Careers Overview

Careers in Wood is your invitation to consider opportunities in advanced wood processing in Canada. There is a need for people like you! Did you know that there are far more jobs today than qualified people to fill them? The industry is looking for young people from apprenticeship programs, as well as college and university graduates. Wood products processing is one of the fastest growing manufacturing sectors in Canada. The industry needs skilled and educated people for careers in furniture and cabinetmaking, product design, quality control, plant layout, computer applications, equipment sales and service, and international trade and marketing. The industry demands high quality, innovative and technically sophisticated people. Great opportunities exist in our sector for entry-level workers as well. To compete globally we need more people at all levels of the industry.

As this sector becomes more and more technologically advanced companies will be looking for hands-on, problem solvers, who show a keen interest in computers and engineering, have creative minds, and who are conscious of the need to practice environmentally friendly building and manufacturing. There are worldwide career opportunities working with nature’s most environmentally sound and renewable building material – wood.

Advanced wood products processing is exciting, modern and sophisticated. It uses high technology to transform lumber, wood chips, and panel products into a wide range of manufactured products, including:

• Furniture
• Kitchen and bathroom cabinets
• Windows and doors
• Solid and laminated flooring
• Structural panels, fibreboard, and particleboard
• Engineered wood products such as LVL, I-Joist, and structural composite lumber
• Factory built housing & building components
• Millwork – including mouldings, banisters and rails, and other architectural finishing products.

Wood product companies from across Canada, and around the world, are competing for skilled graduates. These companies include sawmills, re-manufacturers, panel producers, kitchen cabinet and furniture manufacturers, architectural woodwork companies, factory built housing builders and many others.

Careersinwood.ca has career profiles of men and women working in the sector. Read about what they do and where they work in our Career Profiles section of this web site.