I wanna be a surveyor> a bad day in the field
beats a GREAT day in the office, anytime 🙂
Or, as I say A bad day on the water beats a good day in the office...
Help a local surveyor on your days off,then decide.
"Being a surveyor is great and they actually pay you for it." That is what I said when I was 20 years old.
At 30 I was still loving it and wanted to try my hand at that cushy office job.
At 50, after 20 years in the office, it was back outside for me. Now I say "Being a surveyor is great but they don't pay me enough for it."
Wow! You are asking some excellent questions to which the answers depend more on you than anything we can tell you. You might do great in the surveying world or you might grow to dislike it within a month or two. Much of that will depend on who you end up working with.
I, too, am a degreed engineer. There are times when being bent over trying to get through that last couple inches of solid subgrade to find the monument is like finding Spanish doubloons. Most of the time it is more like hard, hard work. When you stand back up and your head swims for a few seconds it is easy to ask yourself why you spent all that time getting 16-20 credits in calculus, series and differential equations. Puzzle solving is something we tend to be skilled at doing. That part of the job is wonderful. Discovering two or more equally plausible solutions to the same problem, in this case, involves knowing statutes, legal precedents and having read a ton of books, none of which are in your current skill set. Follow this Board for a while and you will discover just how frequently similarly skilled surveyors will fiercely debate almost anything technical. That sounds like fun, but, it leaves the bystander completely confused. Tastes great! or Less Filling! That is the question.
It is great you are doing some daydreaming about your semi-retirement years. Just remember that 95 percent of what you take for granted every day in your current work environment will be of minimal value in any other field of endeavor. Also, switching from being in charge to following directions can be extremely difficult for most people. Your "help" in certain areas, based on your previous experiences, may not be received well by a supervisor with an inferiority complex.
Personally, I enjoy working with my own interests/investments far more than I could ever enjoy being someone else's slave again.
Forget it...the learning curve to be top class with the high tech stuff and software we use today will take too long.
Consruction and Mining Survey is not easy.Plan interpretation etc.
I am going on 63 and will never retire. I love the technology.
In my country and in Africa I have been on very large projects.
SlimJimmy,
I think you have a great retirement plan. I think the biggest challenge is to find someone locally who will let you work part-time. You might visit some of the local surveyors early on and discuss this very thing with them and ask them the same question you're asking here. If they require a certain background or study material, for you to be an asset to them, that is the material to concentrate on.
I would recommend that you go through some of the books listed above to help you get a sense of what is being discussed above. Of course some people (such as a mechanical engineer) might find the math and statistical-analysis books more interesting, but I would recommend books like basic surveying and Wattles book on writing legal descriptions of good value too.
Good luck to you.
Thanks again for all the advice and (in some cases) encouragement.
I have the introductory book by Wolf & Ghalini on order (found an older edition for $1!).
I will be talking to a smallish local firm for furhter advice.
Post Your Email Or Email Me
I'll discuss some PA options, like today you should be in Hershey at the PSLS convention. While there you can talk to Chuck Ghilani about some education.
For one route you could take the 6 online PA GIS courses. That could get you in the door at some major survey firms.
Click on my handle up top for my email.
Paul in PA
