I've been surveying for close to 20 years now, and I'm coming to terms with the fact that I might be just fully burnt out on all of it.?ÿ I take vacations, etc. but when I get back, it just reminds me of how much I don't want to do this.?ÿ I currently operate in a field to finish capacity, doing it all myself.?ÿ This is the way I prefer to operate, but it's just not fun anymore.?ÿ On paper, where I'm at now is my dream job - it stopped feeling that way though.
So I guess I'm looking for a bit of advice.?ÿ I like all the tertiary stuff that goes with surveying - the history, research, investigation, land development, title records, drafting, etc.?ÿ Is there a career change scenario where I could use all these skills maybe in a different way, without taking too much of a pay cut??ÿ I'm not really interested in a corporate middle-management position, although that's the next logical step in career advancement if you were to see my resume.
Thanks in advance.
Just twenty years??ÿ C'mon man, it's just getting good.?ÿ I have taken a couple of sabbaticals in my career.?ÿ Once was long enough for my license to lapse.?ÿ While we all get burned-out now and then, it can get serious.?ÿ
You stated what you liked, but didn't mention things like production, office BS and the like.?ÿ I didn't like that stuff either.?ÿ Maybe you need to hang your shingle out on the mailbox and jump out here to the dark side.?ÿ Nothing makes a man feel more like succeeding than chucking a good salary, paid insurance and a tidy 401K for being your own boss.?ÿ
It's good for a marriage, too.?ÿ I spent a whole lot more time "talking" with my wife after I quit my steady job.... 😉
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I'm betting deep down inside you know what you really want to do, seriously. Good luck with what ever you decide.
I left the private sector in 1993 after getting licensed in 1987. I have never regretted it. I won't ever get a bonus, but the pay has increased very nicely since I started (by a factor of 4) and I will retire with fantastic benefits and a defined benefit for life, and then some for my spouse. I have worked on some great projects, including the largest height modernization project in the country at the time (2008). As great as it has been, I can say that I have never appreciated it more than I have for the past 8 months. Security and peace of mind are priceless.
Not for everyone, but it certainly has worked out well for me.
Best of luck to you. As Paden said, you are barely getting started.?ÿ
I have been thinking about a job change. At my age, I'm wanting to slow down and do something easier. Been thinking about going into the logging business. ?????ÿ
Sounds to me like you need to take about 3-4 months off and reboot. I did that once and I'm about ready to do it again.
Good luck with whatever it ends up being.
I have worked on some great projects, including the largest height modernization project in the country at the time (2008).
Sometimes I'm amazed that it went as smoothly as it did.?ÿ There were remarkably few hiccups, or maybe I've blocked them from memory!
No Jim, it went as well as you remember, perhaps better. We developed the plan by bringing the locals in for in-kind services, but you and Don (and Mike P.) executed it. Talk about the epitome of "herding cats" for months over a large geographic area. I don't know if you recall, but once we got the geoid model issues resolved, the Bluebooked project was submitted on a Monday and published the following day by NGS.?ÿ
Certainly one of the most rewarding collaborative projects I was ever involved with and we saved a heck of a lot of money to boot over the going per station height mod costs at the time. Go figure for government work!
I think that there are lots of other professions where the survey skill set would be a asset, whether or not the individuals in hire and fire positions there have any idea what surveying is and entails is another question.
Another question that is lurking behind any crisis about surveying for a living is to asses if the culprit is actually surveying or if it is something else such as the general suck of work, mid-life, toxic co-workers, pandemic, economic or political anxiety etc.
I have been surveying for about as long although I have not reached management, or even the office but am instead a fairly experienced and specialized field hand. It suits me well enough but I also experience some unease and dis-satisfaction. There is a user here whose signature references being born for this work, I was not, but have been doing it so long that it has obscured whatever it is I was born for. I generally reject some of these concepts about doing what you love and never working again and all that anyway.
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It can be a grind.?ÿ Life, that is.?ÿ This whole pandemic thing has introduced a great deal of depression and listlessness into people who do not realize it yet.
Work is a grind.?ÿ It becomes repetitious even though we are tackling new projects.?ÿ Searching for a bar is searching for a bar.?ÿ Driving a hub is driving a hub.?ÿ Searching the records for something that will help with Project 20-00123 isn't much different than searching the records for something that helped on recent Project 20-00118.?ÿ Sure, there are new twists and new people from time to time but most of it is the same ol' same ol'.
But, other things become the same way after a bit.?ÿ I enjoy my farming interests but there are days it is pure drudgery.?ÿ I enjoy serving on various public boards until someone tries to turn an ant hill into Mount Sunflower (inside joke).
Today's thrill is a trip to the dentist office to hopefully get a molar removed.?ÿ The appointment has been scheduled for two and a half months.?ÿ Pre-pandemic the wait would have been about two weeks.
to hopefully get a molar removed
Hatefull comments are not allowed!
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Had an LS coworker who switched to construction project management after about 8 years of surveying.?ÿ I asked him why and he replied "I don't want to spend the rest of my career making maps."
I work for myself and at times get bored with the same old poop. I've been known to take a week or two and do something completely different, most often helping someone in need. Its difficult right now to travel so a mission trip is probably out of the question but one could search out some need locally and give them a lift. It works for me.?ÿ
I've always thought about workcations....I would love to take a few months off and go survey in Antarctica during one of their summers.
Or offer my time for a research project mapping some odd place in Peru, or the like. Much like a missionary trip, survey for the better of man, not money. That will help ground your soul or put things in perspective.?ÿ?ÿ
What amazed me was how fast 36 1/2 years went by at the City job I retired from.It's been almost 22 years since then. Where did the time go??ÿ Almost every day was an adventure, but only if you made it so.?ÿ I feel very fortunate that surveying found me.
The first day on the job at the City the topic of discussion was retirement, and I hadn't even put in eight hours yet!?ÿ These were the surveyors who did the survey of the transmission line from Boulder dam into Los Angeles.?ÿ I wish I had written down all their stories!
I'm not really interested in a corporate middle-management position, although that's the next logical step in career advancement if you were to see my resume.
The only thing a middle-management position really has going for it is that it's almost always a prerequisite for an upper-management position.?ÿ
You are at the peak of the learning curve. You are bored, like me. ?ÿReal estate or something construction related is probably the only sensible and survey related direction to go if you were to jump ship.
@rundatline I personally am beyond bored. I haven't done anything survey related in probably 3 years except pass exams.
@stlsurveyor That's exactly what I'm trying to avoid.?ÿ I know there are dozens of firms nearby that would hire me a some kind of survey manager, but that means saying goodbye to actual survey work (drafting, computations, research, corner searches, etc.) - as I suspect you have.?ÿ It terrifies me to think of spending the rest of my working years writing policies, or developing strategies, or whatever corporate administrative tasks they'd have me doing.
@allen-wrench Yes it sucks. Some folks love it and hate working in the field and think of it as a natural progression in the profession. But it isn't for me. What I do is try to find ways in which I can go to the field and do some work. I have been able to fly drones, all over the country, run mobile lidar units and scanners - but that isn't surveying, but offers some relief and the good pay does help. I have also accepted a teaching position for one college course next semester, hopefully that will help as well.
