I am 47. Still solo. Someday in the future I do plan to hire someone that I can mentor and train. After I have weeded out all the deadbeats etc and finally find "the one" that falls in love with surveying, how long will it take for me to train the newbie up to semi productive status? I know, it depends. My gut tells me two years or more. My wallet is wishing for more like six months.
Your wallet should take into account that, after six months if not sooner, your assistant will be adding to your bottom line.
Depends on the hire and on exactly what tasks you need him to perform, Field only, office only, both... Of course you will raise your rates by at least 3 times their wage if you are going to run a 2-person crew.
Brad Ott, post: 423023, member: 197 wrote: I am 47. Still solo. Someday in the future I do plan to hire someone that I can mentor and train. After I have weeded out all the deadbeats etc and finally find "the one" that falls in love with surveying, how long will it take for me to train the newbie up to semi productive status? I know, it depends. My gut tells me two years or more. My wallet is wishing for more like six months.
I'm in a similar situation. My thoughts are to hire someone who can assume the solo field work. Ideally that would be a party chief with experience and has already fallen in love with surveying. I figure my money would be better spent if I pay a little more for experienced help rather than paying a newbie to watch and learn as I do what I am doing now anyway.
That would let me hold the office down and help in the field when needed.
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Solo and mentor is not easy.
I've been kind of trying it.
My father takes the 'mentoree' out in the field. That doesn't go so well bc my father only has old tricks up his sleeve.
Mentor runs the robot just fine but it's not the technical side that is the tough side, it's the thought process behind the field methods and on the fly adjustments in the plan.
The toughest part is trying to mentor when your brain is just trying to do the work bc it's got to get done. It's hard to slow down to a snail pace to train when work is on the table. You have to make mentoring the priority which in solo business is tough.
Good luck.
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Rich is right about keeping the training in the work day when you are on deadline - it's tough.
After you find "the one" your challenge will be to keep them around. Good pay, plenty of atta boys, good training, and perks that he/she couldn't get at a bigger firm are your best bets. Remember, if you are hiring a bright person, there are lots of other people that would be willing to hire them - not just in the surveying/geospatial field.
Depends... (there's a pun hidden somewhere there...) however, having someone to "hand it to" is not something you can assume will be there for you. I heard of a whole office load of field books, and folders.... Got dumped at the landfill..
I just hired a young guy a few weeks ago. He'd been working for a larger company but was tired of being on the road all of the time. He's got a couple of years under his belt at the big company and is good on the instrument but my job mix is completely different than what he's used to. I need office help as much as I need field help and unfortunately he had zero office experience. On the plus side he seemed eager to learn.
In the field, I jump in where needed but largely give directions and step back to see what he'll do with the rope I'm feeding him. So far that's worked well. I handle phone calls and work on the laptop or keep the clients out of his hair. He's good to ask questions and I of course jump in before he completely gets himself tangled up.
In the office I set up a seat of Carlson Survey on Intellicad 8.2 for him and when I got so behind that we had to take an office day (weekends and nights don't have enough hours) I tossed him a copy of a recent site plan and told him to start with the boundary. I take a minute and show him a couple of commands and then go back to my work. After parts or three or four days in the office he's able to build up a boundary, traverse around a house footprint to be sure the architurkeys measurements work and position the house on the lot. He won't be cranking out ALTAs anytime soon but I'm impressed with how much he's picked up in a handful of office hours.
I knew the first few weeks payroll would be an investment but I believe in a couple more weeks I'll be at least breaking even on payroll vs extra work billed. I'll report back and let you know how it goes.