Re: "junk locks" from the shop
donthelocksmith wrote:Violaetor wrote: .......He did however offer me an apprenticeship at minimum wage for 40 hours a week, I'm pretty sure that was to discourage me from coming back.
WOW! And you didn't take him up on the offer? Apprenticeships in locks-shops ( in the US anyway ) are few and far between. Most are reserved for family members or friends. The owner clearly sees you have potential.
You may wish to stand back and look at this from a different perspective.
Your initial contact included asking for junk locks , You can be sure saving junk locks you for isn’t / wasn't real high on his priority list, partially because there is little or no money/ benefit involved .
This man has a small business that requires a lot work in different areas of expertise ( accounting, inventory, marketing, janitorial etc) in addition to day to day locksmith business.
Taking on an apprentice is a huge liability, it will be a while, before an apprentice will be up to speed and able to be a asset to the shop. Meanwhile the apprentice gets a paycheck and will make mistakes that require the assistance of a more experienced person to fix. ( this all costs money/time)
He has offered you ( from his prospective) a pretty sweet deal: you get locks to play with and hands on knowledge about the trade. He gets an employee who hopefully can be an asset to his company in the future.
If the idea of an apprenticeship doesn't appeal to you for what ever reason, you should be courteous enough to thank him for considering you.
I did of course thank him for the offer, but I am a business owner and have no interest or time to take on something like that. I would have jumped on it if I was just out of school, but for me this is really a hobby I enjoy the puzzle box aspect of picking and crafting the tools thats about where it stops, other than intellectual level stuff.