[dazmond]

i started working on farms at 14 at weekends and holidays then worked at a plant nursery when i left school doing 56 hours a week for £2.32 an hour! ::)went to college one day aweek.did that for a few years,then landscape gardening fencing,flagging,turfing,garden mantenaince,planting trees and shrubs etc.playing drums in various bands ,painting jobs then got into window cleaning at 21 and started on my own aged 22.

i would hate to work for anyone else now after all these years!round about 7-8 years ago i nearly lost my business due to illness but luckily i managed to sell some of my work before i lost it!im 38 now and building my business up nicely again after years of drink and drug abuse!clean and sober over 3 years now!i have a much better attitude to my work and life in genera!

regards

dazmond

[ccmids]

hgv driver many years ago, started window cleaning weekends then it took off , bin at it 10/11 years now , best job ever

[Ryan @ Transparent, Carlisle]

why didnt you become a self employed electrician?

Too much red tape & regulations. To start up as an electrician on my own i was going to have to fork out about £1000 to go on further courses and another £1000 for testing gear.

Plus, there doesnt seem to be much demand now, a lot of firms are going bust.

Then of course, sometimes being a sparky  can be hard work. Knocking holes in walls, crawling through small lofts, often with rat poop all over.

[pingu]

Army for around 5 years then out a few odd jobs then into computing finished working for a major betting company as internet security bod.

Left and went to The Gambia for 3 years (worked for American company) securing various African banks again internet side.

Left and ended up teaching people to dive and taught people to become dive instructors in Thailand for 3 years...lots of mixed gas deep diving and then rebreather diving using mixed gases.

Must be the only westerner to go to Thailand and come back with a European girlfriend

Now in the land of cheese, windmills and bad driving.

Now a wfp window cleaner 3 years..I do not love it but it does provide a good living for what is essentially sweeping up....and for many would be deemed part-time hours.

Cheers
Dave.

[Nathanael Jones]

i miss the job satisfaction though , when you complete a building job you can stand back and say " great job " window cleaning just doesnt have the same

I know what you mean,.. it is the only downside to this job (Apart from the rain, ice, dog muck, late payers, ignorant customers etc!)

[R W C™]

Went straight from school 15 to working in a mobile phone shop (before digital phones existed) at 16 I was running a shop in another town, Left this at 17 and became a chef which I did for 8 years working for £12.00 a hour during this time I had 2 children and not seeing them at weekends and evenings was not nice especially in the summer months so I went to work with my mum in care work which is a very rewarding job, but I only worked 07.15-9.00 then back at 15.00-2100 and alternate weekends off so for 2 years of the 5 I worked there I saved and with quite a few k behind me I decided to set up a w/c business, this soon took off so here I am now.

[ftp]

Printer all my life, made redundant with miniscule payout facing another redundancy with peanuts for a payout so quit and started cleaning. Three years now and getting a bit fed up with it to be honest. No other choice 'cos stacking baked beans has even less appeal, longer hours and worse money. Roll on the spring!

p.s. Printing must be the only trade I know which manages to wriggle out of decent redundancy payment.

[daz1977]

i use to be a plumber, had my own business, hated it in the end, so when i moved 300 miles, decided to try and get a part time job, around the kids,  wc was the only thing that made it worth while working,

my best mate when i was growing up, his dad family where all wc and looking back  his dad was really happy,  started at 9 finished at 3 and was outdoing stuff every weekend, actually having a life, compared to a lot where i lived who worked for ford or ici

i think becoming a wc is probably the best decision, i have ever made, sure you get the stigma of just a wc,  but look at what it gives, you,   better payed per hour, freedom,


work out what your hourly rate is  ie 20 - 30 or what every it is for you, then have a look at what jobs are around in your area for that pay and look at the stress that goes with it

u will be suprised by the results

[daniel worgan]

Army for around 5 years then out a few odd jobs then into computing finished working for a major betting company as internet security bod.

Left and went to The Gambia for 3 years (worked for American company) securing various African banks again internet side.

Left and ended up teaching people to dive and taught people to become dive instructors in Thailand for 3 years...lots of mixed gas deep diving and then rebreather diving using mixed gases.

Must be the only westerner to go to Thailand and come back with a European girlfriend

Now in the land of cheese, windmills and bad driving.

Now a wfp window cleaner 3 years..I do not love it but it does provide a good living for what is essentially sweeping up....and for many would be deemed part-time hours.

Cheers
Dave.

Dave...with all those russian birds down in pattaya now you would find it easy to get one
Not like the good old days  when you could get a tasty thai bird...untill the yanks came in

[paulben]

Was an engineer for 27 years til I got made redundant had a year running a newsagents til that went belly up so thought I would try w/c back in jan 2005  mainly to get over fear of heights . Wouildnt go back to working for any one else now

[leapstallbuildings]

Printer all my life, made redundant with miniscule payout facing another redundancy with peanuts for a payout so quit and started cleaning. Three years now and getting a bit fed up with it to be honest. No other choice 'cos stacking baked beans has even less appeal, longer hours and worse money. Roll on the spring!

p.s. Printing must be the only trade I know which manages to wriggle out of decent redundancy payment.

I don't think it's the printing industry specifically.  It's more about whether a company is reducing staff or going bust.  The one I worked for went bust (I worked under receivership for two years before they finally pulled the plug).  For 13 years service I got 11 weeks money - and even that was at a lower weekly rate because the government paid it.  I got nine years at one week per year and four weeks at half a week per year (I was 18 when I started there and the rate doesn't go up until you get to 22).  The people who took redundancy a few months before the receivers walked in were getting about three weeks per year.  I've no regrets about sticking around the extra two years and getting a lower payout because I wasn't ready to move on at that point.

[tompoole]

[p.s. Printing must be the only trade I know which manages to wriggle out of decent redundancy payment.

Yoyr not wrong there, I spent 22 years with same print company, it was sold to some shark , he ran up 500k in tax debts then folded, left us to claim redundancy from gov, Thats when I went self employed I will never work in the rat race again, when Im too old to work as a window cleaner i will get someone to clean for me and i will go and work for a charity
tom

[Sir Squeaky]

We've done this one so many times...but...

Left school at 16.
Worked in 2 shops in Gloucester, assistant manager in one.
Broke my back and had to stop working.
Did the Princes Trust course and worked at Slimbridge wetlands park.
Worked for Prudential as an insurance agent in Gloucester.
Worked at Nissan dealership in Gloucester as valeter, but got shipped off to Oxford and Coventry a few times.
Worked at Ford dealership as driver/valeter, then weekend sales.
Couple of days at Coldseal windows (tossers)

Then worked for Ian Giles cleaning windows, before setting up on my own in 2001.

Pretty sure there's more, but I can't remember it all.

[Ross G]

Left school became an apprentice mechanic, hated it left, got a job as a forklift driver in a warehouse
I got payed off one of the guys who was laid off at the same time mentioned his brother was a window cleaner so followed that line of enquiry and from 1984 to present that's been me.

[bobplum]

started off as  a lapdancer wasnt very good so plumbing and bathroom was my main stay for a few years
now theres to many plumbers, bought the round last year enjoying it but will be building up the plumbing/bathroom work this year to get thru the next winter! wont get caught again like this year
bob

[R W C™]

We've done this one so many times...but...

Left school at 16.
Worked in 2 shops in Gloucester, assistant manager in one.
Broke my back and had to stop working.
Did the Princes Trust course and worked at Slimbridge wetlands park.
Worked for Prudential as an insurance agent in Gloucester.
Worked at Nissan dealership in Gloucester as valeter, but got shipped off to Oxford and Coventry a few times.
Worked at Ford dealership as driver/valeter, then weekend sales.
Couple of days at Coldseal windows (tossers)

Then worked for Ian Giles cleaning windows, before setting up on my own in 2001.

Pretty sure there's more, but I can't remember it all.

You learn something new every day

[Ian W]

Left school at 15 and trained to be welder / fitter. Company went pop so moved on to another company doing welding / fabrication. Didn't like it so left by mutual agreement. Went to work in a ferry port and stayed there for 22 years working for 2 different ferry companies in that time. Started at the bottom and worked up to supervisor, load controller and then duty manager. Firm pulled the plug on the operation and moved on to a freight company arranging ferry crossings worldwide. Needed a little extra money, so started wc part time, liked it and bought a lot of work to start full time 2 years ago.

[gr cleaning solutions]

left school went to be a car mechanic did not like it so moved into the parts department walk out off that job after 3 yrs , went to work at a paper factory cutting paper for chip shop etc that went bust then did a bit off production line work making flymo,s left there had the summer off did so run,s to France in my van bought and sold a few cars then got a job as van driver did that for year or so left there worked in a warehouse got the supervisor job after three years was force back to the shop floor started wc on weekend then warehouse closed down so now im building my round up nicely.

[Steve_c]

Printer, The last two years were a complete nightmare. I used all my pittance of redundancy pay to set my self up.

[alanwilson]

Aeronautical Engineer for BAE and then Airbus.

I was involved in many areas of R+D and all sorts of really fancy stuff but at the end of the day it was a mundane job like the rest of them.