Career Change

[Stephen Blair]

I was always looking at it from the point of view of making it into a long tern career or own business. Staying in it longs term I'd look at getting some qualifications probably in forestry or land management. Own business route wise, well my better half is really into gardening so we could do garden maintenance or landscaping further down the line once our child starts school.

 

The easy part will be taking the first step! I'm sure.

 

Is the work starting to dry up due to the crunch?

 

you are obvoiusly looking for way of life rather than being a millionaire mate, there is always work to be found. i am know where near as strong or a supple as i was 10 years ago, but i am older and wiser and dont waste as much energy as i used to. if your mrs is into gardening then i think you will find your niche in the domestic market, offering a very personal imaculate job. aim high. thats what my old cub leader said

[Backpain]

Well that was easy! Expensive but easy....just booked my Cs30/31 course for end of March at Moulton. Just hope there's enough work out there this summer to get some experience. My plan is to carry on working for a while and try to get some experience at weekends.

 

Cheers for all the comments and support.

 

Be stump carving by summer:001_smile:

[dodger]

Hi All,

 

There's quite a few threads on here about people changing career and it always seems to provoke an interesting discussion. There's some great stories about people getting into trees later in life and this is really my question. When are you too old for it? I'm 40 this year. I've always been active in the outdoors doing things like mountain biking, walking (with a child on my back in recent years) so consider myself pretty fit. At the moment I'm in a dead end sales job phoning people who don't want to speak to you and trying to sell something I have no real interest in......I drifted into it after being made redundant last year so it's not entirely my fault, needs must and all that.

 

Anyway, one day it struck me that what I really wanted to do was some thing in the outdoors. I've a mate who's a tree surgeon and he let me go out for a couple of days to try it out. It was hard work and ached the next day, but boy was it satisfying. I reckon I've got at least another 10 years hard graft left in me. Long term I'd plan to get RHS and forestry qualification and do ground based like forestry management or planning and supervision.

 

Is there anyone who can seriously say don't go for it you're way past it!!!

 

 

 

 

had a mate who started climbing at the age of 40 he pick it up real quick paul wasnt the fastest but he was reliable give him a job and you wouldnt have a worrys with him doing it, if you dont mind hard work and have some common sense have a go, the only minus side the money wouldnt be to great at 40 years old unless you went with a firm that do price work.

[Backpain]

had a mate who started climbing at the age of 40 he pick it up real quick paul wasnt the fastest but he was reliable give him a job and you wouldnt have a worrys with him doing it, if you dont mind hard work and have some common sense have a go, the only minus side the money wouldnt be to great at 40 years old unless you went with a firm that do price work.

 

Cheers Dodger, I'm not really looking to be a millionaire far from it. It's more about quality of life. We're downsizing the house to allow for a lower income so we'll not be any worse off. As long as I can pull about £400 a week we'll be ok. Is that unrealistic? I'm willing to work seven days a week if I have to.

[dodger]

Cheers Dodger, I'm not really looking to be a millionaire far from it. It's more about quality of life. We're downsizing the house to allow for a lower income so we'll not be any worse off. As long as I can pull about £400 a week we'll be ok. Is that unrealistic? I'm willing to work seven days a week if I have to.

 

 

 

 

£400 might be unrealistic for start of pay with many firms but if you went to a larger firm that give price work its not unrealistic.and there many pluses working for a larger firm is they give all your tickets free and if your willing to have a go at climbing you can learn real quick and there never a shortage of work, i say the only minus side for new climber its nearly all street trees not back garden work which isnt a bad thing either

 

what area do you live

[Backpain]

I'm in the Midlands so pretty well placed I hope. I'm paying for my tickets my self and working weekends to get some experience. Learn to cut wood first. Then I'm taking my climbing ticket and will probably go contracting if possible. I want the independence of working for myself. i don't want to be salaried to a big firm, but I know what you're saying. If it's less than £400 we'll just have to get a flat:scared1:

[Backpain]

Wow where did the last 3 1/2 years go. Well I'm still at it and for all the doubters its never to late to try something different. I was very apprehensive about whether I'd be fit enough and able enough to do this, but as I'm proving it is possible. It took me a couple of years to get work fit and a couple to get some climbing experience but its amazing. An aging man swinging around in a tree. I love it. I have me own businesses doing tree work, selling logs and another land or garden based job and do you know what....I making a really good living. When I was working for someone I used to take home £280, last friday I took home £325. That was just for friday, I had to dismantle a fair sized sycamore but never the less it was a great pay day. So to anyone having doubts about going into tree work, I say just go for it and see what happens.

[LSD]

Nice thread to read through and glad it's had a happy ending, good on ya dude!

[Backpain]

Cheers mate, it just gets better:biggrin: