UK surveying looking to emigrate to the USA next summer

I strongly suggest joining the State Surveying Group in the state that you move to, and the National Society of Professional Land Surveyors.

Almost all the information that you ask for is available through each state. We do have a common Principals and Practices exam that will give you Surveyor in Training status.

You need to be aware that there are two type of surveying that developed in the USA, Colonial and Public Lands. Colonial is pretty much restricted to the 13 original colonies (pesky bunch of colonists!) and the Public lands covers the balance of the country except for Texas which is unto themselves...

CFedS is a great place to visit and consider joining if you are going to the Public Land States...

If Maryland is your goal then get a hold of Moe Shetty (Eddie Glawe) on this board. he's preparing to sit for the Professional Exam I think....

Mr Heames, suggest you get your girlfriend to consider

immigrating to Australia as there is an extreme shortage of surveyors in outback mining .

RADU

Heames- like foggyidea said, Texas is the place to come to survey;-)
good luck!!

Mr Heames, suggest you get your girlfriend to consider

We've spoken about doing this after she gets her masters/graduate degree. The salaries in Australia seem very high. I think it's a good idea even if it was only for a few years.

Thanks for this information foggyidea. I will start looking in to it ready for next summer.

RAGOODWIN, I'd be very happy to work in Texas and drag the girlfriend there.

Hi Heames,

Are you studying at UEL too?

I'm studying for the BSc in Surveying and Mapping Science part time as I currently work as the Laser Scanning team leader for an engineering consultancy, but I too am aiming to get chartered once I graduate! It seemed to be the easiest way to work towards MRICS, although I'm pretty sure that you still have to go down the APC route!

Regards,

Tim

Look into Alaska to mate...if you don't mind cold rain, bugs and swamps...
Where from UK?...I'm outa East Anglia, Ipswich

> Look into Alaska to mate...if you don't mind cold rain, bugs and swamps...
> Where from UK?...I'm outa East Anglia, Ipswich

Me wife's a West End girl, although her mother's side came out of Cleethorpe (sp?)

I'm from Cardiff but I'm studying in London. I don't like the cold or the rain, I've fallen in love with the sun haha. Saying that I'll work anywhere in the USA, I need to get my foot through the door.
How did you go about immigrating to the USA?

Hi,

Yes I am. I'm looking forward to the summer once I get my last two exams done. I've secured work experience in Wales with an open pit coal mine, I'll get some needed work experience. What modules did you study this year? I want to get MRICS as quickly as possible after graduation. I need to check out RICS Americas.

One thing to keep in mind about surveying on this side of the pond is that since the profession is regulated by the individual states (plus territories and the District of Columbia), there are 50+ separate definitions of what constitutes the legal practice of surveying.

These links will take you to the individual state's regulatory bodies and professional societies.

What part of Maryland are you thinking about relocating to? I may be looking to expand next summer. I work predominately in the suburbs to the north and west of Washington DC, and may be moving my office to Frederick later this summer to share office space with a civil engineer I do a lot of work with.

You'll need to learn/translate a few new concepts and jargon:

E,N,H -> N,E,Z
?????? -> bearing
bearing -> azimuth
set out -> stake out
plot (n.) -> plat (n.)
quantity survey -> ??????
land survey -> topo survey
chain & offset -> station & offset
Bowditch adjustment -> compass adjustment
cadastral survey -> land survey, legal survey
?????? -> pin, post, pipe, etc (legal survey monument)
bearings:
010° -> N10°E, 100° -> S80°E, 190° -> S10°W, 280° -> N80°W

Of course, things may have changed since i was at UEL 30 years ago.

my Dads American military So I kinda grew up all over the place but mostly in England...

This semester I've been studying Data Aquisition and 3D Modelling (my last of my second year modules)...which hasnt been too bad, its alot easier to get your head around orientation having a background in scanning!

What did you do your dissertation on? I'm starting mine next semester, and I think Brian is keen for me to do something in relation to scanning...im just not sure what as yet!

Good luck with your placement, what sort of things will you be getting up to?

Tim

Then we were in the same class haha. It's a small world. I enjoyed Richard's and Colm's class. So you've done Surveying Mathematics and Geodetic Surveying, I wonder if you dislike least squares as much as I haha.

I start my dissertation in September and I'm thinking of doing it on remote sensing and or GIS related to oil, gas and mining. But it's early days yet and I need to do a lot of research over the summer.

During my placement I'll be learning Vulcan 3D mining software, excited about this.
Road and ramp set out.
Maintaining control networks.
Environmental, health and safety, I think there will be a lot of this.
Machine control.
Monitoring.
Hopefully I'll get involved in some blasting.
I expect there's a lot more I don't know about.

Thanks for the bodies and societies links.

My girlfriend will be doing her graduate degree in Washington DC, so somewhere near there.

Thanks, yes, I'll need to get used to that.

Did you immigrate to Canada after studying at UEL or did you come to the UK to study?

> Did you immigrate to Canada after studying at UEL?

Yes. Grew up in southend-on-sea. Moved to Calgary after NELP (as UEL was known then) to do MSc and never returned ('cept for visits).

cadastral survey = boundary survey in California.

In the U.S. the word cadastral is typically limited to the BLM surveys of the PLSS.