Career Change - Outside working with a reasonable salary?

[seismic22]

Hi there,

As per title, is this possible?

I am unhappy in my current career and am looking to change this. I am a commercial Building Surveyor currently earning just shy of 40k a year on standard hours of 37.5 hours a week but like many, often end up doing many more. Amongst others, my main issues with the job is that it is unfulfilling, far more office based than most people would believe, predominantly boring and I am more often than not put in situations by bosses where I am working under time and cost pressures that are prohibitive to being able to provide (in my opinion) acceptable levels of client service.

I'm from a farming background and lust to either work outside or travel to meet people/work in a more rural/natural environment. There are multiple problems in trying to do something about this but they all mainly come down to salary and re-training. Building Surveying has given me a very wide range of skills (building surveying often doesn't involve much building surveying and often entails more project management) but it seems very hard to find a job that fits the bill and doesn't demand a lot of re-training and still only result in a 50% wage cut from what I am on now.

I am lucky to be on the salary I am on and in a job where I do get out and about a bit so I'm not asking for pity, just some constructive advice on how to go about changing my career to cheer myself up and work in a job/environment that I enjoy. If anyone has any general advice / job suggestions / ideas then i'd be very glad to hear from you.

Thanks.

[prand]

Possibly a bit late as their vans towing chippers seem to be all over the place, but I've fancied a bit of tree surgery, a lot seems to be able to be achieved by a single guy or small crew, and if going on the £100 or so I pay every 18 months for a couple of hours work to trim the ash in my garden. Then you can branch (ho ho) into logs etc.

[elanfan]

How about a bit of property refurbishment and redevelopment. With your contacts you should be able to pull in help for stuff you can't do yourself. Perhaps specialise in rural type property to get you out and about. Move onto the next every 3/6 months - hopefully not boring and once you've made enough to live on you can start keeping some to build a retirement portfolio/pension.

[dai1983]

My friend is looking into becoming a groundskeeper and while the training salary is only about £16k a year, there's the free groundskeeper house and vehicle. One of my ex-colleagues is doing it and he's always posting pics of him shooting with some celebrities or on a private jet on his way to Ibiza. That's probably him being a spawny git and the job may be too manual for yourself.

Also look at the National Trust.

[seismic22]

Thanks guys, all food for thought!