Tiered Education and Experience Approach

Beep beep nnnn beep beep yeah!
(Beetles)

I think it helps the student to be able to see how the course materials get applied in real life and so it all makes more sense. So yes, I agree that at the end of the formal education process, the person going that route has a more solid educational experience, getting more knowledge for the time spent learning.

However, the disruption to normal life can be very significant. For most, in order to actually attend an accredited college or university for surveying, it means moving oneself and one's family, or living apart from one's family in order to attend school. If the spouse is not fully on-board for moving or fully committed to maintaining the marriage over time and distance, the personal cost in going this route can be very high.

In addition to the location disruption to the family, you will also be taking a hit to income while doing this on again/off again schedule with work and school. Unless you consistently go back to the same employer between school terms, and unless that employer places a high value on education, you will be stunting your earning growth significantly until after graduation. Be prepared to see your pay lag by 10% to 30% while you pursue your educational goals while some of those you worked with before school progress up the ladder from chainman to chief. Even if your abilities to perform and produce otherwise keep pace with or surpass those of your coworkers who stay at work while you get educated, you will still be thought of as a "student" (read neophyte still learning and lacking relevant experience).

Right or wrong, unless you remain with the same employer throughout and the employer looks at what you're doing rather than the fact that you are still a student, that's how it is. As a student, many will also consider you to not be a long term personnel investment until you are working for them after graduation.

When I first moved to Sacramento, I had 1 term left to go back to complete my degree. I was looking for a company to begin establishing myself in and return to for permanent employment upon completing that last term. This would have been 3 months working, 3 months to complete the degree, back to work permanent & full time. At the time, I was 32 and a newly licensed surveyor with nearly 15 years combined education and experience.

Several potential employers were interested, but wanted someone permanent now, not someone temporary to become permanent. One potential employer called and offered to take me on as a "student helper". When I asked if that was a position of responsibility or just the kid who carried the stake bag around for the chainman, clarifying that I wasn't interested in the latter, the idiot began berating me for being "just a student" and that I was crazy if I thought he was going to let some green kid run a crew. WTF! I was an LS, had been working as chief or higher for more than 10 years and was just about done with the degree. He simply saw "student" in the cover letter and read no further. Nor did he listen when I pointed out my experience and license. He started screaming at me for my arrogance. I ended the call by stating that we were wasting each others' time and wishing him success in finding a less experienced student to fill the slot.

You might think that an employer would see a sense of professional responsibility in a surveyor who after gaining several years of progressive experience, decided to get the degree, but if you did, you'd be wrong more often than not. To many, the experience you might have prior to or while you were a student is invisible behind the fact that you are a student, which means you don't know squat until you work for a while and prove otherwise.

Another consideration in drawing out your education is that degree course structures change every few years, and if one happens during one of your work periods, you may find yourself having to take extra classes that might cover much of what you've already taken but then have new material for only the last few weeks of the term.

If you begin your degree at one school and complete at another, you may run into the same sort of thing in that some classes won't fully cover the same material at your new school. (i.e., you leave one school having been completed your sophomore year, but find yourself having to take more sophomore level classes at the new school because of differing course structures, and then find that some of the material in the junior level courses at the new school was covered at the sophomore level at your old school.)

If structuring your work/education plans by 1st getting an AAS, then working, then transferring to a school to get a BS, you will find that in very few cases will you be able to jump right in as a junior and complete your BS in 2 normal school years. The aim of an AAS is not to prepare one for the junior year of a BS, but to train the student at the technical level. When transferring to a BS program, you will probably find that you need to first catch up on more advanced math and science, and perhaps other general electives and survey courses. This route is very likely to add a full year to the educational portion of your plan. Not necessarily a bad plan, just something to consider.

Sorry to relive my frustrations from the past with you, but anyone considering work 2 yrs, school 2 yrs, work... school... needs to consider the other side of the coin as well. In my case, I went from earning just under $50k/yr for the year just before returning to school, which was pretty good at the time, to earning less than 1/2 that for the next 3 years as I completed my degree. I didn't regain the lost ground until fully a year out of school. It also cost me my 1st marriage.

If you are looking strictly at the long term benefit, are single or have a truly supportive spouse, a 4 year degree on the 8 year plan, getting good experience in your chosen line of work along the way is a great way to maximize the benefit of that education, but it is expensive in more ways than just financially.

For a person just getting into surveying and considering the degree, I would recommend getting some basic experience - maybe a couple of years, then go for the degree, holding survey jobs in the summers, and to the extent one can manage it during the school year part-time and weekends. But then get the schooling done as expeditiously as you can in order to minimize the disruption to your family. You are asking them to pay the cost with you, after all.

:good: excellent writeup, my take would be the same.