What is the career placement process after trade school?
Greg Bartelt, Founder of Vogue Furniture in Royal Oak, Michigan gives a workshop on Drawing in Perspective.
What is the career placement process after trade school?
At SBWI, our instructors and employer relationships work together to land students high-quality employment.
Does SBWI offer career placement?
We are relentlessly focused on your success throughout the Wood Design program and beyond, into your career as a woodworker. SBWI is a small school, so we don’t have a “Career placement” officer or a formal program. Instead, we invite interested employers to present to our students in the spring, and we work our deep relationships and meaningful connections to help students achieve their employment goals.
Who hires SBWI graduates?
We are currently building a whole page on that. Some of our recent grads have gone to work at metrica, Herman Miller, Rust Belt, and locally as a set carpenter for the Croswell Opera House. You can read these stories on our website including Daniel Kraus, Rahme Mourad, and Katie Walkowski.
We actively cultivate relationships with employers who would be good for our students. For us, this. means they pay a good starting wage, and the work is interesting. The woodworking community is small, and close-knit. Through participation in our program you will meet people who run successful furniture companies, who work as artists, and who are employed in the fast-growing field of mass timber, for example. These relationships will help you determine where you want to take your future.
We are proud to share our graduate employment data for the past five years.
SBWI Graduate Employment in Wood Industry
Will I have a job as soon as I graduate?
Our students have accepted offers of employment right around graduation. This can be a right place, right time situation with an employer who is looking to hire right then. Other times, it can take some time to develop a connection, and for the right opening to become available with the right company. Again, we are looking to match you with an employer that you will be happy with, and who values the advanced skillset you are bringing to the table.
Additionally, students may choose to go their own way, starting or relaunching their own furniture business.
Our business courses ensure that you have what you need to connect with employers, put your best foot forward, create a portfolio, and other skills needed to advance as a professional artisan.
What careers are available after woodworking trade school?
Again, we’ve got a whole blog on that. In addition to carpentry and woodworking jobs, students may pursue employment that merges their knowledge of woodworking with other types of skills like managing others, engineering, supply chain management, or teaching. Here are a few examples of job titles our students are qualified to pursue:
Furniture Design & Building Business Owners
Furniture Building Small Business Owner
Design Manager, Product Engineer
Prototype Design Maker
Project Managers
Woodworking Teacher
Kitchen Design, Cabinetry Manager
Furniture Restoration & Wood Design Manager
Finish Carpenter
Where are the best career opportunities for woodworkers?
SBWI is located in Adrian, Michigan. We have strong connections with employers in the Great Lakes (often called the Rust Belt) of the United States. Just an hour north of us, in Detroit, our state famously led the world in manufacturing the automobile, and we are deeply invested in the movement to restore skilled trades as a meaningful career pathway in this region. If that sounds good to you, you’ll be in good company with the many regional employers we work with.
However, we also host students from around the country, and around the world, who are not interested in settling in this region after graduation. We’ve watched our graduates ship out to the East Coast, the South, and places further west. We’ve waved goodbye as they go back ‘across to the pond’ to pursue their next chapter as an internationally-trained woodworker.
To Recap
SBWI takes a relationship-driven approach to career placement, connecting students directly with employers through our instructors and industry network.
Over the past five years, 89% of graduates have secured employment in the wood industry. Some accept positions at graduation, others take a little time to find the right fit, and some launch their own businesses.
Whether you stay in the Great Lakes region or head elsewhere, you will have exposure to a wide range of industry careers and pathways, and the support of our staff and instructors behind you all the way.
Ready to Apply?
If you are ready, apply to our Wood Design program to prepare for a career in the trades. If you’re just looking to explore woodworking, taking a short course is a great way to get to know us.
If you have any questions, reach out to our Vice President of Enrollment who can walk you through all the above, and more.