Goldsmith

Briefly explain what you do for a living.

I work as a master goldsmith in a joint company with my wife, Chao. We manufacture products from precious metals, i.e., gold, white gold and silver. We both have our own collections, and we do unique items to order. In our work, we invest in materials and quality. We have our own online shop. We are an export company with customers all over the world.

How have you ended up in the profession of your choice?

I became aware of my own strengths at school relatively early. I had a good imagination, and I was creative and visually oriented. After secondary school, I thought I wanted to go to a field where I could do something with my hands. The idea that it was difficult to get into the LAB Institute of Design and Fine Arts to study fascinated me. So, I decided to apply for a place to study and got in.

My job is as much entrepreneurship as it is that of a master goldsmith. The traineeship I completed with a goldsmith gave a lot of boost for my path into becoming an entrepreneur. He was a kind of a free spirit and taught me about creative entrepreneurship. That's when I realised that you can and must have fun at work.

Describe your typical working day or week.

It may be difficult to describe what a typical working day in a small company is like. Still, we strive to ensure that each working day would include both what could be called the main work and developmental activities. The main work means designing and manufacturing jewellery. In addition, we spend time on marketing, maintaining the online shop, purchasing supplies and writing e-mails. Our work is guided by the fact that we always need to anticipate what future will hold and plan our activities accordingly.

What kind of work environment or working hours do you have?

I work in the office and in the workshop. If you want to work professionally, you need to make investments in the goldsmith's workshop. Melting and working precious metals requires good fume cupboards, lighting and various chemicals. You must also invest in fire safety.

I don’t have any actual working hours. I can freely decide on my own schedules. This means that the limit between work and leisure is very vague, especially when we are an entrepreneurial couple. Often, we continue working until the evening. It doesn’t suit everyone, but for us, this is a way of life.

What kind of competence or qualities are required in the profession?

If you are going to make a living as a goldsmith, it requires excellent technical skills, creativity and artistic talent. A successful goldsmith is often a designer, an engineer and a commercial actor at the same time. Courage and preparedness for entrepreneurship cannot be emphasised enough. Acting as an entrepreneur in Finland requires surprisingly much.

It is important to find and develop your own special expertise or concept. Usually those who observe the surrounding world, trends and changes with curiosity succeed in this field. They're always thinking about the next step ahead.

What is the best thing about your profession?

Freedom. If the sun shines, I can go and eat ice cream on the beach. Also, the fact that I can work with top professionals from other fields and nice customers.

What are the downsides of the profession or what seems challenging?

Managing the whole package of running a business is challenging. It takes some time to understand what you should do yourself and what you should outsource. There is a lot of work to be done all the time, and there is a risk that you do not pay enough attention to the long-term development work. Sometimes you need to take some distance from your own work to see the big picture. The ability to manage stress is also an essential part of entrepreneurship.

What would you tell a person considering the profession of a goldsmith?

Find out what goldsmith's work is really like. Very often it requires acting as an entrepreneur. If you don’t have the will or readiness to do so, you have considerably fewer options. Do not hesitate to talk to professionals. Even though they are often busy, they are happy to tell you about the industry. If you become an entrepreneur, the beginning may be hard. The economic situation can vary greatly. And you must make investments to be able to work professionally.

New opportunities may open up around your core competence. Goldsmith’s work often involves fields such as art or photography. Cooperation with others has helped many of us find new ways of developing our own services, products and competence, and find new partners.

How do you see the future of your profession?

The goldsmiths are a small trade and will remain so. International actors of high professional standard will also manage in the future. Craftsmanship and manufacturing skills are growing trends. You need to find your own thing and develop it into products that sell. Finnish exoticism is surprisingly popular around the world.

Training for the profession is challenging because higher education in particular has been driven down over the last decades. The alternative is to seek education through an apprenticeship, i.e., be trained by someone with more experience, or go abroad.