Six months now I've been looking for a field assistant, someone with a genuine interest in surveying, hungry to learn and work hard and show up every day. At times it feels like I'm looking for a unicorn. Only resumes I've gotten have been from felons, equipment operators and a girl currently working at an ice cream shop. None have even the slightest experience or even know what surveying is and I just don't have time to show someone how to set up a tripod a dozen times.?ÿ
Um, they are all in college, trying to figure out if/why the sun comes up in the east. Or if cow farts are peeling the paint on the new car their parents bought them are peeling the paint. Or if living in California causes birth defects.?ÿ
Or some other question, that you don??t need the answer to, in order to go to work.?ÿ
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Tech-savvy folks gravitate toward tech work.
Outdoorsy-type and/or hands-on types will gravitate toward trades.
As a general rule, both pay more, faster, (and offer more autonomy faster) than survey work.
?ÿ
(Edit to add: This is not to say I don't love my profession and what I do. The way we operate as professionals and how we think about advancement, training and opportunity for newcomers could use some work.)
Tech-savvy folks gravitate toward tech work.
Outdoorsy-type and/or hands-on types will gravitate toward trades.
As a general rule, both pay more, faster, (and offer more autonomy faster) than survey work.
?ÿ
(Edit to add: This is not to say I don't love my profession and what I do. The way we operate as professionals and how we think about advancement, training and opportunity for newcomers could use some work.)
I can??t help but think that with the push for efficiency over last decade, with robotic totalstations and GNSS, the profession has effectively eaten all but the fittest and most committed young up and comers. I won??t even go into a rant on work ethics. Where did I miss the lesson that just showing up was optional?
I once advertised for a surveyor's helper and got a young man, dressed in shirt & tie. The first words out of his mouth were, "what topics are we taking surveys on".?ÿ He was ready to be in the mall all day with a clipboard.?ÿ He evidently didn't read the requirements for the position.
I once advertised for a surveyor's helper and got a young man, dressed in shirt & tie.?ÿ
For my interview here I wore a shirt and tie.
Years ago though, I walked into a local small town diner/store to get a soda to go with my lunch. A local patron asked me what we were doing and I said, "surveying". Another local patron quickly replied, "I like Coke more than Pepsi!".?ÿ
I build and maintain websites for several construction and surveying companies, so I hear a lot of the complaints. A buddy of mine runs a local window washing company with 8 employees and he's having a hell of a time finding new hires that will actually show up and work. And he's paying them well over minimum wage and takes good care of them -- a family atmosphere. I just don't get it. When I was a greenhorn, I was excited to work and signed up for overtime anytime they wanted to give it to me, even when I was on salary.
Alaska seems amazing, minus the abundance of giant mosquitos and a lack of women. SWMBOAWD Would visit me, but that would end my relationship eventually to get the ticket. I needed you about 17 years ago when I was middle 30s dying to get into survey. I'll send anyone I can imbue toward you, but make no guarantees except for my own ethis etc.
Crazy to think no one really knows how cool this career can be and fulfilling too.
It's not glamorous enough for many of the college graduates.?ÿ It doesn't foster upward mobility for those already in the field who don't have degrees.?ÿ
But the bottom line is money.?ÿ We still aren't charging enough to support competitive salaries, and probably can't with what the public's perception on the value of what we do.?ÿ And we're afraid to charge a lot more because then people will instead come up with ways to circumvent the need/requirement for a survey.
Honestly, I have never worked with a group of people that seem to be so... grouchy, short-tempered, snarky, and generally miserable while also being arrogant as I have with surveyors, especially licensed surveyors.
I've talked with some younger people in the industry and they all have stories about the LS they're working under being a dick.?ÿ Some try to put a semi-positive spin it like "Oh, he's just a grumpy old curmudgeon but he means well" and others have straight up quit and went to another company because of it.
I've run into this type of behavior myself and at first I assumed it was an anomaly, but I'm starting to see enough of it now that I don't think it's simple bad luck.?ÿ Maybe the nature of the work attracts people with garbage people skills, or the stress of the job turns pleasant people into a-holes, but from my corner of the room it seems to be a real problem.
I try not to get too hung up on the particulars, but the grumpy old man thing really annoys the hell out of me.?ÿ These people either 1.) don't think they need to be patient, respectful, or professional because they've earned that right through age or 2.) have just been too stupid their entire lives to figure it out on their own or 3.) simply don't care.
As far as stress getting to some guys, they probably need to be better at what they do-- teaching, communicating, managing, everything.?ÿ Browbeating or throwing a party chief or a second man under a bus because the LS sucked at some part of their job obviously isn't acceptable, but it sure seems popular.
Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because I don't think it does a lot of good to pull new people into the industry only to treat them like garbage.?ÿ I know if I were to advise someone today on how to get started in surveying I would say worry less about what you know and more about finding a group that will treat you like a potential asset.
A younger generation is out there, they just don't know what surveying is.?ÿ My son is 22 and has worked for us for a year then quit to pursue a job in the skateboard industry, when he found out that means working for minimum wage in a warehouse he came back and is working to become our next chief.?ÿ A couple of his friends were looking for jobs in March and I set them up with interviews at a different company, both got hired one quit within the first week the other is working out really well from what I have been told.?ÿ None of these kids had any clue what surveying was until I talked with them about it.?ÿ We as a profession do a poor job of relating to the next generation of potential surveyors.
With all of us 70+ y.o. surveyors that are going to "leaving" the profession in the next few years there should be an increase in the demand for licensed individuals.?ÿ This probably means a good work load for those that are licensed and rates will probably reflect the greater demand than supply.?ÿ I figure at that time there will be a number of 'support' personnel that will aspire to obtain their license.
There will always be those that perform the work and then realize they too could charge the "big bucks" if they were licensed.?ÿ There are your "up and comers".
@bstrand I??ve experienced this myself so I know where you??re coming from. Maybe it??s something of an old school hazing culture that treats new people like week old garbage. Short sighted to say the least. I had one LS a long time ago that treated me like I was a herpes sore. This was some years before getting licensed. When he learned later I??d become licensed, it came with no small measure of satisfaction to succeed despite all of his disparagement and discouraging comments. This feels to me more like the perfect storm of a general labor shortage compounded by a decade of ??do more with less??, technology is always the solution. The problem is that without sufficient fresh blood willing to embrace the profession, we end up with not enough chiefs and darn few Indians that pull it all together and can generate something of value.?ÿ
Role models are what we need.?ÿ People in general understand about 15,000 other occupations exist because they see them doing that occupation or see it from some character in a movie or TV show or witness it in action on the Nightly News Hour or hear about it from a close friend or relative.?ÿ But, they do not see the work that is being done by a licensed professional land surveyor.?ÿ Who aspires to be something they don't even know exists?
