A job for the Fall of 1970…

Fifty years ago, I still was shopping for a career. If possible a seasonal one that ideally would dovetail perfectly with my nascent ski-instructor occupation.

In the Spring, I had made an attempt as an assistant surveyor, but didn’t pursue it for a variety of reasons I explained in a prior blog.

After working at the family’s restaurant for the summer season, I turned my attention to a profession that’s barely known in the USA, but exists all over Europe, that of “Quantity Surveyor”, in the home construction industry and deals with estimates, actual costs verification and the like.

It sounded an opportunity worth exploring to me. So, I went to work that Fall of 1970 with a small company owned by two young partners named Arnaud and Malagutti, working out of Cluses, the exact place where I attended the “Ecole d’Horlogerie” four years before.

The job consisted mostly of working with painters and masons and checking the dimensional aspect of their job in order to certify their invoicing.

A work that was taking me mostly locally as well as to some nearby mountain resorts like La Clusaz and Grand Bornand. My bosses were good, the job varied, the pay dismal ($42 a week), and after about three months I had enough and concluded that it wasn’t cut for that activity.

As Queen’s song summarizes it well: “Another one bites the dust”. In other words, back to square one!