Pest control: “You are hunting all day long”

Personal: Jan Kortenbusch, certified pest control, 25 years old

Monthly income gross: 4500 euros
Monthly income net: 3320 euros

I am a trained agricultural service technician with a journeyman’s letter. After about two years in the job, I noticed that I would rather do something else. My uncle, who is pest control at a Dutch company, told me that this was the best job: You are hunting all day and helps people. We honestly never really understood his job in the family. But I thought, okay, I try that, I’ll risk it.

In retraining of six weeks, I trained as a certified pest control, colloquially spoken. I was able to start directly with a company that works all over North Rhine-Westphalia. I have recently been managing director of our branch company in the Olfen in Münsterland. My customer area extends from Koblenz in the south to Bremen in the north and purely to Holland in the west. We started with a small group at the location, today we already have 16 employees, a really great team. What I would never have expected at the beginning. And interesting applications almost every week.

You come into the job via IHK training or retraining. And you have good promotion options, for example as a service manager, quality manager or you do your specialist for technology or environmental protection. We don’t notice anything about a shortage of skilled workers. Is also due to our large social media presence. Our business grows and thrives.

We help in need, free – very classic – from rats, mice, martens outside of the closed season, insect infestation, bed bugs. But we also do pigeon defense, pest monitoring and prevention. Everything with the latest scientific methods and equipment. Our customers are of course happy when we are gone again. But also really happy! That is really fun and joy. You are on the road a lot, really experience a lot and always new situations with customers. We bring security and trust back to a place. Less in the penthouse world, of course, more in cellars or in companies. You learn a lot about how and where people live and work.

My working time is 40 hours a week, sometimes a bit above, and sometimes a touch underneath. I can’t complain about my income. I can already get out of food or a gift for my partner. My family’s farm, on which I also live, I continue to operate. From the yield, I save 500 euros a month as a private pension in an insurance company that creates in stocks worldwide. Of course, it is clear to me that I have a real advantage: no rent and additional earnings.

I find the high fuel prices violently. I drive around 70,000 kilometers a year. You can tell that. But our customers need us, and mostly really urgently.

Note: Jan Kortenbusch is part of the program “What deserves Germany”, which runs on Thursday, May 15, 2025 at 8:15 p.m. on RTL. The star is part of RTL Germany.