god i cant half waffle when ive ad a couple, sorry bout that, yeh i mostly do domestic/private, i never bothered with cscs cos ive always been self employed, aimed at renovations, come out of the full monty cos of the hassle, employees, partners, customers etc..
its the same s**t really, when you think about it on a base level, all trowel work is very similar, layin bricks - its all in the muck, not to wet, not too dry, let it suck, render - let it suck in, what happens is you mix some powder with water, be it cement, gypsum, tile adhesive whatever, apply it (not slap it on) to the substrate and straight away capillary action will begin to draw in the water which happens to be mixed with your powder and hey presto you have a bond...
anything that gets in the way of that process is gonna cause you problems so once you begin to understand that you can pretty much figure it out, some things catch u out, it happens to us all, sppose thats half the fun...
i used to hate painting, found it boring, now i love it, gives me trowel arm a break and i find it therapeutic.. not that i can spell it :-X