If you enjoy working with your hands and testing your skills, joinery could be the vocation for you. However, if waking up early and working outside in cold weather is not something that appeals to you, perhaps you need to look elsewhere. Like all things in life, if you really want something bad enough, you will make the sacrifices and prevail. Likewise, there are a million different excuses out there for anyone looking for them. Below are some pros and cons of being a joiner and hopefully, they will nudge you towards or away from this form of employment.
Pros
One thing you will find if you become a joiner is that it’s not a boring vocation. Far from it in fact. If the thought of sitting in an office all day long performing less than challenging tasks is anathema to you, joinery is just the ticket. From dawn till dusk, you will be out in the field, repairing various damaged windows and other broken wooden structures. You will travel all over your local area, becoming friendly with those you encounter.
There will also be occasions when you get to create brand new items back in your workshop. If you are interested in the joys of coming up with your own unique designs before bringing them to life, then joinery is a great choice for you. Unlike other jobs where you get paid the same no matter how much work you do, joiners are paid extra if they perform more tasks. If you have a great work ethic and a desire to earn, joinery could be extremely lucrative.
Cons
One man’s pros are another’s cons. Joiners have to wake up extremely early in the morning. This is no mundane 9-5 gig, you could be working from 6am in the morning until late at night if required. Joinery is not for someone who likes to have a carefully worked out schedule because things change in this job all the time. You may be ready to go home only to find that another important project needs doing.
You have to be a lover of the great outdoors or else you will quickly turn against the job. As a joiner, you will be asked to work on projects outdoors and in the UK, the weather is not always your friend. To be a joiner, you also have to be in good physical shape because it is a demanding job. The mental strain can also take its toll as deadlines need to be met. You will be asked to lift much heavier loads than you would in an office so if you can’t handle aches and strains, joinery is probably not for you.
Joinery is not your ordinary vocation but it still has plus and minus points like all other jobs. You don’t necessarily have to like waking up early in the morning, working long hours and lifting heavy loads to love life as a joiner. Your body and mind will get used to all these stresses. You need to ask yourself whether or not you enjoy being creative and working with wood enough to make the sacrifices that inevitably come with being a joiner. If you love joinery enough, the so-called cons will become pros in your eyes.