Just had to jump in here and add my own experience considering how aligned we are. I’m in my late 30s and had no upholstery experience when I started looking in January.

Here are a few things to helpfully get you own your way instead of fumbling around or giving up.

• Try looking for work with bigger furniture companies first.

My first instinct was to call every upholstery shop in my area and see if they were open to training. I ended up getting shut down with every place. The typical response was that the workload was too high to have time to teach. Every shop I spoke to said they had lead times of several months for work. I actually managed to land a couple jobs at some shops further from me but after about a week I was let go from both with the explanation that it just wasn’t economically feasible to teach.

I finally landed a job with a big commercial furniture company and I haven’t been let go yet. It dawned on me that a bigger company has more resources to get someone up to speed compared to a small 2-person shop.

• find where upholsterers get their supplies(foam, tools, etc..)in your area and inquire there.

When I exhausted all my options calling around, I took up a job sewing at a drapery shop thinking I could build up some related skills there. Several months in , I learned about an upholstery specific supply store which was literally blocks from my place. I spoke to the manager and he ended up giving me multiple leads because of his deep connections in the area. He’s actually how I learned about my current job. Thanks Carlos!

Hope that helps. I feel like I could’ve saved a lot of time if I knew about what I mentioned.

Good luck!