Is 35 too old to start a career as a tree surgeon?

[Pathfinder]

6 hours ago, Khriss said:

Couple of blokes up there who may help.  Will find out.  But you may be better moving  for the experience. York area my home area. K

My course manager has offered to connect me with some past students that operate around York, but I'm not tied to York.  Apart from the three days I spend at Askham, I also spend time near Scunthorpe and in Sheffield.  I can easily work from any of those locations, which makes for far more opportunities.

 

Failing all that, I will apply to the Peak District Park Authority and National Trust, although it probably wouldn't be paid.  As long as I'm working outside, I'm happy.

[MattyF]

35 is way to late if you want to make a production/freelance climber .. by the time you have got any skill set worth paying you will be 40 and every sporting injury will come out or worse arthritis .. at this point you may have enough skill set to cope with most trees you still won’t have 10+ years that it takes in my view to even grasp the characteristics of different timber and it’s conditions, seriously I would give this a lot of thought as I’ve seen people come in at there mid 30’s and 40’s tired of office work and doing out door work has finished them , unless they have vast funds of family fortunes to squander.

[Pathfinder]

While it might be late to be a full time climber, arboriculture is a lot more than just climbing and cutting trees.  Nothing says you have to be a full time climber, in fact as my climbing instructor explained, you don't even need to do the climbing to get a Level 3 in Arb and Forestry.  Climbing is an optional module and not required by C&G to pass the course.   You could choose to do something else related to trees as an endgame and just do the climbing bit for fun. Albeit this may not apply to the OP since he wanted to become a tree surgeon, which technically isn't an Arborist, its generally just someone who paid for the tickets and probably did them over a couple of weeks (or at least thats how my course leader differentiated between the two).

 

As I stated earlier I really don't see me climbing indefinitely after I get my tickets (and I'm honestly more likely to go with a MEWP down the line since I already have past experience with them).  My future lies with the more theoretical end of things.  I realise that I'm coming into this profession quite late.  That leaves me with a handful of possible routes to take, but in all honesty getting a level 4 and 5 and doing something academic or biochem is the end route I will follow.  I quite enjoy Soil Science and Pests and Diseases, so think that may be where I will end up in the future.  Maybe take the odd climbing gig on the side for fun or if I need to surveys for research.

 

I'm of the belief that you should push yourself until your body says no.  When you reach that point, find something else to do.  While I can haul my ass up a tree, I will probably do so, but some day in the future I will wake up and say enough is enough and move on to a different path.  I will probably never be rich doing this, but if it makes me happy, then so be it.  Money isn't everything, happiness on the other hand is.  If you can get both and have not much stress while doing it, its even better.  Whether this path will give me that is unknown, I know office work didn't, warehouse/logistics and construction jobs didn't either.

 

Sorry for the long post.  I appreciate your view, MattyF.

[MattyF]

While it might be late to be a full time climber, arboriculture is a lot more than just climbing and cutting trees.  Nothing says you have to be a full time climber, in fact as my climbing instructor explained, you don't even need to do the climbing to get a Level 3 in Arb and Forestry.  Climbing is an optional module and not required by C&G to pass the course.   You could choose to do something else related to trees as an endgame and just do the climbing bit for fun. Albeit this may not apply to the OP since he wanted to become a tree surgeon, which technically isn't an Arborist, its generally just someone who paid for the tickets and probably did them over a couple of weeks (or at least thats how my course leader differentiated between the two).
 
As I stated earlier I really don't see me climbing indefinitely after I get my tickets (and I'm honestly more likely to go with a MEWP down the line since I already have past experience with them).  My future lies with the more theoretical end of things.  I realise that I'm coming into this profession quite late.  That leaves me with a handful of possible routes to take, but in all honesty getting a level 4 and 5 and doing something academic or biochem is the end route I will follow.  I quite enjoy Soil Science and Pests and Diseases, so think that may be where I will end up in the future.  Maybe take the odd climbing gig on the side for fun or if I need to surveys for research.
 
I'm of the belief that you should push yourself until your body says no.  When you reach that point, find something else to do.  While I can haul my ass up a tree, I will probably do so, but some day in the future I will wake up and say enough is enough and move on to a different path.  I will probably never be rich doing this, but if it makes me happy, then so be it.  Money isn't everything, happiness on the other hand is.  If you can get both and have not much stress while doing it, its even better.  Whether this path will give me that is unknown, I know office work didn't, warehouse/logistics and construction jobs didn't either.
 
Sorry for the long post.  I appreciate your view, MattyF.

You do what you gotta do dude, if your cut for it you will be hobbling around still going with two fuct hips and arthritic hands when your 70 and loving it.
I would say though I have been in the industry since I was 16, I grew up in it too and at 42 now have seen many arbs come and go , many people seem to have some sort of mid life crises and decide they have a calling to work with trees, be a climber and be out side and I don’t recal many if any of the later cutting it at all and on average lasting around 5years before having enough and walking away regretting the day they spent 1000’s on training and giving up there cushty jobs.
If you can get level 3 certs,great but it really sums up the industry in my view , folks with virtually zero experience in jobs on trees, dealing with trees and watching them for years getting the jobs for the boys because they couldn’t or can’t cut hard work and weather and that’s all this job is , a relentless battle against things that have full on potential to kill you in stupid heats , freezing or soaking weather, machines that break down and dealing with absolute dick heads in the general public , apart from that it’s mint and I would never do any thing else [emoji38]
You see you kind of get institutionalised and addicted in some sadomasochistic way to it, im convinced also there is some kind of chemical imbalance in good climbers who need a fix of adrenaline to even lead a normal life... they can’t go on holiday , they can’t spend time out side of trees with out the urge to get up work hard , get stuck in and go for it ,basically it some kind of ptsd .....like Charlie sheen said in apocalypse now about getting back in the jungle and all you can think about when your there is coming home..
well any way , best of luck[emoji1303][emoji1303]

[Pathfinder]

I was hoping to curb my adrenaline junkie requirements, a bit. ;) My life has been a bit of a long list of very scary things looking back on it, with free climbing and cave diving probably topping the lunacy list.  Chainsaws so far haven't really given me the willies.  Using them around immature younger people (at the college), yeah that might do it..  But still maybe it is a midlife crisis in some ways, but I also kind of can't work indoors anymore for other reasons.  I could have done Hort, but I'm looking for something with a little more fun in it.  I just wish I'd taken the leap 6 years ago when i first contemplated doing it.

 

The working outside in all weathers doesn't really faze me.  I was formerly a Roadie for 15 years doing stage builds (in all weathers) and occasionally climbing and rigging.  In 5 years I will hopefully have some idea of what I want to do in the industry.  For now its more of a learning experience.

 

Have a good day. :)

[Joe Newton]

11 hours ago, MattyF said:

You do what you gotta do dude, if your cut for it you will be hobbling around still going with two fuct hips and arthritic hands when your 70 and loving it.
I would say though I have been in the industry since I was 16, I grew up in it too and at 42 now have seen many arbs come and go , many people seem to have some sort of mid life crises and decide they have a calling to work with trees, be a climber and be out side and I don’t recal many if any of the later cutting it at all and on average lasting around 5years before having enough and walking away regretting the day they spent 1000’s on training and giving up there cushty jobs.
If you can get level 3 certs,great but it really sums up the industry in my view , folks with virtually zero experience in jobs on trees, dealing with trees and watching them for years getting the jobs for the boys because they couldn’t or can’t cut hard work and weather and that’s all this job is , a relentless battle against things that have full on potential to kill you in stupid heats , freezing or soaking weather, machines that break down and dealing with absolute dick heads in the general public , apart from that it’s mint and I would never do any thing else
You see you kind of get institutionalised and addicted in some sadomasochistic way to it, im convinced also there is some kind of chemical imbalance in good climbers who need a fix of adrenaline to even lead a normal life... they can’t go on holiday , they can’t spend time out side of trees with out the urge to get up work hard , get stuck in and go for it ,basically it some kind of ptsd .....like Charlie sheen said in apocalypse now about getting back in the jungle and all you can think about when your there is coming home..
well any way , best of luck

Amazing. Best post I've read in years. 

[Pete Mctree]

You really need to understand the industry a little more before taking the plunge at your age. It has very little resemblance to anything you will see or learn on any training course & the standard you will trained too is far short of what you need to achieve.

You will probably need to work a couple of years at or slightly above minimum wage and work hard to earn it. Try it for a good few months before investing serious capital in my opinion.

 

Like Matty, I have been in the industry many years and have seen many older trainees come and go, without a good word to say about the industry & a bag of regrets.

[SamanthaSunny]

21 hours ago, Pathfinder said:

While it might be late to be a full time climber, arboriculture is a lot more than just climbing and cutting trees.  Nothing says you have to be a full time climber, in fact as my climbing instructor explained, you don't even need to do the climbing to get a Level 3 in Arb and Forestry.  Climbing is an optional module and not required by C&G to pass the course.   You could choose to do something else related to trees as an endgame and just do the climbing bit for fun. Albeit this may not apply to the OP since he wanted to become a tree surgeon, which technically isn't an Arborist, its generally just someone who paid for the tickets and probably did them over a couple of weeks (or at least thats how my course leader differentiated between the two).

 

As I stated earlier I really don't see me climbing indefinitely after I get my tickets (and I'm honestly more likely to go with a MEWP down the line since I already have past experience with them).  My future lies with the more theoretical end of things.  I realise that I'm coming into this profession quite late.  That leaves me with a handful of possible routes to take, but in all honesty getting a level 4 and 5 and doing something academic or biochem is the end route I will follow.  I quite enjoy Soil Science and Pests and Diseases, so think that may be where I will end up in the future.  Maybe take the odd climbing gig on the side for fun or if I need to surveys for research.

 

I'm of the belief that you should push yourself until your body says no.  When you reach that point, find something else to do.  While I can haul my ass up a tree, I will probably do so, but some day in the future I will wake up and say enough is enough and move on to a different path.  I will probably never be rich doing this, but if it makes me happy, then so be it.  Money isn't everything, happiness on the other hand is.  If you can get both and have not much stress while doing it, its even better.  Whether this path will give me that is unknown, I know office work didn't, warehouse/logistics and construction jobs didn't either.

 

Sorry for the long post.  I appreciate your view, MattyF.

I LOVE your attitude and your outlook and totally agree ??

[Mick Dempsey]

There’s nothing wrong with modules, certificates, tickets and all that Jazz, it all helps in the learning process.

 

However getting ‘tickets’ doesn’t make you a climber, or even mean you can climb to the level that someone will pay you money to do it.

 

 

 

[Khriss]

16 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

There’s nothing wrong with modules, certificates, tickets and all that Jazz, it all helps in the learning process.

 

However getting ‘tickets’ doesn’t make you a climber, or even mean you can climb to the level that someone will pay you money to do it.

 

 

 

True... However once you have done a bit of climbing and driven a Unimog once,  and blown a couple of saws you are endlessly qualified to gob off about it ( and anything else that takes yr fancy  really)  on here and thats got to be worth it  ? mate.  K