Career Dilemma

G

galen.lichterfeld

Location
waterville
Hi all, hoping to get some career advice, here is the situation I am in.

I have been climbing for 2 years and working in the field for 3.5. Last season life got a little tough and I let my safety/ attention to body mechanics suffer and the aches I felt freaked me out.. I was feeling a bit fed up with the trade also so I decided to give school another try. I am currently finishing the first semester of a physical therapist assistant program (2 year associates). Naturally I miss the trees and I realize I would rather start my own business than continue my education to become a full PT (7years!). I am debating whether to complete the program or drop it and start my own business next year. Thoughts?

Pros of completing degree:
Information is clearly useful for myself in preventing injury

I have well paying "backup job" in case of a moderate injury

If I do well in the industry it occurs to me that because of the focus I pay to safety and knowledge of how to prevent injury and muscular disorders I could become a "health educator"?

Cons
Expense
Possibly useless
I have to sit at a desk and cram copious amounts of information into my noggin.


Any thoughts are appreciated, thanks!
 
2 years of climbing and you were "freaked out" by what this line of work did to your body? Get back to me in 30 yrs because I'm pretty sure its not gonna get a whole lot better. It sounds like a soul session might just be in order. Are you built for this? Are you wired for this. Are you willing to live with the daily risks that this tree life brings? Only you know the true answers to these questions...
 
galen.lichterfeld said:
Hi all, hoping to get some career advice, here is the situation I am in.

I have been climbing for 2 years and working in the field for 3.5. Last season life got a little tough and I let my safety/ attention to body mechanics suffer and the aches I felt freaked me out.. I was feeling a bit fed up with the trade also so I decided to give school another try. I am currently finishing the first semester of a physical therapist assistant program (2 year associates). Naturally I miss the trees and I realize I would rather start my own business than continue my education to become a full PT (7years!). I am debating whether to complete the program or drop it and start my own business next year. Thoughts?

Pros of completing degree:
Information is clearly useful for myself in preventing injury

I have well paying "backup job" in case of a moderate injury

If I do well in the industry it occurs to me that because of the focus I pay to safety and knowledge of how to prevent injury and muscular disorders I could become a "health educator"?

Cons
Expense
Possibly useless
I have to sit at a desk and cram copious amounts of information into my noggin.


Any thoughts are appreciated, thanks!
Click to expand...
Always have an out.. tree work can be good quick money. Some get lucky, and have few debilitating injuries. We all get wear and tear though. SRT can help prolong careers, keyword is prolong. Most climbers don’t make it much past 50, less make it to 60, and very very rarely 70.
 
I've known lotsa sub par climbers that've done well in this biz by simply buyin a bucket truck, and applying good managerial skills.

There's a lot to be said for bein pragmatic enuff to recognize your limits and work your way around them.

Jemco
 
Healthcare is a solid career I think, you could probably find work all over the country and PTs make a good buck.

If you’ve already sunk a bunch of cash into this education or picked up some debt from it, you might later regret it if you don’t finish.
There’ll still be plenty of trees when you’re done, and maybe you’ll do both.
 
rico said:
2 years of climbing and you were "freaked out" by what this line of work did to your body? Get back to me in 30 yrs because I'm pretty sure its not gonna get a whole lot better. It sounds like a soul session might just be in order. Are you built for this? Are you wired for this. Are you willing to live with the daily risks that this tree life brings? Only you know the true answers to these questions...
Click to expand...

Sounds like a vision quest is more applicable here than a soul session. What do you think, @JeffGu ?
 
colb said:
Use the low-interest student loans to start the business. Get the worst grades you can get while still passing, and get to work. The rest might sort itself out. This could be great advice. This could be lousy advice.
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Low interest student loans and vision quests? WTF? This young man needs to look inside himself and honestly assess whether he actually loves the tree-life, or if he loves the IDEA of the tree-life. Big fucking difference...
 
Physical Therapy is one step up from a Chiroquacktor. Nobody goes to one unless their insurance company sends them there, because it's a hell of a lot cheaper than sending you to a real doctor. Besides, we're talking about tree peope, here. They'll come to you a few times, figure out that yoga classes and a back massage won't fix a cracked skull or a double hernia, and they'll be right back to the same old "Hold my beer and watch this!" shit they were doing before they met you. They'll rub one off in the truck before work, throw on a MAGA hat and head up the tree on a rope that looks like five dogs were using it in a tug-of-war smackdown.

Now, brain surgeon would be a money maker, for sure. With tree folks, you'd only have to rattle their head a couple of times to see where their brain is, and you'd have lots of space for a bigger one. I'm thinking you could just transplant chicken brains into that big, hollow, empty skull and it would be a major upgrade to what they were previously operating with.

As a sideline, you could make prosthetics in your garage, on the weekends. Big money in those, too. I'd go with some nice hardwoods for peg-legs, and stainless steel for hooks. Tree people like nice wood and shiny metal things.

Glad I could help. If the advice seems a bit out of sync with your visions of the future, don't blame me. This is all @colb's fault, not mine. I was perfectly content with staying out of this one, right up to when he provoked me. The guy takes a stick with him to the zoo, so he can poke the bears.
 
JeffGu said:
Physical Therapy is one step up from a Chiroquacktor. Nobody goes to one unless their insurance company sends them there, because it's a hell of a lot cheaper than sending you to a real doctor. Besides, we're talking about tree peope, here. They'll come to you a few times, figure out that yoga classes and a back massage won't fix a cracked skull or a double hernia, and they'll be right back to the same old "Hold my beer and watch this!" shit they were doing before they met you. They'll rub one off in the truck before work, throw on a MAGA hat and head up the tree on a rope that looks like five dogs were using it in a tug-of-war smackdown.

Now, brain surgeon would be a money maker, for sure. With tree folks, you'd only have to rattle their head a couple of times to see where their brain is, and you'd have lots of space for a bigger one. I'm thinking you could just transplant chicken brains into that big, hollow, empty skull and it would be a major upgrade to what they were previously operating with.

As a sideline, you could make prosthetics in your garage, on the weekends. Big money in those, too. I'd go with some nice hardwoods for peg-legs, and stainless steel for hooks. Tree people like nice wood and shiny metal things.

Glad I could help. If the advice seems a bit out of sync with your visions of the future, don't blame me. This is all @colb's fault, not mine. I was perfectly content with staying out of this one, right up to when he provoked me. The guy takes a stick with him to the zoo, so he can poke the bears.
Click to expand...

@galen.lichterfeld did you get all that? The AI known as @JeffGu is an incredible resource to the treebuzz community. Either that or it spews random sh*t in quasi-sensible sentence patterns that lure the mind and ensnare the senses.

This is what @JeffGu came up with after the last time I stuck on my MAGA hat and "poked" it with my large stick that is larger than - well let's just say it's the largest of some very large sticks:

Unfortunately, the correct use of an apostrophe in "it's" has probably subliminally tipped off everyone viewing this thread to the fact that I don't have a MAGA hat. You'd need a few more clues (maybe a your/you're) to confirm it, but the MAGAdar has been activated. Good luck all, and godspeedo, @JeffGu .
 
I got out 2 years ago and took a management job with a contractor at a paper mill. Physically, I'm better off from a longevity standpoint. Financially, I'm good, maybe even a little better when you don't count hurricane season in Florida. Mentally, I'm bored out of my mind at work and desperately miss the tree life. It's different for different people though. I have always been an adrenaline junky with an enormous ego, so the trees will always call to me. The knowledge that seems to be never ending in the tree business Stokes my ego as well and is non existent in most middle management jobs. The camaraderie amongst climbers is different than other professions, and that is lacking in my current field. There are literally a million reasons I could give you to stay in the trees, but they may not apply to you. The biggest 2 reasons I won't go back from a professional standpoint are 1: I moved back home to Alabama to be near my aging parents, and this area is so full of ladder climbing hack jobs, it's nearly impossible to land good paying jobs because they will back there pickup and A frame under the tree for $10/hr, and the homeowners seem to think that broken windows and gutters just come with the job like a package deal.
2: My wife is happy with what I do and the hours I work. I never travel, my job is 8 miles from my house, I'm home for dinner every day, put my kids on the bus every morning, and she never has to was tar, sap, grease, and oil out of my clothes.
If I had it to do over, I likely would make a different decision, but that doesn't make it the right one either. In the end it's all about your makeup as a man. We all have to work for the rest of our lives whether we like what we do or not, so that, to me is the most important factor. Long term happiness. Health and finance be damned. Make sure you do something you will never wake up and not want to do anymore.
 
southsoundtree said:
Good PTs are ninjas at their game, IMO.
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Couldn't agree more. Best medical visits of my life.

Go to a doctor for bad back: take these pills, here's the bill for my 5 min on the room.
Go to PT: stop doing this, strengthen your core, here is an hour of my time for a fraction of a pharma-subsidized MD. Guess which one leads to long-term health benefits?
 
Alabama_Woodsman said:
I got out 2 years ago and took a management job with a contractor at a paper mill. Physically, I'm better off from a longevity standpoint. Financially, I'm good, maybe even a little better when you don't count hurricane season in Florida. Mentally, I'm bored out of my mind at work and desperately miss the tree life. It's different for different people though. I have always been an adrenaline junky with an enormous ego, so the trees will always call to me. The knowledge that seems to be never ending in the tree business Stokes my ego as well and is non existent in most middle management jobs. The camaraderie amongst climbers is different than other professions, and that is lacking in my current field. There are literally a million reasons I could give you to stay in the trees, but they may not apply to you. The biggest 2 reasons I won't go back from a professional standpoint are 1: I moved back home to Alabama to be near my aging parents, and this area is so full of ladder climbing hack jobs, it's nearly impossible to land good paying jobs because they will back there pickup and A frame under the tree for $10/hr, and the homeowners seem to think that broken windows and gutters just come with the job like a package deal.
2: My wife is happy with what I do and the hours I work. I never travel, my job is 8 miles from my house, I'm home for dinner every day, put my kids on the bus every morning, and she never has to was tar, sap, grease, and oil out of my clothes.
If I had it to do over, I likely would make a different decision, but that doesn't make it the right one either. In the end it's all about your makeup as a man. We all have to work for the rest of our lives whether we like what we do or not, so that, to me is the most important factor. Long term happiness. Health and finance be damned. Make sure you do something you will never wake up and not want to do anymore.
Click to expand...
Great post..
 
2 years and getting pains. The physiology of you body obviously is not climbing material. That seems a fact. This is not designed for all. That is a fact. Finish your studies while doing sidework and see if these pains continue. I am 52 do not know what you are talking about but genetics plays a huge role.
 
swingdude said:
2 years and getting pains. The physiology of you body obviously is not climbing material. That seems a fact. This is not designed for all. That is a fact. Finish your studies while doing sidework and see if these pains continue. I am 52 do not know what you are talking about but genetics plays a huge role.
Click to expand...
Damn! School of hard knocks is in session, Prof Paul presiding.
 
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