Getting your foot in the door.

[Tesla]

Hi

I'm just another cat very interested in the locksmithing trade, I have been training myself and getting all the experience I can on my own working at an apartment complex. One of my coworkers let me borrow his 2008 Foley Belshaw he inherited from an old friend who was a locksmith. I also have bought several other books on the subject. All of this in the past 7 months.

Last week I went down the yellow pages calling all of the locksmiths listed to see if any of them were hiring apprentices. Though I called all of them I had more interest on the ones with actual shops/stores and those who showed their validations and such. Sure enough all of them said "no", but a few of them gave me words of encouragement and direction.

One told me to try to apply to big stores. Places where they needed people to run the shop and stuff, that in a place like that they'd put me at the lowest level, see what I could do and take it from there.

Another one said that this is how he got started, to keep trying and to never give up. He gave me the name of a store I should try to call, but I had already done that.

The last one suggested, after the assumption that I was unemployed, that I should go to a shop and tell them I was very interested in the trade and curious to see if I could come in and work for a week for free or shadow someone to get a feel for it, to see if it was for me. I thought that was a good idea, but since I work I'm thinking about going to my local locksmith store and give them a couple of hours on Sat. and make some connections. all of this as long as they are comfortable with it.

I'm thinking about calling all those places again in a month or a couple of months from now.

What do you guys think about this?
Could I get any pointers on how I can get started on the trade? I'm not really that interested on having my own business, after reading some posts that seems rather difficult.

Thank you

[keysman]

Yes, that might work. You may want to get back with the few lockies who actually showed some encouragement.
Not only may they be able to “ hire” you , but there is a good possibility that they know other lockies and can recommend you ( or at least give you a “heads up”) if an opportunity comes along.
I would think the smaller 1 or 2 man shops would be your best bet .. Once you can work alone in the shop .. they can book other jobs or actually sleep in on a Sat morning.

You will defiantly want to look into joining your local locksmith association , and perhaps ALOA http://aloa.org/
I am not a fan of ALOA so I will leave others to comment.

Also your local lock distributors are your FRIEND..not only do they know who is doing what around your area, they also make available factory training on various products. The training classes are a great networking tool. ( ie: meet local lockies)

You may also wish to check with the local trade unions.. Carpenters, Operating Engineers ( the people who run big buildings) etc. and see if they have any apprentice programs and what it would take to enroll. You will get paid a lot more $ if you can go the union route.
Good Luck and just stay with it, if that is what you really want to do the job will find you.

[gibson]

try going and seeing the places. if there is an actual brick and mortar operation, go in and ask about jobs. i think you'd do better talking to people face to face, rather than just calling out of the blue on the phone. show them that you're interested in working there. if you're not unemployed, put together a resume describing your job (stress being a self-starter, being a team player. also. any computer experience you have is becoming very important - just e-mailing job estimates and invoices takes up a large hunk of any lockie's day nowadays). thank the people that take the time to talk to you, and KEEP TRYING. things might be slow right now, but who knows what a company's needs are going to be.

[bobhdus]

I live in Liberty Mo, and work in KC. Send me a PM if your still interested in this. I have my own Lock Business and I also work full time in a Factory. It depends on where your at in the KC area, I know of a couple of shops that are interested in taking on part time help. Some of them will train if your not too green. Let me know...

[joecmpt]

I live in Golden, Colorado and I am a engineering student at Colorado School of Mines and and would be interested in some sort of apprentice position on a part time basis. I would be happy to do this for a month or so with no pay and then it be discussed later. I would even be interested in just hanging out with a retired smith and just learning from someone who enjoys teaching. I am just looking to get my feet wet and see what it is like in the industry while maybe some part time work as needed while going to school. If I don't like it well, my skills for my hobby just had a major boost, while the teacher got some free labor.

Joecmpt

[bjornnrojb]

One thing you can do that you may not have thought of: get free training from a locksmith scammer. Call all of the biggest ads in your yellow pages. When you hear one answer the phone with an Israeli accent, tell him you are mechanically inclined, have your own car, and want to work for cheap. Chances are, he will train you for a few days or a week. Chances are, he will also train you very badly so keep this in mind. That being said, you will get free hands on training in opening cars, bumpkeying, uninstalling, servicing and reinstalling residential locks, customer service, etc. When he turns you loose to work for him, quit. Or go do jobs, but charge only as much as other legitimate locksmiths would charge. It will anger your Israeli but it is the proper thing to do. This will mean that you will not make much money at all but it is a trial by fire and you will learn a lot. To my benefit, you will be wasting the time of a scammer who would otherwise be ripping a lot more people off.
After you quit, consider giving the FBI the legal business name of the scammer as well as reporting the scammer's real business name to any customers you saw in the course of your "training". Then, examine what you learned from the scammer and contrast it with the information available in books on the subject.
One caveat to this method is that your name will be tarnished by association with a scammer. If they get sued or something they will throw you under the bus and say that you were an independent contractor and had no idea you weren't competent and blame the whole thing on you. If the law does throw something at them and it sticks, they will desolve their LLC and start a new one. So if you do do this, tread carefully.

[2octops]

That's either a funny post that someone forgot to put a smiley in or the worst advise I have ever heard.

[bjornnrojb]

I know the scammers' lackeys are probably reading these forums, and I want them to be aware of the dangers and long term effects. Not to mention the warning this serves as to locksporters who want to get into the field.

[annavictoriajohn]

Yes you might try that out. It sounds rather funny in getting training from a scammer.

[globallockytoo]

i just took on a kid for work experience, for the last 2 weeks of vacation. He does the dirty work (alongside me) but taught him to cut keys and repin locks already. He is taking to it like a duck to water.
i pay him (but his dad buys my drinks at the pub - lol) as I believe I should.