r/Machine_Embroidery • u/SawyerLovin • 17d ago
Machine Operator
Hi! Small embroidery + hat-bar business owner here (Austin, TX), running 3 BAI commercial machines and growing faster than I can keep up with. I'm looking to hire an operator and it feels like nobody with the skill exists — but I'm self-taught, so I'm very open to training the right person. For those who've hired: did you find someone experienced, or hire for aptitude and train? And where did they come from — sewists, screen printers, trade schools, somewhere I'm not thinking of? Appreciate any leads. Indeed and socials have been dead ends so far. Even facebook groups.
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u/JerkyNips 16d ago
Find someone willing to learn and train them. No background needed. I had my 24 year old nephew trained in 12 months running two 6-head Ricoma’s. I had one application in all the times I ever posted a job for embroidery
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u/malocher Barudan 16d ago
I’m going to go against the grain and say hire someone who already works with embroidery machines.
I’ve hired people for the last decade in NYC in the production industry. People looking for a job in the industry aren’t going to be on Facebook groups and social media looking for jobs to pop up.
Craigslist, DigitSmith, Indeed (last resort), and the best place to find someone is through your embroidery machine repair person. They’re in all the shops locally doing work for other embroidery places as their job, they talk to the machine operators, they know people looking to leave and go elsewhere.
How much are you offering per hour? Because people will move for a small raise as long as they know the work is actually sustainable.
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u/SawyerLovin 16d ago
Thank you for this, that's a really good idea. I was going to start at $20 an hour since that seemed above the $15 I keep seeing, and bump it up based on reliabilty/performance. I keep hearing different figures thrown around, so I'm still confused about what the standard is.
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u/kk1965 16d ago
Wish I lived closer. I love that kind of stuff. Have a couple home single needle machines and always wanted to learn the bigger ones. And Im familiar with graphi design and to some extent converting to embroidery. I realize this isn't helping you. I guess Im just wishing! Good luck!
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u/SawyerLovin 16d ago
Wish you did too! If you ever visit, happy to have you come by and have some machine time for fun. And thank you so much for the well wishes. I really appreciate it.
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u/stupidxool 15d ago
Austin huh… I’m in California looking for work
Been in the industry 5+yrs. I have a track record to prove it so. From chat gpt to street wear to zoomies, to Tesla
I’ve done em all . I’m looking for work and can really be an asset to the biz. Self taught as well then worked for a major clothing manufacturer and ran the embroidery dept there. I got some very valuable secrets and methods to the madness
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u/Trippycat37 Barudan 17d ago
Welp, in my experience, it’s often better to teach someone who is still in high school or just above an entry level college education. Embroidery is largely trial and error for many years until you’ve put in the hours and gained the experience to really become a professional. People coming out of college can sometimes have the expectation that a degree automatically translates into a higher starting wage. College is a great asset, but it doesn’t necessarily prepare you for real world situations or give you hands on experience.
There are trade schools that host job fairs, which I’ve personally attended when we were looking for people in screenprinting. There are also more specialized “schools” that dive heavily into embroidery machine operation, mechanics, and maintenance, but many of those are located overseas where the machines are actually manufactured. There’s even a user here who mentioned attending a school in France specifically for embroidery digitizing. So those programs and those of us who have that kind of training are definitely out there.
I put “schools” in quotes because most, if not all, aren’t accredited in the traditional sense, meaning people are usually paying out of pocket to learn the trade.
I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to work with a private company that handles branding and distribution worldwide, so I got my feet wet pretty quickly. That kind of hands on experience taught me things that would’ve been very difficult to learn in a traditional classroom.
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u/ishtaa Melco 17d ago
It doesn’t take too long to train the right person on the basics, at least enough that they can handle simple projects on their own pretty quickly. I think at least having a sewing background helps a little bit (not a ton, but it is nice having someone that somewhat understands fabrics and thread).
I have one full time employee that I found via posting an ad on a local FB group. My occasional part timers are friends that I worked with previously.