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Good Morning From Colorado
Good morning,
I recently stumbled upon this community while gathering resources to study for my FS exam in Colorado. I was approved to sit for the exam 6 months ago but only now am making the time to study.
A little background:
As my Father has been a PLS since I was 3 years old (I am 29 now) I have been indirectly or directly involved in Surveying since I was 16 years old. My first experience surveying was actually as a punishment for being a troublemaker while I was in high school. The most vivid part of that memory is blue-topping a two-mile-long road improvement job in our hometown. Needless to say, after this endeavor I never pictured myself choosing a career in Surveying. Time went on and I received a Bachelors degree in Political Science of University of Colorado at Denver mid-2009 and planned to take the LSATs to go into law school. Life and circumstances eventually led me to change my mind on applying for law school (pretty grateful for this at the current time) and I looked to find work in my field of study. As many of you could imagine, I’m sure, the job prospects were less than fulfilling and I began working for my dads company (he is a one man gig). I worked with him part to full time for the next 4-5 years, the entire time still wrestling with the idea that I did not want to follow in his footsteps and that Surveying was not my path. Though starting to greater understand the words my Father had always told me ÛÏThis is not a bad gig, man.Û
All of that resistance disappeared one day in 2014 (at a time when I had stopped working for my Dad), with three words from the long-time love of my life: ÛÏI am Pregnant.Û
As it should for any man hearing those words, I knew it was time to spring into action career wise. I feel like most guys my age and in those circumstances would feel very lost at that moment (especially with a Liberal Arts degree). However, my father had gifted me something I had no idea he was gifting me at the time, a foundation of knowledge in a career that at that moment in Colorado companies were yearning for people with Survey experience.
I took a job at a small firm out of Wheatridge, and began working on mostly construction staking of new subdivisions in the eastern Front Range of Colorado. There was also a sprinkling of ILCÛªs and some boundary work in Blackhawk that the company was involved in. I eventually moved on from this position to my current job as a Survey Party Chief for a medium sized Infrastructure contractor based out of Denver with its own internal Survey department (of about 4-5 guys, overseen by a PLS). The company specializes in medium to large scale Infrastructure projects with a substantial amount of bridge work. I greatly enjoy and appreciate this job as it is well paying with amazing benefits and is salaried; which keeps me working and paid during the seasonal work slowdown in Colorado. Additionally, I have learned more about Roadway, Bridge and general construction staking then I ever could have imagined.
So here I am, enjoying my current position, but setting my goals to the future. The State of Colorado has decided to end the Experience and Examination Path to Licensure in July 2020, and as my Bachelors degree has nothing to do with surveying or engineering, that appears to be my deadline to get my license in the State of Colorado. Currently sitting at about 7.5 years of PLS verified experience so to the best of my knowledge, even if they donÛªt accept any of my college education for experience, I should have time to obtain 10 years of experience and test (and hopefully pass) my Licensure examinations prior to the termination of that path to licensure.
Happy to have found this website and board as I will likely have many questions to come as I impart upon the journey of committing to memory all of the necessary information to pass both the FS and PLS examinations. Time to get studying.
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