3 Key Attributes Furniture Finishers Need To Succeed In Their Career

by Ethan Jones

Friday, November 13, 2015

Furniture finishers shape, finish, and refinish damaged, worn, or used furniture or new high-grade furniture to specified color or finish.

The core tasks that furniture finishers are likely to carry out include:

Mix finish ingredients to obtain desired colors or shades.
Brush, spray, or hand-rub finishing ingredients, such as paint, oil, stain, or wax, onto and into wood grain; then apply lacquer or other sealers.
Smooth, shape, and touch-up surfaces to prepare them for finishing, using sandpaper, pumice stones, steel wool, chisels, sanders, or grinders.
Select appropriate finishing ingredients such as paint, stain, lacquer, shellac, or varnish, depending on factors such as wood hardness and surface type.
Fill and smooth cracks or depressions, remove marks and imperfections, and repair broken parts, using plastic or wood putty, glue, nails, and/or screws.
Distress surfaces with woodworking tools or abrasives before staining to create an antique appearance, or rub surfaces to bring out highlights and shadings.

In order to successfully forge ahead with their careers, analysts in a survey carried out by U.S. Department of Labor (via O*NET) have marked out the following as important attributes that furniture finishers would need. These attributes have been selected from characteristics and requirements strongly associated with the occupation. They are

Abilities: Enduring attributes of the individual that influence performance
Interests: Preferences for work environments. Occupational Interest Profiles (OIPs) are compatible with Holland's (1985, 1997) model of personality types and work environments. Six interest categories are used to describe the work environment of occupations: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. An OIP consists of six numerical scores indicating how descriptive and characteristic each work environment (or interest area) is for an occupation
Knowledge: Organized sets of principles and facts applying in general domains
Skills: These include basic skills, which are developed capacities that facilitate learning or the more rapid acquisition of knowledge. Plus cross-functional skills, which are developed capacities that facilitate performance of activities that occur across jobs
Style: Personal characteristics that can affect how well someone performs a job

We have listed out attributes which were scored 80% or more in terms of importance by the analysts.

Having a strong preference for realistic work environments. Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.
Attribute Type: Interests Score: 100%

Being careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 86.2%

Being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 82%