Consultancy Journey - Advice and Experience wanted

[Jon Heuch]

"Good luck and, actually, some time "on the tools", selectively, i.e. where you can do, or observe, the 'autopsy' when diseased trees are felled, is really valuable IMHO."

 

Many companies are looking for experienced surveyors & acting as a competent sub-consultant to do the field work for different companies is a good way of clocking up experience (and seeing that different companies work in different ways).

 

You want to move into making sure you get paid & focus on doing things for which  you can get paid. Being a poor consultant with no guarantee of work is not a great place to be but if you are employed 4 days a week it won't feel so bad.

 

I would contact the larger companies & make contact with their principal arborist to see if they have any need for a sub consultant in your area. You have the Innovation Group in Alnwick and MWA have an office near you; they may not be of immediate use but useful to know they exist when you possibly have a bit more experience. There are lots of others...often buried in larger landscape, ecological and engineering consultancies..you just need to find them!

 

 

[rcbprk]

Update:

 

I've followed the advice given and contacted a few local consultancy and arborist companies, and followed up with some interesting conversations. Due to a good slice of luck and hopefully because I've come along at the right time I may have a couple of BS5837 surveys coming my way in the new year, plus a few shifts dragging brash for a local firm so I can see how it all works from a contractor perspective. 

 

Keen to see what this all leads to, but I've got my eye on the prize of becoming a competent and reliable surveyor whilst building up my contact book. Thanks so far everyone. 

[rcbprk]

I just wanted to update this thread, on a few fronts:

 

Reply from the local authority - they're slammed, call back in April.

Chat with one of the bigger local arb firms - really promising. Happy to have me on for a few days as a groundie/general labourer to see how the business works. There might be an opportunity to do a bit of survey work for them down the line, too.

 

The big, early win was making contact with a the local consultant I mentioned in the last post. After shadowing him on a couple of jobs later on last year I managed to secure a few BS5837 and Management surveys in and around the local area, both for domestic clients and also for property developers. This has been really valuable experience and has helped me start to get my eye in.

 

Lots more to learn, but off to a decent start in 2022.