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End of My Geomatics Career

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(@kent-mcmillan)
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James Fleming, post: 428765, member: 136 wrote: Gave my notice today. Walking away in a couple of weeks from the exciting profession of Geomatics. No more scanning, or mobile mapping, or big transportation projects. No 500+ person company. No more fancy corner office inside the beltway (well almost inside) in a huge modern building with an office address that just said "fourth floor" and Thai restaurant in the lobby.

Trading it all in for a job in the good old fashioned profession of Land Surveying.

Okay, lemme get this straight. You have discovered that working in a factory environment tends to be much harder on the soul than practicing a profession in a human-oriented environment? Who could have possibly imagined that? :>

 
Posted : 17/05/2017 5:10 pm
(@txsurveyor)
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Congratulations. I made a similar move from the same size company with all the benefits, pay stubs and red tape to boot last august to start my own firm. I don't regret it for a minute

 
Posted : 17/05/2017 5:20 pm
(@old2969)
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James Fleming, post: 428801, member: 136 wrote: I was a "country surveyor" before I became a "fat cat big city surveyor". I spent the first fourteen years of my surveying career at a company that fluctuated between 3 & 8 people in the same county as my new one. In fact my new employer and my first survey employer both came out of the same company and learned surveying from the same mentor. It's a homecoming of sorts.

When I tried this I was reminded of the Elvis song that talks about being a stranger in your own hometown.

 
Posted : 17/05/2017 5:23 pm
(@deleted-user)
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(@dave-karoly)
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James Fleming, post: 428765, member: 136 wrote: Gave my notice today. Walking away in a couple of weeks from the exciting profession of Geomatics. No more scanning, or mobile mapping, or big transportation projects. No 500+ person company. No more fancy corner office inside the beltway (well almost inside) in a huge modern building with an office address that just said "fourth floor" and Thai restaurant in the lobby.

Trading it all in for a job in the good old fashioned profession of Land Surveying. Farm boundaries, rural & exurban subdivisions, and site plans. Fifteen person company (two PE's, a LA/Planner, and the owner is an LS) in an old Victorian house with an address on South Main Street in a sleepy town of 10,000 people. No Thai restaurant, but the Olde Town Restaurant a one block stroll down Main Street has a nice hot roast beef sandwich as a lunch special. I've got four farm boundaries waiting for me when I get there next month.

Couldn't be happier (SWMBO is livid that I'm leaving all the benefits, apparently she was looking forward to living large on the company provided life insurance once I keeled over from the stress).

Thai is just expensive Chinese food.

 
Posted : 17/05/2017 5:38 pm
(@kent-mcmillan)
Posts: 11419
 

Robert Hill, post: 428837, member: 378 wrote:
I

I prefer lime.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/allrecipes.com/recipe/42968/pad-thai/amp/

Why is there chicken in that pad thai instead of Gulf Coast shrimp, though?

 
Posted : 17/05/2017 5:48 pm
(@deleted-user)
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Kent McMillan, post: 428841, member: 3 wrote: Why is there chicken in that pad thai instead of Gulf Coast shrimp, though?

I think the recipe calls for both.
But usually, one can get the chicken as take out here for lunch at a lunch special price. You're going to pay extra for fresh shrimp.

 
Posted : 17/05/2017 6:12 pm
(@kent-mcmillan)
Posts: 11419
 

Robert Hill, post: 428842, member: 378 wrote: I think the recipe calls for both.
But usually, one can get the chicken as take out here for lunch at a lunch special price. You're going to pay extra for fresh shrimp.

I've always thought of the chunks of chicken breast as being an adaptation for the American taste. A mixture of dried shrimp in the fish sauce and stir-fried shrimp is usually perfect.

 
Posted : 17/05/2017 7:19 pm
(@northernsurveyor)
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Should have gone all the way and retire from all of it. I am so happy and a better human being after a month of not being in the surveying, geomatics, photogrammetry game. Loved it for a career, don't miss much other than the professional friendships. After a month a realize how wearing all the pressure and BS was. Good luck in getting out of beltway and throttling back.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 
Posted : 17/05/2017 7:24 pm
(@kent-mcmillan)
Posts: 11419
 

Robert Hill, post: 428842, member: 378 wrote: I think the recipe calls for both.
But usually, one can get the chicken as take out here for lunch at a lunch special price. You're going to pay extra for fresh shrimp.

Here is what a quick Google turned up for pad thai:

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1013121-pad-thai

 
Posted : 17/05/2017 7:30 pm
 RADU
(@radu)
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Jame Flemming, While I am getting close to pulling up stumps, I trust you enjoy the ride as much as I have over the last 39.5 plus years

 
Posted : 17/05/2017 11:30 pm
(@flga-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2)
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You can look forward to lower blood pressure and increased happiness. Wish you the best!

 
Posted : 18/05/2017 2:16 am
(@james-fleming)
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Prodigal Son, post: 428787, member: 12074 wrote: Nothing beats a small tight knit firm! I'll take a small 15 person firm over 500 employee stockyard any day.......

I was in a project kick off meeting the other day and, even before anyone set foot on the site, you could see the civil team, the landscape team, and the utility team already starting to set up fall guys in other disciplines if the job goes to s**t.

 
Posted : 18/05/2017 4:21 am
(@shawn-billings)
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Congratulations James. Life is too short to work every day at a job you don't enjoy.

 
Posted : 18/05/2017 4:28 am
(@m-h-taylor-2-2-2-2)
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Hearty congratulations, and best of all possible good luck with this. While I'm writing, I'll mention that I have wondered whether you have any connection with a fiction writer from your part of the world named Steve Fleming. The Exile of Sergeant Nen is the only book of his that I can think of as I type along off the top of my head. Congrats again!
Henry

 
Posted : 20/05/2017 8:25 pm
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