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What really is the role of a survey technician….
surv3251 replied 2 years, 8 months ago 18 Members · 28 Replies
Knock it off you two.
No ad hominem.
Information only, otherwise I’ll sick Angel on you.
Carry on.
@jitterboogie ????
@jitterboogie I agree. Field is important, and I need more of it. Office is important, and I need more of that. I recently made a move from a field only/warm body/dead end/little to no mentorship (by the PLS) or training, until you messed up, position to a spot with practically daily mentorship/learning and quite a bit of office time with the associated mentorship there. It was a great move for me. I was truthful about my abilities and what I was looking for: mentorship towards being a qualified PLS, not just signed off on. Our company encourages attending seminars/workshops that will benefit us both. It’s been a well balanced blend of client communications, estimating, research, writing easements/descriptions, boundary/construction field surveys, calc’ing stakeout/search points for field crew, exposure to the financial reports/department goals. Really feeling pretty good about where I am right now.
I climbed the tree from the bottom. First job at 18 was brushing/toting on a seasonal 5 man BLM crew and that was hard work. Over the next 3 years seasonally worked for the USFS and climbed to chainman, instrumentman, bookman and finally party chief, camping out for ten day schedules, etc and it was still hard work. Went into the privates for more pay which was less hard work, construction staking, urban boundary, photogrammetric control. Got my license and switched to County surveyor for the medical/pension benefits and learned the ropes of the office end of it. Did a Beverly Hillbilly’s “move to Beverly it’s the place you want to be” during an Orange County housing boom, got my Cali’ license and doubled my salary, but after a few years, running 5 crews and the record mapping wore me down. So I switched to a mid-level LS job in a State department for a 50% pay cut but lo and behold in three years the Union won a lawsuit concerning “Pay Parity” so I was making the same as in the privates. So I spent 16 years there to build up a pension, SS, etc. It was kinda dull in that the organization involved 800 people so I was niched into “Records Management” and ultimately digitized 200,000 survey records and others, administering contracts and indexing for serving up on the Department’s Intranet.
But I’ve been retired since 2015 so that’s all ancient history for me. One piece of advice for Cheechakos is plan ahead, save for your retirement and concentrate on an exit strategy when you’re in your ’50s. Anybody that’s sitting on Survey Technicians’ wages as a retirement plan will be sorely disappointed.
I had to laugh, just the other day a two man survey crew arrived one Saturday morning just up the road from us, to do what looked like a boundary survey of the neighbor down a right of way, across the road.
I was doing home office work, so I was able to watch them all day. Things started off well, with No.1 doing a lot of talking and hand pointing and No.2 solidified in thought, then them going up the road to find a control, with No.2 carrying the tripod and what not, slung like Rambo lighting up a 50 cal machine gun.
That’s as good as it got. It was a long day for them, by the end of which communications between the two appeared to have long since been severed and No.1 was retrieving and packing all the gear while No.2 was leaning against a power pole, watching, with grin on his face. Job done.
I haven’t read the whole thread yet, but when I was a SIT, I was hungry (and still am) to get experience and learn as many tasks and in many disciplines as much as possible. This helps on MANY things, mostly when studying for the exams, having more experience than the next guy when looking for employment, and generally being knowledgeable and well-rounded. If you feel you’re not getting experience in boundary survey, I’d consider moving to a smaller surveying firm that mostly do this. I’m from Puerto Rico, and I feel lucky that we are allowed to take the SIT and the PS right after college. At any time, although I don’t know if this has changed now for the better or worse. I passed both the SIT and PS the same year, but only I would get my license and certificate after completing 2 years of experience. I was lucky to join a surveying firm with a high pay grade to actually get experience on boundary surveys, all because I passed my tests.
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