How did you start in the industry?

[treebloke]

I went to visit a mate who was a greenkeeper and on his office desk was a magazine with a picture of a guy up a huge redwood with a humungous saw hanging from his belt, he had taken the gob out and there was a rope attached to the top, the chunk he was taking off must have weighed half a ton.

 

It was an advert for Honey Bros so next day I called them and booked a one day climbing course with a guy called Peter Bridgeman who also had a book out at the time which was pretty much the arborist's bible and at the end of the day I bought a harness, rope and a few karabiners and kept on practicng what I had learnt that day until I felt confident to start doing it for myself and being paid for it.

 

That was mid 80's and I was young and fit and there was only one or two other companies about then so work was easy to come by.

[treedom]

Worked ib the care industry for 12 years. Worked with learning disabled violent folk. Moved down south. Ended up in private sector. It was awful. Resigned. Found 12 week tree surgery course, signed up. 9 years later still going!

 

sent from my Defy so apologies for poor spelling and grammar

[David Goss]

I used to work for IBM, compaq and various other companies just doing crap production line work going stir crazy. One day I got up and said sod it I am going to go find a real job and headed for the forests to find some woodcutters and ask for a job. To my surprise that worked and after about 8 years using saws without tickets I got a job with tilhill forestry doing line clearance and they put me through every ticket under the sun (at the time). I used to do a lot of rock climbing so tree surgery was the obvious path for me and I love my job even after 20 years and and a lot of sore bits.

[felixthelogchopper]

Worked in the casino industry for nearly 20 years before taking redundancy. Had been doing logs and gardening for quite a few years alongside the croupier work so tree cutting seemed like a logical profession.

[Johny Walker]

its that long ago i cant remember , i,ll have a good long think & come bk on that 1,

[pos1981]

Well what a varying mix of ways that people got into arb, amazing!

 

I originally started this topic as i have been in a dead end job for the last 8 years working in sport at a university. I got into this as i was very sporty.

 

I go caviing and rock climbing and enjoy anything a little different, ive always climbed trees as a kid and have still been known to climb a few now and again!

 

Im 30 now and realise that time is ticking away for me but i really want to get into this industry. Ive been lucky enough that a guy on here has let me come with him on a couple of jobs and for that im really greatful. There is a guy that also works with him that is a young gun and is at college and he has some good knowledge.

 

My question is how would people recommend that i try and gain valuable experience baring in mind i work full time, i want to get experince but i also want to get the correct info to hopefully one day become a qualified and hard working climber.

 

Thanks for reading

 

Ed:001_smile:

[Dilz]

started working for a tree surgeon when i was 20 i got £40 cash a day and a bottle of cider over the summer, then got another job as a groundy £35 a day...i now (thankfully) earn a bit more than that......just getting to my 10years, now hold an ND in forestry and ARB after after going back to school (one of the best things i did and best times of my life) , a folder full of tickets and a few scars and a company. when i've been fed up i have thought about what other jobs i'd like to do and to be honest when i think about it, there isnt one that really pops into mind.

 

your best bet is get in touch with your local companies and try and get some work experience, and try and get a couple of tickets...

[Dilz]

and its true, i know a lot of folk who have changed career to tree work, but not so many who started in tree work and changed to something different.

[RobRainford]

and its true, i know a lot of folk who have changed career to tree work, but not so many who started in tree work and changed to something different.

 

Maybe because your broken at the end of it and can't do anything else!

 

 

Given a saw at 16(2007), I then went through saw tickets at 17 up to cs34, busy summer 2008! Climbing ticket a year later (2009), started fdsc in arb at myerscough 2009. Just about to finish the BSc top up 3rd year now. Never looked back. Can't see any aspirations in anything else. I love dem trees!

[Graham]

My first proper taste of tree work was spending the winter of '75 doing clearfell and thinning then the summer of '76 converting it all. I wanted to be a tree surgeon 'cos I thought I'd be irresitable to women:001_smile:

 

Started doing day release at college; C&G Hort and Arb then saw a job advertised in GC & HTJ for an assistant tree surgeon. I got that, more college, and eventually came to be in charge. In '87 I went self-employed and have been since. Very abridged but that's it in a nutshell.