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I'm hoping I can get some clarification from any experienced carpenters here,
I'll try and keep to the point but apologies if I go off tangent!
Left school in 99, did 2 years at college, gained my city and Guilds in Handmade Furniture design and manufacturing (or along those lines),
Never pursued a career in bench joinery, instead spending the following decade, in a series of low skilled, low paid jobs while I enjoyed been young and dumb.
6 Years ago, decided to go back to college and gain my carpentry diploma, I was at the time hoping to get an apprenticeship but I never found anyone willing to take me on (maybe my age). So without finding employment (maybe could have tried harder), I started doing jobs on the side, Handyman/maintenance stuff, but always pushed doing little carpentry jobs, It worked to some extent but it turns out I'm a terrible businessman and could never get my admin in order,
So I ended up taking a job with a local locksmith company, I've learnt so much while been with said company and the sole role is to hang doors, internal, external, timber, composite, security but mainly Fire doors,
I've learnt loads in my time here but It's almost all self taught and as the only qualified carpenter, I've not had opportunities to pick up skills and knowledge from others on the carpentry side of things,
As with most jobs, we all have to wing it to some degree or another, thats fine, I've done this but I've serious doubts about my skillset, knowledge and if I'm even a carpenter at all,
There are a couple of reasons I can pinpoint that are causing my low self esteem,
1. I'm slow, I was diagnosed with dyslexia just before my GCSE exams but never really given any help or understanding about what this meant, it's only recently that I've recognised some of my strengths and weaknesses and seen them aligned with what dyslexia is to me, my processing can be fairly slow with all aspects of my life including working on the tools, this isn't always the case and can vary from day to day and its countered by other stronger than normal abilities such as problem solving and recognising patterns.
Ultimately, As I've never worked with other carpenters, fitting doors, I have nothing to compare to in my pace, to give you an indication, I recently replaced a dozen or so flat front doors with FD30 rated doors, trimming, rebating for Intumescent seals, hinges, letter boxes, BS deadlocks, signage, door viewer, each door in to the existing frames took me around 5-6 hours.
2. My employer, Firstly I need to start by saying that for the most part, I enjoy my job and the company I'm in, that said I'm at a stage now where I'm wondering if my relatively low salary is enough for the work I do.
In the company those on the tools are paid somewhat equally (I suspect), we all have different skillsets, knowledge and experience to offer over the different services we offer,
I however am the only one officially qualified in my trade, I don't see myself as been better than others but is it unreasonable to expect one skillset to earn more than another if they ultimately bring in the same money, i.e 8 hours of locksmithing and 8 hours of door hanging, this is how my company see it, tools is tools, which makes my work as carpenter undervalued because I can do plenty of the locksmithing but no one else can do my job (within the current team), heres the sticking point, I could probably be bringing in more money if I was more efficient but this leads back to my first concern of been too slow. do I settle for been slow and live with underpaid or do I start blagging it again and look elsewhere, knowing that almost every other job available, hanging doors, I've found is offering a much higher salary and I can't help feel like I'm in the wrong company to grow as a carpenter.
I don't really doubt my end product, I've got an eye for detail and my finishing is pretty good, even If it takes me longer,
Is this a bad trait to have because I don't feel like I'm getting rewarded for what I set out to do when I went back to college.
Can a door fitter be successful if they're good but not rapid?
I'll try and keep to the point but apologies if I go off tangent!
Left school in 99, did 2 years at college, gained my city and Guilds in Handmade Furniture design and manufacturing (or along those lines),
Never pursued a career in bench joinery, instead spending the following decade, in a series of low skilled, low paid jobs while I enjoyed been young and dumb.
6 Years ago, decided to go back to college and gain my carpentry diploma, I was at the time hoping to get an apprenticeship but I never found anyone willing to take me on (maybe my age). So without finding employment (maybe could have tried harder), I started doing jobs on the side, Handyman/maintenance stuff, but always pushed doing little carpentry jobs, It worked to some extent but it turns out I'm a terrible businessman and could never get my admin in order,
So I ended up taking a job with a local locksmith company, I've learnt so much while been with said company and the sole role is to hang doors, internal, external, timber, composite, security but mainly Fire doors,
I've learnt loads in my time here but It's almost all self taught and as the only qualified carpenter, I've not had opportunities to pick up skills and knowledge from others on the carpentry side of things,
As with most jobs, we all have to wing it to some degree or another, thats fine, I've done this but I've serious doubts about my skillset, knowledge and if I'm even a carpenter at all,
There are a couple of reasons I can pinpoint that are causing my low self esteem,
1. I'm slow, I was diagnosed with dyslexia just before my GCSE exams but never really given any help or understanding about what this meant, it's only recently that I've recognised some of my strengths and weaknesses and seen them aligned with what dyslexia is to me, my processing can be fairly slow with all aspects of my life including working on the tools, this isn't always the case and can vary from day to day and its countered by other stronger than normal abilities such as problem solving and recognising patterns.
Ultimately, As I've never worked with other carpenters, fitting doors, I have nothing to compare to in my pace, to give you an indication, I recently replaced a dozen or so flat front doors with FD30 rated doors, trimming, rebating for Intumescent seals, hinges, letter boxes, BS deadlocks, signage, door viewer, each door in to the existing frames took me around 5-6 hours.
2. My employer, Firstly I need to start by saying that for the most part, I enjoy my job and the company I'm in, that said I'm at a stage now where I'm wondering if my relatively low salary is enough for the work I do.
In the company those on the tools are paid somewhat equally (I suspect), we all have different skillsets, knowledge and experience to offer over the different services we offer,
I however am the only one officially qualified in my trade, I don't see myself as been better than others but is it unreasonable to expect one skillset to earn more than another if they ultimately bring in the same money, i.e 8 hours of locksmithing and 8 hours of door hanging, this is how my company see it, tools is tools, which makes my work as carpenter undervalued because I can do plenty of the locksmithing but no one else can do my job (within the current team), heres the sticking point, I could probably be bringing in more money if I was more efficient but this leads back to my first concern of been too slow. do I settle for been slow and live with underpaid or do I start blagging it again and look elsewhere, knowing that almost every other job available, hanging doors, I've found is offering a much higher salary and I can't help feel like I'm in the wrong company to grow as a carpenter.
I don't really doubt my end product, I've got an eye for detail and my finishing is pretty good, even If it takes me longer,
Is this a bad trait to have because I don't feel like I'm getting rewarded for what I set out to do when I went back to college.
Can a door fitter be successful if they're good but not rapid?
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