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Pro locksmiths, looking for tips on finding my first job

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madsamurai

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Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2017 10:13 pm

Location: Germantown, Ohio

Post Sat Mar 03, 2018 4:28 pm

Pro locksmiths, looking for tips on finding my first job

So some of you may know I've been studying to start a new career as a locksmith. I was planning to finish the online course I've been working on and getting my ALOA certification before starting my search, but circumstances have changed somewhat at my current job and living situation such that I need to start looking for something ahead of my planned schedule. So I'm looking for some insight into what kind of information I should put into my resume to convince employers of my potential more-so than my actual job experience (of which I actually have very little).

As it stands, I've completed about 75% of my online course, but am currently stuck waiting until they upgrade their online portal before I'll be able to continue/finish... that means a wait of a little over a month before I can even get back into it. However at the moment I have a 4.0 average, which sounds nice, but in all truth the course has been pretty basic and I've learned more on here and youtube than from them, so I don't know how much that's going to benefit me. At the same time, I've spent tons of time (and money) getting my hands on as many locks as possible and breaking them down, rekeying them, picking/bypassing them, etc., so I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on the mechanics of things and should be able to be relatively useful starting out, tho I understand there's tons I still don't know. I've also got a lot of handyman experience, tool & die experience from some years ago, computer use/programming experience, and I'm generally really good at figuring things out and love to constantly keep learning new things, and I'm actually really excited about this stuff, so I hope all of that will be enough to get me in a door somewhere.

I'm specifically interested in locksmith positions, not building maintenance (I really don't want to work on plumbing and HVAC, and a lot of the locksmith job postings I've seen are just that). I'm not terribly picky beyond that... just want to primarily be working on locks, even if it's just re-pinning and cutting keys for now. I have seen open positions at places like Diebold Nixdorf and heard about potential openings at Diebold Barrier Group, and that seems like the kind of thing I'd ideally want to aim for as they offer a wide range of lock-specific work as well as training and great benefits, and could be a great long-term career choice, but don't know if a company like that would be interested in my current experience level or if they love that sort of thing (raise 'em like you like 'em?).

So I'd love to hear from some of the working locksmiths here how I should present all of that. I've never been great at job hunting, so any help would help a lot.

Thanks!
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MartinHewitt

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Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 12:19 pm

Location: Germany

Post Sat Mar 03, 2018 5:12 pm

Re: Pro locksmiths, looking for tips on finding my first job

Hm, no idea really about locksmith business, but when I started to work in a business completely different to my education I provided information about my projects in this field. With internet and locksmithing a youtube advertisement video comes to my mind, a video where you show e.g. picking, disassembling and rekeying one lock.
In case you wonder ... Martin Hewitt is a fictional detective in stories by Arthur Morrison:
Martin Hewitt, Investigator Chronicles of Martin Hewitt
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mdc5150

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Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:35 pm

Post Sat Mar 03, 2018 6:07 pm

Re: Pro locksmiths, looking for tips on finding my first job

Are you staying where you are, or are you planning to relocate?

All I can say is good luck. Put all the info you put in this post into your resume. That covers all your bases. Some locksmiths/companies don't care much for ALOA and other swear by it so don't hang everything you have on that alone. The fact that you are getting into locks and figuring them out on your own will help. Especially with tool and die experience which shows a great mechanical aptitude. Good luck to you.
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madsamurai

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Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2017 10:13 pm

Location: Germantown, Ohio

Post Sun Mar 04, 2018 9:59 am

Re: Pro locksmiths, looking for tips on finding my first job

Thanks for the tips, guys.

S&G, I think it was you who posted an answer yesterday that was really thorough, and now it's gone... I just refreshed and now I wish I hadn't. It covered a lot of things I wouldn't have thought to include and a few others I wanted to look up. Not sure why it disappeared, but I appreciate the reply and will try to remember as much of it as I can.

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