Travelling abroad after school helped me realise what I wanted to do with my life and enabled me to make a decision to study forestry and pursue a career.

Co-workers in previous jobs, friends and family would have influenced me in my career direction.

I applied for my current position when it was advertised within Waterford Institute of Technology.

During a typical day, I will start by checking and replying to emails or letters. I could then be meeting clients or prospective clients who are interested in planting forestry, walk land which has been planted to see if it needs maintenance, look at land, meet contractors to organise getting work done, timber measurement, meet harvesting machine contractors, meet with Forest Service inspectors regarding problems etc, meet county council engineers regarding timber haulage routes or forest road building.

There is a large variety of things I may do on any day as there are no two days the same in forestry. I will always spend a minimum of one day in the office per week carrying out paperwork from afforestation approvals to felling licences. One very important task at the end of each week I find is to plan the coming week.

The primary duties of my job are to plant and manage forestry for The Forestry Company. I liaise with existing clients and ensure that all their needs are met and try to solve any problems which they may have with their forestry. Every day I speak with the contractors which are carrying out work on sites which we manage and ensure that they have materials etc and know where to go next. I carry out any work which may need to be done on the ground such as inventory or ensuring that harvesting operations etc are running smoothly.

The main challenges in the job are having the ability to deal with many different people and being able to liaise with them and come up with solutions for any given problem.

I am self-motivated and have an ability to adapt to new things relatively easily. I have a broad knowledge of agriculture as well as forestry which I find is a good advantage to my job.

Geography would have been a good subject to take for the Leaving Certificate.

I have a Bachelor of Science in Forestry and a Bachelor of Science Honours in Land Management in Forestry, both completed in WIT.

The Bachelor of Science in Forestry was vital for me to get my job as I am a forester registered with the Department of Agriculture.

So far in my career, the most rewarding events have been seeing my first afforestation site being planted in 2016 and carrying out forest inventory on 4,000 hectares of mature forestry with my colleagues.

I am self-motivated and have an ability to work well with a team.

It does as I spend a lot of time outside and travelling the country with my job.

I would tell anyone considering a job as a forester to try your best as forestry will always be there.

The ability to work with others, attention to detail and manners.

I am constantly upskilling by attending events and courses run by the Forest Service and the Society of Irish Foresters.

Knowledge in agriculture is helpful while experience in working on the ground in forestry is essential as you need to understand the kind of work that is being done before telling someone how to do it. While working on the ground you will learn things that a book simply cannot teach you.

Forester, The Forestry Company.