop woodworking skills? In my daydreams I see myself crafting and selling fine furniture pieces someday. I just have no idea how to get there.
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Woodworker -- your right you won't likely make $60k at the start-- you probably won't make 60k at the end!
But you will have $60k in tools and wood!!
Amen to that
What's the best way to have 400K as a woodworker? Start with 800K.
All the joking aside, look into the Keep Craft Alive program. Fine Homebuilding is a big proponent. There is a link to FHB at the bottom of this page.
Woodworking is a hobby for me so I can't offer personal advice but Nancy Hiller can! She makes her living at this craft and has written about it in the book "Making Things Work".
Here is a snippet from the Lost Art Press website:
If you are considering abandoning your cozy corporate job to make furniture, “Making Things Work” is required reading. It will illuminate you as to how difficult the profession can be. If you are undaunted after seeing the quality of Hiller’s furniture and reading about her struggle to make a living, perhaps you have a shot.
Mike
If you want to spend your life doing something that doesn't guarantee you will earn much money, if any, it helps to be born to wealthy parents. If that didn't happen, then try to marry a wealthy woman, or one who earns a great income herself and doesn't mind that you aren't much of a breadwinner.
Seriously, you haven't even started woodworking yet ("My first instinct is something within the umbrella of woodworking, as that is what I’ve had a strong desire to get into as a hobby"; "In my daydreams I see myself crafting and selling fine furniture pieces someday") and you want to scrap a promising career with a bright future for it?
I would strongly suggest that you begin to do woodworking as a HOBBY for at least a few years and then, as reality begins to set in, you decide whether you have the woodworking skills/ambition/marketing skills/business acumen/luck to justify a career change.
As a recently retired president of a manufacturing company, I've periodically run across young people who have spent a lot of time and effort to get the education/training that would allow them to develop a career, and then have decided after a short time that it just isn't as satisfying as they thought it should be. We had a young college graduate right out of school work for us as a customer service/inside salesperson and he quit after literally three days on the job because he decided that sitting at a computer all day just wasn't for him; he wanted to do something that would allow him to move around during the day, so he went back to a job he had worked part time while in college...loading UPS trucks. A recently degreed engineer quit after a year or so to sell homes for a real estate agency. (The best part of that story was that the local newspaper did a feature for the "home section" of the paper (i.e., the section featuring primarily advertising for the real estate industry) that included an interview with him as a recent hire in their industry. He actually had the audacity to say that after a year or so on the job, he realized that he had done about all there was to do in engineering and that it was simply time to find a new challenge. This, of course, made great bulletin board fodder in the engineering department.)
It is difficult to provide too much firm advice. Certainly keeping your day job while learning the basics and discovering if the reality of woodworking measures up enough to the romance is good advice. And there is a lot of investment needed to be trained and equipped to be a professional woodworker.
Being a pro can also be much more stressful than being an amateur. Things have to come out really right every time, and there is much more performance pressure. To make decent money, you need to be better than almost everyone else, certainly than the guys who think a tablesaw and belt sander make them a woodworker.
Questions to ask yourself to determine if you might be qualified:
1) Are you a self starter? No boss, no schedule unless you make it for yourself and can stick to it. The work needs to get done, and there is no outside structure.
2) Can you manage money really well? Or does it run thru your hands? A woodworking business has a very lumpy cash flow; most of your income comes in when a job is complete, and very little until the next one is. Taking most of the money as a deposit is very risky, as you are likely to spend it before you have earned it. If you are living from paycheck to paycheck now it is not a good sign, unless you can change. To get started in woodworking, you will need to be able to accumulate capital to invest in the business, both in equipment and in training yourself. If you can't do it on your current salary, you certainly won't be able to on a woodworking income.
3) Can you get your overhead down to a minimum? First, virtually no debt, as debt service takes away money first, before it can be used for business improvement. Can you live cheaply for a few years at least, and maybe continue that habit into the indefinite future?
4) Do you have good people skills? Can you talk with people and figure out what they want/are interested in?
5) Do you have any connection to design/art? To be blunt, people are not going to pay you good money to make ugly things for them.
6) Are you planning to have or already have a large family to support? Not going to be easy on a woodworker's income.
7) Are you patient? Doing top quality work requires this in large amounts.
One of the things I really like about being a professional woodworker is the way it uses so many of my facets/skills/interests. I like working with customers to figure out what they want even when they can't articulate it. I like the struggle of coming up with a coherent design within the constraints of the customer's needs and the properties of wood. I like the hands-on work, seeing the project take shape. And I like the gratification of the amazed customer and the nice check they happily write when I deliver the piece that exceeds their expectations.
So, if you don't have some of these characteristics yet, many can be developed over time, but it is not an immediate sort of thing.
I guess this is enough for me to write; I'll leave room for others to add more perspective.
A new career opportunity is always exciting; but your post implies you wanna jump into woodworking without ever having actually built and finished anything out of expensive hardwood lumber. I’d keep the hourly job w/benefits for now until you’ve built and finished a few projects on your own.
J Harvey B has the right of it.
I will add only that you need to be prepared to make things people want, even if that is not what you personally want to make.
The nice thing is that at 23, you have plenty of time. You could enrol in a quality education programme and see if that works for you. If you strike out and it's not for you, then you still have some great skills and experiences to use later in life.
Don't quit your day job. Do your work, collect your pay, and spend the rest of your time doing something rewarding and fullfilling.
No way you're going to make that kind of money to start either as a carpenter, cabinet shop worker, or anything like that. That said, $60K is a totally attainable salary in construction in my area - for now. Many are predicting a construction bust similar to 2008, but for different reasons.
The number of people making a living at "fine furniture making" is infinitesimally small. That said, there are people who do it, but its often big conference tables, or bar slabs, etc. They are not building armoires or dressers or secretaries, for example.
It's all about the market and demographics of your area. In Boston, you may get the occasional reproduction job, for every one of those you'll get 50 built in's or mantle surrounds.
Just to add to the above comments.
Woodworking is a skill. Even if you go through all of the things mentioned in this thread, you need to have some amount of skill. No amount of tools or business acumen is compensation for skill. You can learn woodworking but unless you have an aptitude for it, you may not be successful.
Having gone through this dilemma, I can share my thoughts. Learn basic woodworking as a first step. Create small projects, items you can sell. Market the items to determine if you get any traction. If you enjoy this path and the items you create are well received, work at it part-time while at your day job. Become confident in your woodworking skills. This is exactly what I did for a number of years. Then, and only then, did I take the plunge, left my hi-tech career and pursued woodworking full-time. I knew at this point that it was the path I wanted to pursue! BTW, I wrote a book on my journey. From Hi-Tech to Lo-Tech: A Woodworker's Journey. Website -www.woodskills.com
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Under the general umbrella of the Dave Ramsey radio broadcasting, there is a host who focuses on careers (forget name). This host has a book on the topic that might be worth the $20ish it costs for you delve deeper into the topic on a general basis.
I had a good colleague (like a second father figure to me) who in his late 40s had enough of the corporate job world and moved into the general umbrella of woodworking. He is very skilled and does amazing work. He has had a viable career for 20+ years at this point and is self-employed. The only downside to being self-employed is he works 6 days a week for certain. Possible he could work less if he had worked for someone else. Also, health insurance was a big expense most folks take for granted. There are some upsides to working for yourself and there are upsides to working for an employer.
I think the Against the Grain podcast is worth listening to as well as it is 3 folks doing woodworking as career. Good luck. It's a fun problem to have.
Pick a career where you will make some decent money to support your hobbies.
What about the trades - electrical, pipe fitting, plumbing, welder. Go through an apprentice program. General contractors don't make the money they deserve.
Or get an associates degree in electrical or mechanical technology and work as a mechanic in industry. The most senior mechanics in our plant are making over $100k with a small amount of over time. You will have to pay your dues with the off shifts, weekends, and holidays but you will have the ability to buy some nice toys.
Everybody is looking for new hires but you need to make yourself attractive enough for them to give you a break.
Just a follow up to working in the trades. If you go this route - I would seriously recommend an apprenticeship in the Electrical Union.
The pipe fitters, plumbers, general contractors .. are physically beat up by the time they are in their 50's. Hauling pipe, working outside in the weather ... is a young man's game. It will wear out the best of men. These guys all need to retire early if they are not able to get a management position in their later years.
Good Luck
What about a Bio-Medical Technician, Hospital Maintenance Mechanic. Go to night school and get your Stationary Engineer's License in effort to make your self attractive to stay in the Hospital.
You will be predominantly inside, have job security, respectable pay, benefits and be in good physical health when you retire. With some extra effort you can make yourself attractive to move up and make better money - of course some responsibility and stress comes with the promotions.
It's been a while since the post was published. Author, what have you decided about your career? Have you succeeded in changing careers?
In any case, a good option was suggested above. That you should first try to make money from it as a hobby without leaving your main job.
One of the Dave Ramsey talk show hosts focuses on careers. I think he even has a book to help sort out how to go about finding your career path. I'd go out to Ramsey's website and look for that book.
If you like working with your hands, there might be other careers that pay well that you might enjoy such as an electrician, machinist, or engineer. Not saying no to woodworking. Just need to sort what you really want to do: woodworking vs. working with your hands vs. a job that isn't in an office, etc.
Same old thread, revived by brand new spam
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