Locksmiths are an excellent professional option for people who like to work with their hands and brains. It's a flexible career that lends itself to both creativity and logic. If you like puzzles and problem solving, you'll enjoy a career as a locksmith. CareerExplorer rates locksmiths with an F employability rating, meaning that this profession should offer poor employment opportunities in the near future.
In the next 10 years, the United States is expected to need 3,300 locksmiths. That figure is based on the retirement of 4,200 existing locksmiths. Job satisfaction as a locksmith is high. A locksmith always helps others.
They can take a bad situation, change it and improve it. One advantage of working as a locksmith is that locksmiths have fairly decent job security. Being a locksmith takes a relatively short time and is a great return on investment for a career. Locksmiths employed in the manufacturing industry of aerospace parts and products earned the highest salary.
Since you'll have to work on weekends, holidays and at night, you'll have a fairly poor work-life balance as a locksmith compared to secretaries or other people who only work in a standard 9-to-5 environment. While locksmiths don't usually make a lot of money, they can make quite a lot of money during the night and on weekends, since people are willing to spend a lot of money if you open their doors and if you're flexible with regard to your working hours, you can also earn decent money too. Modernized countries are seeing a technological advance in locksmithing and electronic security as threats to businesses and homes also advance. After earning a high school diploma, you may want to check with community colleges and technical schools in your area for locksmith training courses.
As the locksmith industry is increasingly modernized, it is important to keep up to date with technological innovations in the field. Locksmiths like to solve problems by taking apart something that isn't working, fixing it, and putting it back together. Working as a locksmith isn't the most exciting job either, and since the tasks are quite repetitive, you might soon get bored of being a locksmith. Check with your local hardware store for vacancies, ask locksmith companies, or choose a job in a related field.
Locksmiths often have to respond in emergency situations and can be a valuable part of any company or running their own business. Since working as a locksmith is physically demanding, you can also stay fit at work and not have to go to the gym, as many other people who work in classic office jobs usually do to stay in shape. Locksmiths spend a good amount of time driving to different workplaces, especially if they provide emergency services. Working as a locksmith has been a proven business model for many decades and it is likely that you can also earn a decent living in the future with this profession, at least if you are intelligent and willing to work hard.
A locksmith training program should now integrate technology to help future locksmiths become more valuable to companies that want to protect their businesses through advanced security systems. You should also know that you will have fairly limited opportunities for promotion as a locksmith and that you will work in the same position for many years or even decades without actually being able to move up the business ladder, as many of your friends would do at the same time.