Please provide a short personal biography about yourself.
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My name is Josh and I work at Bond Security Group in Blackburn VIC. I went through the bulk of my schooling with no firm idea of what I wanted to do for a career. It was when I was in Year 10 I started to develop an interest in working in the security industry.
At the time I was looking into cyber security and I attended University to study this. However, in my second year of study Covid hit and I dropped out because I found the learning difficult without being in the physical classroom environment. After that I started casual employment while I figured out what I wanted to do.
After a few years I developed and interest in physical security. It was a family friend who was working as a locksmith that shared his experiences which inspired me to become the locksmith I am today.
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What are some of the skills & abilities necessary for someone to succeed as a locksmith?
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think there are three main skills/categories of skills that are required for a good locksmith; Hand skills: Whether it be cutting keys by hand, installing locks or making tools for various jobs, the ability to physically execute on a given job is vitally important to any locksmith.
Flexible thinking: In this job we are constantly being presented new and novel problems, whether it be an imported lock that needs repairing, a strange configuration on a door that makes fitting new hardware difficult or a new product, the capacity for flexible thinking is a requirement for being a good locksmith.
Interpersonal skills: Whether it be talking with customers or coworkers, strong communication skills are vital for effective working in this trade. You can know or do everything so being able to ask for help or advise customers on next steps is an indispensable skill.
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What key issues do you think will affect the locksmith industry in the coming decade? And how do you think these should be approached?
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The increasing variation and complexity of the work required/expected. Most people will come to a locksmith if they have a problem with any key or lock regardless of whether it is for a vehicle, residential or commercial job. Whether it is new or old, whether it is antique or digital. This means there is a increasing requirement for every locksmith to be a fairly skilled in all aspects of locksmithing. While not a bad, this puts a lot of pressure on newcomers to the field as well as requiring existing locksmiths to put almost as much time learning the new things as working with the existing products.
One way to alleviate this pressure is to incentive creating "T shaped people". This means the everyone knows and can do at least the basics of everything and then has at least one element that they specialise in, whether it be automotive or fitting or digital etc. This makes both entry into the trade easier as well as better enabling us to adapt to further changes.
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Tell us why you should be Australia's Best Young Locksmith.
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Becoming Australia’s best young locksmith would be an honour. If you ask anyone around my workshop they will tell you that I am passionate and committed to my work, constantly interested in learning and developing new skills. I am always willing to help support the rest of my coworkers when needed.
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