As an engineer I can certainly say that in terms of getting clued-up, a day in the field is worth at least one week in the office, and if that day is spent surveying for construction and/or purposes, even better.
A very small minority of field hands I have met spend any time in the office whatsoever.
A very small minority of field hands I have met spend any time in the office whatsoever.
Once the crew chief had to draft his own field work in cad; the mistakes, return trips, and ambiguous data magically disappears.?ÿ
I just hate it when they say in the interview, "I want to work in surveying a couple of years, then move up into engineering."
To be honest, 90% of my workload is optical survey monitoring and the?ÿ2-3 year goal is to move the geotechnical & structural?ÿ?ÿinstrumentation (?ÿinclinometers, extensometers, piezometers, etc.) and vibration monitoring into my division...so I'm looking for Engineering Surveyors rather than Land Surveyors anyway.?ÿ
James, what type of Surveying does your firm do? Do you monitor High rise construction, nuclear installations, bridge construction etc.??ÿ ??ÿ
My experience is that seperate field/office is still the norm.?ÿ ?ÿI agree that the returns from the field improve dramatically when they have hands on experience with the office work flow.?ÿ
Firm I worked for had the "outside/inside" crews and it was a deep separation that wasted tons of time.?ÿ Constantly having to explain the field notes, interpret the codes for auto-drafting etc, and fixing their drafting busts before we left would have been significantly reduced had they been in the field at all.?ÿ That being said, they did work hard, and could be relied upon once we all got onto the same page.?ÿ
James, what type of Surveying does your firm do? Do you monitor High rise construction, nuclear installations, bridge construction etc.??ÿ ??ÿ
Mostly adjacent construction right now...the "Survey Group" is only four months old so I'm still buying toys, staffing up, and trying to keep my head above water.?ÿ Once I can get settled, if you want to know if it's moving, I want to be your guy.
Typical job right now would be for construction of a five store self storage building: 25?ÿstructural monitoring points on five adjacent buildings, 15 settlement points along the perimeter while they dewater the excavation site, 25 points on the SOE piles while they excavate and then bring the foundation up to grade.?ÿ Two trips a week for 6-8 months.?ÿ Boring for "surveying" great for "business" because you get months of backlog on the books for each job.
A few years ago I teamed with a big geotechnical engineering firm out of Boston on the monitoring for a storm drain tunneling project in DC.?ÿ We didn't get it, but it opened my eyes to the opportunity in that market.?ÿ Between instrumentation, robotic monitoring and traditional field crew optical monitoring it was a three year 7 million dollar project.?ÿ
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I have worked places where most employees had never ventured to the 'other side'. One place in particular had an amazingly efficient work flow and put out great products. Point being there is no one size fits all model. Believe it or not there are even people who read notes and draft a survey without ever stepping outside. Some of them are good at it.
It is a grand idea that every moving part does better if everyone sees the whole product. Too much of that and folks lose focus on the part they play or simply never develop the talent that brought them to the job.?ÿ
When I read comments about how the 'other' would be better at his job if he knew how hard mine was I have to laugh. There are things I am very good at and some I am terrible at. I'll stick to what puts out good products and makes money..?ÿ
James, what type of Surveying does your firm do? Do you monitor High rise construction, nuclear installations, bridge construction etc.??ÿ ??ÿ
Mostly adjacent construction right now...the "Survey Group" is only four months old so I'm still buying toys, staffing up, and trying to keep my head above water.?ÿ Once I can get settled, if you want to know if it's moving, I want to be your guy.
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Sounds like a great way to be in the know.?ÿ I was in Seattle and noticed a Leica Robot on a caisson in the Pike Market area?ÿ spinning its little heart out taking endless shots whilst the passers by noticed nothing.?ÿ I was able to track and identify the targets and figured out the monitoring scheme.?ÿ What an awesome way to work! Sign me up!
"We didn't get it, but it opened my eyes to the opportunity in that market."
I admire your business acumen.?ÿ ??ÿ
Point being there is no one size fits all model.
One day Banzan was walking through a market. He overheard a customer say to the butcher, ??Give me the best piece of meat you have.?
??Everything in my shop is the best,? replied the butcher. ??You can not find any piece of meat that is not the best.?
At these words, Banzan was enlightened.
I'm not going to lie. I may have posted in the thread already. However, I had just seen the topic again towards the top and was thinking how cool it would be to have an employee pool on hot days.
Attn recent engineering grads....if?ÿyou submit your?ÿresume to my firm ?ÿand?ÿit indicates?ÿthat's you've spent more than three days outside in your life (or even worse, mentions you had a class in surveying in college) it's bypassing the structural & geotechnical hiring?ÿmanagers and coming straight to me ??ÿ
The Few. The Proud, The Woefully Understaffed.
I too am in nearly the same boat, however our need is drafting/technical staff.?ÿ Good grief where is everyone??
There are a few things out there that money can't buy.?ÿ Staff isn't one of them.
Much like Piltdown Man, Homo economicus is a hoax
Seriously...because the occasional low life Neanderthal uses the Latin word for man as a slur, it's going to be redacted from posts when used correctly?
I was going to start a poll to see whose painting Ecco Homo people preferred, Titian, Caravaggio, or Bosch, but f&$k that. ?ÿ
never mind ? ?ÿ
Attn recent engineering grads....if?ÿyou submit your?ÿresume to my firm ?ÿand?ÿit indicates?ÿthat's you've spent more than three days outside in your life (or even worse, mentions you had a class in surveying in college) it's bypassing the structural & geotechnical hiring?ÿmanagers and coming straight to me ??ÿ
The Few. The Proud, The Woefully Understaffed.
The grand experiment begins....let's see if I can turn a guy who graduated in May with a degree in Mining Engineering from Penn State?ÿinto an engineering surveyor.?ÿ
The grand experiment begins....let's see if I can turn a guy who graduated in May with a degree in Mining Engineering from Penn State?ÿinto an engineering surveyor.?ÿ
I'm rooting for him. Once upon a time I graduated from the British Columbia Institute of Technology with a diploma in Mining Technology.
We need to eliminate the bottom feeders.?ÿ I am not excited about the prospects of sending someone to the Board, but I am well aware of one in particular who should not be practicing.?ÿ What good will it do??ÿ When you point the finger at others, three are pointing back at you.
