Arie seems to have been a bit of a wanderer early on in his life. There is evidence that he worked at a "Stoomzuivelfabriek" in Elburg as a supervisor early in his career. Elburg was an extremely poor community at this time, and it is unclear why Arie would go here from Maartensdijk for work. The Streekarchivariaat of the Veluwe describes the region which includes Doornspijk as follows (translated):
"To get an impression of the community in 1911, what follows is a brief summary of the situation in 1911. The community of Doorspijk has 3732 inhabitants, of which 585 are registered voters. There are 288 boys and 239 girls enrolled in the schools. The community will allocate approximately 2858 guiders this year to help the poor. This sum represents 12% of the total budget. There are 466 horses, 4307 cows, 735 sheep, 287 goats ,1630 pigs, and approximately 6000 chickens en 283 bee hives. From this it is clear to see that this is a farming community. There is also a Dairy Factory (Stoomzuivelfabriek) with 6 workers, a steam machine with two boilers and a total of 12 horse power. There is a mill with a petroleum motor and 2 workers and a saw shop with two workers. Further, it is worthy to mention that twice a year there is a sheepmarket in the community."
Again, how Arie arrived in Elburg/Doornspijk is not known, but he didn't stay long. He also ended up in Deventer after the mayor of Maartensdijk recommended him as a hard-working and trustworthy individual. But eventually he found work close to hom. He went to work at De Erven Trip in Utrecht for 225 guiders per month. De Erven Trip was a construction company where he initially started as a sales representative, but worked his way up to draftsman. We have a brief description at:
http://www.koornwinder.org/resources/erventrip.pdf about the company and a picture at
http://www.koornwinder.org/resources/75984.jpg of the building around the time that Arie would have been employed there.