If you have the following skills and abilities, you would make a great jeweler!

• An eye for detail. Creating jewelry requires concentration and patience. Bench jewelers must give attention to large and small details on the pieces they make.
• Arm and hand steadiness and control, plus finger dexterity. Jewelers must precisely move their fingers in order to grasp, manipulate, and assemble very small objects.
• 3-D visualization skills. Jewelers must imagine how something might look after its shape is altered or when its parts are rearranged. The ability to "see" a design in three dimensions helps.
• Customer service skills. Not all jewelers interact with the public, but increasingly, this skill is important. Jewelers who work for a design or retail firm that hires designers and sales associates to work directly with customers may not have significant customer interaction. But given the growth of custom and customized jewelry, an increasing number of jewelers will benefit from this skill in the future.
• Artistic ability and a knowledge of popular jewelry styles. This is helpful if you will be working with customers. However, many bench jewelers are not designers and simply execute designs made by others.
• A strong sense of integrity and honesty. Jewelers work with some of the most valuable materials in the world. Because of this, you will find that most jewelry businesses include a security screening as part of employment.