No. Were not. A fella could feed his family on 8 bucks an hr, and still contribute at church.
Now, we have LESS left over, and LESS rest.
N
Convenience has become our enemy.
I remember thinking how stupid certain clients were years ago. They didn't worry all that much about when you completed your project. But, when you had it done, ship it overnight express and add that cost into their bill. A similar situation exists today with e-mail, PDF's and the like. The second it is complete, it must be in their hands. Even if they don't know what to do with what they get.
Today I was going to e-mail a description to a client prior to putting the finishing touches on the plat. Realized I didn't have her e-mail address. Called to get it and asked for the e-mail address of whatever office was going to be handling her closing. She has been in a panic to get this deal closed. Turns out she and her buyer have not even discussed who is responsible for what and who needs to do this or that nor have they made any kind of arrangements for a closing agent of any kind. I'm fairly certain it will be the buyer's lender or a title insurance company. Nevertheless, here I've been jumping through hoops to help her out and letting other projects slide only to discover she doesn't have a clue on what to do with my information.
Jim in AZ, post: 366089, member: 249 wrote: This is what really bugs me about the complete lack of business sense of the majority of surveyors! You must be operating on the "hourly" model, which with all due respect, is MORONIC. If you charge what your work is worth instead of how much it costs you to do it you'd be much better off. You'll rarely get ahead charging on an hourly basis.
There are two hourly models: 1) charge what it cost you to do the work, or 2) charge what you feel your value per hour is worth.
The average billing rate for a partner at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson,_Dunn_%26_Crutcher&apos ;">Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is $1,800/hour. They don't seem to have any problem "getting ahead".
[USER=136]@James Fleming[/USER], I've never lost one thin dime on a project where I could charge for all of my time. I've lost plenty on jobs that had to be bid. To be fair though, I've made MUCH larger profit margins by bidding jobs than by working hourly.
Seems that way most of the time. Sometimes though I get lazy on jobs where I've packed in a lot of money...and don't watch the time like I should. One can burn up a good little "nugget" in a hurry if you're not careful.
I find this thread most interesting. I can only see it from a civil servant point of view since I've worked in the public sector longer than some folks on this board have been alive, though only about 2/3 of that time (37 years come June) has had anything survey-related.
As a profession, I think it is a mixed bag. New, quality, enthusiastic blood seems rare any more- I suspect the profound sense of entitlement among a fair number of younger folks has something to do with it. Also, long-term careers in a single discipline are becoming the exception to the rule- this is not good when there are a number of things to learn in land surveying that can only be taught by experience in my opinion. I can see this particular item devaluing the surveying profession if perhaps indirectly. Another huge shift that I've seen is the degree of construction staking that is now performed by private surveyors versus public: when I started with the DOT in 1991, we did 99% of construction surveying; nowadays, we pretty much only stake drainage. We had survey crews in almost every office, usually three people each; now, anywhere from zero(!) to two-man crews, often assembling the crew with whoever is available. As a result, the skills and knowledge of resolving construction-related survey issues don't get passed on to a younger generation in public service. On the other hand, this shift helps put food on the tables of private surveyors, so that aspect is certainly not bad.
With respect to compensation- my money certainly doesn't go as far as it did even five years ago, with the medical co-pays, stagnant wages, et cetera. However, in my case it is at least partially balanced by the fact that my job is quite secure.
Technologically, I think we are much better off than in a prior generation but I've also seen a real danger emerge: we are raising a generation of appliance operators. This is NOT good.
In sum, I would say we're better off in some ways but worse in others. Just my opinion.
The only superior evidence is that which you haven't yet found.
I started surveying in the army (82C) in 1981. 100m steel tape, we performed sun shots to determine position, and everything was recorded in a field book.
Then, a few years after I ETS, I used the first data collector (1987). In 1986 I used my first total station, Topcon GTS 2B. Next, 1989 I started surveying with GPS, Trimble 4000SL. 1999 it was robotic instruments, Leica... As each of these advancements came into use, I saw survey crews drop from 7 men crews we had in the army to three, two and often nowadays one man crews... And a whole generation of button pushers who couldn't close a simple traverse manually... But I still love what I do.
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