Careers within Jewellery?

[LenaM]

I hope this is the correct area to post in!

I wondered if I could receive some information regarding careers within jewellery. I'm English, and it's hard to find advice for careers within this area here. I have a passion for jewellery and design and create my own designs. I also have a huge appreciation for diamonds and would love to work with them. I've seen a course with GIA London for £12,000+ which provides you with a diploma in gemology, this seems a lot though.

A decent salary is also a factor too so if anyone could give me some advice on careers within this area it would be hugely appreciated!

Thank you

 

[smc43084]

A GIA degree does not guarantee you a good salary. It all depends what you do with it. I would recommend being in an aspect of the business for a few years, maybe with a diamond dealer, or a successful appraiser. GIA is definitely worth it as an addition to your skills in the jewelry industry, but you need to have experience in the business as there are a million different aspects of the industry. Estate jewelry dealers, appraisers, auctioneers, retail jewelers, diamond dealers, manufacturers, etc...

 

[denverappraiser]

I saw this thread go through a few days ago and forgot about it without writing an answer.

Passionate people are always welcome. That said, I’m not sure GIA is the place to start. Jewelry is a much bigger industry than people tend to think of and nearly everyone wants to start at the top. It almost never goes that way.

Here’s the path:

Find a job -> Find a better job - > Find a career – Advance the career.

GIA training can help on that last part, although I would seriously consider Gem-A for people in the UK, and it can even speed up some of those other steps but the starting is always just about the same. Start at the bottom. Usually that means retail sales but there are other places and they aren’t always hiring. Where else? Here’s some samples: Accounting. Security. Cleaning. Polishing. Restoring. Assembly. Lapidary. Photography. Phone work. Delivery. The key is to get into the industry. Meet some people. Make some connections. Get some exposure to what people in this industry do so that you can get a feel for where you might fit. Rather few are ‘designers’ and NONE of those started out there. Most started on the sales floor or as some sort of junior assistant in some level of manufacturing.