I’m looking for advice – I’ve spent the last ten years or so working outdoors, mainly as a forestry tech, until I moved to Southern Oregon for a job. After it ended, the part-time GIS job I thought I had lined up evaporated, and I found myself with nothing to do but take classes at the local community college.
“Surveying, huh? Sounds interesting”.
A year and a half later, I’m trying to find someone to pay me for my new skill set. I’ve applied for a handful of jobs in the past month that I’ve found through Craigslist, but haven’t heard back from any of them. I’d eventually like to move back to New England, but have been applying everywhere.
Feel free to answer any of the following questions:
What do you look for in an entry-level employee? What stands out for you on a resume? How’s the land surveying job market generally? What should I be doing that I’m not doing?
Additional personal background (if you’re not bored yet). My surveying coursework includes one term of trigonometry, two terms of autocad, two terms of surveying, and one term of boundary law. I’m planning on taking the FS exam in the Spring, after the current term at OIT is over. I’m currently enrolled in two online courses there, the second term of boundary law and their computations and platting course, which I’m taking partially to review for the exam. I’ve done one short internship with the local BLM boundary crew, but other than that have no surveying experience outside of classes. I have a BA in German (yeah, I know) and have also taken a handful of GIS, forestry, and remote sensing classes over the past few years.
Any suggestions you have for someone starting out would be greatly appreciated!
It might be helpful if you could link your email to the post so people could reach out to you.
Ralph
Surveying is like that.
Many surveyors (myself included) have gone "Solo", meaning, no more employees. It's just too complicated, to use others, to do the fun part of surveying.
IF you really know that you want to do surveying, make your own little GIS, of all the surveyors in the area of interest. Then, contact each one. Find out if they went solo, or are older, and retiring, etc. Go and see each one, and learn what they really need. If you are serious, you will probably find a match that you can work with. I often take my son, (14yrs old), so I am not alone in the woods, with an atv. But, I know another surveyor, who went solo, that has somebody else running his equipment, while he drives rebar, and manages. So, he is not alone in the woods.
What I mean, is you will have to learn what needs are there, and meet a need, and if you are smart, you will advance up the ladder, because you know what is needed. That is, you will continue to "know what is needed" and make yourself indispensable.
Just my 2 cents.
N
I updated my profile so my email is now "contactable". Thanks!
I graduated college along with a lot of my buddies a few years ago. Many of them did not sacrifice and take an internship or a low paying job to get experience. They still have not found jobs. I however, did. I drove 120 miles every day for $12 an hour in summer and winter. When school was in session I took online classes and drove 2 hours one way three days a week for $10 an hour (which was crazy in retrospect)and I worked for a local guy the other two days for $13.
I sacrificed a lot of my time to gain experience because I knew the only market left for me was working for a mid to large engineering firm if I wanted any kind of a decent living. I applied for about 50 jobs my last semester. I heard back from about 10....some very far away.
But from the grace of God I got hired by one very close for a decent wage. I get to learn under a great surveyor as well. So I'd say sacrifice to get any experience you can and hope to get lucky. I would also market to engineering firms since they might have needs for surveying and your GIS work.
Move to Texas and walk in to every surveying joint there doing oil and gas. Your skill set will double in less than 6 months and your pay when you leave there to another company.
I made 180k in 2011 just drafting easement plats 70 hrs a week with it and per diem. And I am licensed in Okla
I don't know how it works in other parts of the world.
Around me (Western Kentucky), posting of a surveying position online or in the paper is pretty rare. Most positions are filled because someone knows someone. Often times jobs are filled solely by networking.
Two suggestions -
1. Get/keep in touch with the person who was teaching your surveying courses. Instructors are often asked if they have a good student looking for a position.
2. Find out when your states surveying society meetings take place and attend. Shake hands and talk with other surveyors. Sometimes they will know that someone else is looking for an employee, but just hasn't advertised it yet.
I appreciate the advice. I have been in touch with my former instructor, he's also the local chair of the PLSO, and I've been attending the monthly meetings since I first heard about them. I was planning on having him forward my resume and an internship solicitation to the local members if I don't find any paying opportunities in the near future.
That's interesting, it seems in many cases technology has made replacing a crew member possible. I know on the local Forest Service and BLM crews, they've shrunk from 3 to 2 person crews, eliminating the position of the youngest crew member who's job was to clear brush and carry the heavy stuff around (and slowly learn the ropes).
The two guys I went out with during my internship were both in their early sixties, one of whom insisted on carrying almost all the gear, and was still running up hills like a goat! I saw their age as a hopeful sign; it seems like a lot of people will be looking to retire in the next 5-10 years, and also that it's possible to keep doing this relatively rugged work into your sixties, either by choice or necessity.
Yeah, I was kind of spoiled during my early working years, in terms of finding jobs. For many years, I pretty much got every job I applied for, and became used to relying on my work experience and references alone to find them. It hasn't been so easy lately, and now I'm starting at the bottom of the experience ladder to boot.
Your point about trying to work for mid to large sized firms is well taken.
For your first job in surveying, nobody will hire you as a party chief, and the position of instrumentman disappeared about 20 years ago (actually, a lot of companies just put an instrumentman in the lead role, give him the title of chief but don't expect a chief's level of knowledge or decisionmaking ability out if him - "follow the calcs. If it don't fit, bring it all back to the office"). They might hire you as a CAD monkey if they're desparate and you have had the classes.
So you're looking for a chainman job with the hope of having an opportunity to show the boss enough ability to have an opportunity to move up in a reasonable amount of time. Your coursework will be a big plus, but really all the person making the hiring decision wants to know is 1) are you reliable - will you show up every day on time and ready to work, and will he not have to worry about you stealing from him or breaking his equipment; 2) are you a hard worker - are you willing to chop brush, pound hubs, dig holes, and haul equipment up & down hillsides and through thich brush, blackberries and swamps day in and day out and come back to the office after 10 hours with a smile on your face (and kick the mud off your boots before coming into the office); 3) Do you have enough brains that you won't need to be re-taught how to hold a rod plumb each day - will you remember what you've been shown; and 4) will you have a good attitude - will others be able to work with you and will you not be pestering the boss for a raise and promotion constantly after the first week.
Forget trying to land that first job based on how smart you are and what classes you took. That doesn't matter until you've established a track record of skills and talents that are required to do the most menial tasks within the organization.
Bear in mind that many organizations, even when business is slow, may have a slug that is always close to getting fired. If you present yourself as a hard worker with a good attitude who is available now, they may see hiring you as a better alternative to keeping the slug around.
Good luck.
:-O 🙂 😉 😛 😀 :good: :hi5:
You live in an area where the unemployment rate is high in the best of times, and now isn't the best of times. It is also a very beautiful area where any surveyor would love to live. In other words, you are up against stiff competition.
My advise, already offered by others, is to temporarily relocate to a place where you can get some experience, then try again.
I like the advice above, and I agree for the most part. I absolutely agree that you show the empolyers that you are willing to do any of the laborious tasks. The only thing I would add, is that I like a guy who appears to enjoy the thinking part as well. I agree that you won't get a "crew chief" job off the bat, but, personally, I like someone who likes to discuss boundaries, will help with calculations, and appears interested in the "thinking" end of the work as well.
"The Odolite"....good nickname.:good:
"N. Transit" might have been better for a new guy looking for a job, though....:-D