A predominately outside and varied work life. How has yours been?

[John Shutler]

Stayed on after school to do some ALevels with a view to going to university. Not really sure what I’d planned on doing as I was to busy smoking weed, skateboarding and checking the surf. Ended up getting 3 poor alevels (design technology, art and geography) and going through clearing and getting on an environmental building course at Plymouth university. After 6 months of skateboarding and selling a bit of weed in Plymouth  I threw the towel in and got a job in France working on a campsite near Paris. Worked on the campsite and skated in Paris for a season then came home and got a job with a builder for a couple of years. the work dried up in the end but spotted a job in the paper for a trainee tree surgeon, started on with a company who put me through the basic tickets but got made redundant a year or so later. Registered self employed and went to work for another local guy. Did a couple of years there and went out on my own 10 years ago or there about s. Ended up doing a foundation degree part time 8/9 years ago in Arboricture and tree care to give me a basis for writing reports. Bored of the day to day tree work these days but investing in kits and working on larger sites is keeping me interested for the moment 

[Ratman]

I enjoyed school and did well, leaving with 9 O Levels and 4 A Levels.
Did a gap yar to save a bit of cash before going to Uni (I drank it all).
Bar work, labouring on building sites, cleaning out shitters and washing pots for the army at Otterburn camp.
All good experience.
Got an Honours degree in Civil and Structural Engineering from the University of Sheffield, but couldn’t get a job easily (1993).
Mate from Uni asked if I fancied working on a road job for Alfred McAlpine in Kent.
Chucked my stuff in an Adidas bag and got on the train to go and live on site in a caravan.
Did a year for Macs then a chance meeting in a pub got me in to doing line-of-sight surveys for the then unheard of mobile phone networks.
10 years odd of big money and flash cars, working all over the country climbing towers, rooftop surveys and loads of MEWP work.
That work dried up and I was helping a mate with his gardening round when we did a couple of trees with ladders and my full body tower climbing harness (idiot gyppo style). Enjoyed that so started looking into it properly.
Back to college for 30,31,38 and 39.
Met a bloke on my 39 who I ended up working for for 4 years before setting up on my own.
A knee op put me on crutches for a couple of months so I started working for my wife’s landscape recruitment business.
She won’t let me leave, so I now split between that and tree work six days a week.
 
I still don’t know what I’m going to do when I grow up.

I take it back! [emoji1391]‍♂️

[Stubby]

2 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

I enjoyed school and did well, leaving with 9 O Levels and 4 A Levels.

Did a gap yar to save a bit of cash before going to Uni (I drank it all).

Bar work, labouring on building sites, cleaning out shitters and washing pots for the army at Otterburn camp.

All good experience.

Got an Honours degree in Civil and Structural Engineering from the University of Sheffield, but couldn’t get a job easily (1993).

Mate from Uni asked if I fancied working on a road job for Alfred McAlpine in Kent.

Chucked my stuff in an Adidas bag and got on the train to go and live on site in a caravan.

Did a year for Macs then a chance meeting in a pub got me in to doing line-of-sight surveys for the then unheard of mobile phone networks.

10 years odd of big money and flash cars, working all over the country climbing towers, rooftop surveys and loads of MEWP work.

That work dried up and I was helping a mate with his gardening round when we did a couple of trees with ladders and my full body tower climbing harness (idiot gyppo style). Enjoyed that so started looking into it properly.

Back to college for 30,31,38 and 39.

Met a bloke on my 39 who I ended up working for for 4 years before setting up on my own.

A knee op put me on crutches for a couple of months so I started working for my wife’s landscape recruitment business.

She won’t let me leave, so I now split between that and tree work six days a week.

 

I still don’t know what I’m going to do when I grow up.

You try telling the youth of today that . They won't believe you ?

[Jwoodgardenmaintenance]

Im only 21 got kicked out of school on an off throughout my last 3 years there left with a C in maths and the rest of my subjects was a fail then went on to colledge and done a 2 year apprentiship at my local fast fit tyre centre doing tyre fitting and servicing then left there and went in to be a drain technician for a mate was there 1 year got sick of the hours so went onto a new build building site road building driveways drainage and landscapung contract ran out abd after that registered as self employed and done my own landscaping and get the odd job off a local tree surgeon dragging brash and feedjng the chipper but want to go in for my cs 30/31/38/39  and just learn the trade but need to pass my driving test first 

[felixthelogchopper]

3 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

I enjoyed school and did well, leaving with 9 O Levels and 4 A Levels.

Did a gap yar to save a bit of cash before going to Uni (I drank it all).

Bar work, labouring on building sites, cleaning out shitters and washing pots for the army at Otterburn camp.

All good experience.

Got an Honours degree in Civil and Structural Engineering from the University of Sheffield, but couldn’t get a job easily (1993).

Mate from Uni asked if I fancied working on a road job for Alfred McAlpine in Kent.

Chucked my stuff in an Adidas bag and got on the train to go and live on site in a caravan.

Did a year for Macs then a chance meeting in a pub got me in to doing line-of-sight surveys for the then unheard of mobile phone networks.

10 years odd of big money and flash cars, working all over the country climbing towers, rooftop surveys and loads of MEWP work.

That work dried up and I was helping a mate with his gardening round when we did a couple of trees with ladders and my full body tower climbing harness (idiot gyppo style). Enjoyed that so started looking into it properly.

Back to college for 30,31,38 and 39.

Met a bloke on my 39 who I ended up working for for 4 years before setting up on my own.

A knee op put me on crutches for a couple of months so I started working for my wife’s landscape recruitment business.

She won’t let me leave, so I now split between that and tree work six days a week.

 

I still don’t know what I’m going to do when I grow up.

Is that the cover story that Vespasian gave you?

[Baldbloke]

Im only 21 got kicked out of school on an off throughout my last 3 years there left with a C in maths and the rest of my subjects was a fail then went on to colledge and done a 2 year apprentiship at my local fast fit tyre centre doing tyre fitting and servicing then left there and went in to be a drain technician for a mate was there 1 year got sick of the hours so went onto a new build building site road building driveways drainage and landscapung contract ran out abd after that registered as self employed and done my own landscaping and get the odd job off a local tree surgeon dragging brash and feedjng the chipper but want to go in for my cs 30/31/38/39  and just learn the trade but need to pass my driving test first 

Still young and plenty of time to replicate a similar CV to many on here[emoji3]

[Baldbloke]

You try telling the youth of today that . They won't believe you [emoji3]

I usually only tell people about my working life if they are interested. As you say, most youngsters can’t get their head around it.
However, if you saw my mothers fathers career it would make even the most interesting ones mundane

[eggsarascal]

1 minute ago, Baldbloke said:

Still young and plenty of time to replicate a similar CV to many on here

He could do with missing out a few bits of my CV?

[Jwoodgardenmaintenance]

20 minutes ago, eggsarascal said:

He could do with missing out a few bits of my CV?

Nearly went down that route a few years ago but met a good woman and moved away from my family and she put me back on the right track☺

[Jwoodgardenmaintenance]

26 minutes ago, Baldbloke said:

Still young and plenty of time to replicate a similar CV to many on here

Theres a lot of cvs on here id like to have further down the line except of a few things ? but i find this thread really interesting. its nice to know that  even though i havent achieved much in education there is still a chance of me making something of myselff yet