4 year degree requirement
I recent reply on a different thread pushed me to see what you all have to say about what defines us as “Professionals”. Is it a 4 year degree?
I’ll relate my own personal experiences. I dropped out of HS in my Jr. year at the age of 17 and got my GED immediately to get my father off my back. At 18, I accidently got a job as a Rod Man, never knowing anything about land surveying or what was involved in it, but I fell in love with it, with the intent of making it a career. After a few years, I had my eyes set on running a crew and getting my license eventually and had great mentors to support me in learning enough to advance myself. I spent thousands on books and every piece of study material that I could get my hands on, studied 7 days a week for three years, asked questions of other licensees with more years of experience than I had been alive, and, with the degree requirement looming, filed my application with the requisite 10 years of experience to sit for the exam. The end result was that I passed the exam and with my licensure, got a frameable certificate with the clear title “Professional Land Surveyor”.
After years of working for a civil engineering & land surveying company, with my license, I evolved into project management, then management and ultimately becoming the first non degreed shareholder in the company’s 100+ year history. During this time, I got married and one day was playing golf with my father in law, he was a high level retired executive with Firestone Tires. He asked me an important question, “where do you see yourself in 10 or 20 years? My reply to that was that was I want to be at the top of my game.
After hearing my response, he departed his wisdom on me. He told me that if you want to be an effective leader and manager, you need to move from place to place every couple of years to see how different firms are doing the same things, see the different forms of management approaches and the different ways leadership treats their employees so that you get a firm understanding of what works and what doesn’t work and apply that when it’s time to.
I took that advice and he was correct, I experienced the good, the bad and the very ugly. I learned virtually every aspect of running a business, being an effective leader, and, most importantly, to mentor, encourage and elevate my staff when they reach certain goals.
Nine years ago I was sought out by a very small engineering firm to start a survey department and this was my dream shot. I negotiated for three months with the CEO before accepting the position. They pretty much knew nothing about what it takes to run survey and gave me full reign to do what was need in hiring, training, purchasing and every other aspect of managing a staff that consisted of myself being the 12th employee of this small company. Flash forward to today, we have had to move to two different locations because of growth, I have a staff of 30 with 6 field crews, survey techs, drafters and admin staff and the engineering end has almost 60 people, including 5 PEs and we have opened two engineering offices in Florida. I will soon be applying for my FLA PLS license and setting both up with a PLS in each to oversee their operation.
After this long winded history of my almost 41 years in the profession and the experiences that I have had, does a 4 year degree and 3 years of experience make somebody that I would have to mentor a Professional and me a Tradesman? I’m interested in hearing your replies.
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