Well everyone else has some advice so here's mine
Zapper, I can relate. I've had my own experiences, which I believe has molded me well for a mans "work world". Also most would never know what I am capable of doing. Years back at 16-17 years old I worked in the cotton fields to help my parents provide. The crew leader said I worked circles around every man out there.
My current job puts me right at the door of all types of men, language, interest, and creativity. Needless to say, I want a job in this profession and out the gutter work I'm currently involved in. I'll also admit tho, this job has toughened me up for all types of work environments.
I look-up to each and every woman who works with men. It's not something all women can do. At the same time I realize some might be harder on us to see if we can hack it, which is totally acceptable in most cases. I like to BS with the next guy lol... I hv a pretty sharp tongue myself.
Well everyone else has some advice so here's mine
:good:
You got some good advice here in this forum. Some you can ignore, but the serious replies contain gems.
Download a free cad program and learn it. Consider community college evening classes in CAD.
A really good piece of advice above is getting familiar with county courthouse land records research. Learn how to research parcel ownership records and chain of title. Learn how to read tax assessor parcel identification numbers and find the associated parcel references. Some counties have their tax assessor records on line, and you can get the current deed references for the survey parcel and adjoiners before going to the chancery clerks office to make copies. A sketch of the deeds before going into the field to do ground research is very important. Learn what bearings are and how to sketch the boundary of a deed. Learn where the subdivision maps are located and how to obtain copies of them.
One reco above was good - get familiar with GPS starting with a simple handheld unit. Know it's advantages and limitations. If your fiancé is allowed to bring home surveying equipment, he could teach you how to use it in your back yard. Reading an operator's manual was also good advice. Reviewing past mathematics coursework was good, including anything you had in statistical analysis. We are numbers people, so how do you analyze and adjust field data? Remember the I-man training mentioned above - review the traverse loop data and determine where errors come from and how to reduce personal and random errors. Survey data and cad files are all coordinate based, so also review you knowledge of the Cartesian coordinate system.
Manually learning how to run an instrument is easy. The real work is learning what to do next and how to make yourself useful on rain days.
The economy is getting a little better. I am a solo operator, and I have enough work to keep me busy. I also teach two classes at MSU in graphic communications. All engineering majors are required to take this class, so it would be a good one to look at. The community college classes in fundamentals of drafting and computer aided drafting will probably be more accessible. If you can find a course in elementary surveying, that would be good. Don't bother coming to Tupelo, MS, because they shut my department down. I taught those classes.
The world still needs people with technical skills. I think that you will do just fine. Get some training and keep trying.
Refuse to deny who & what I am ... Far from a fake & liar!
:good:
Wow, very tacky Paul
> Well, I'd say the days of ignoring your elders sexist, racist, etc. comments have been over for at least 20 years. I call them as I see them.
>
> I love the training plan you have, Kris! Can I sign up for some surveyor boot camp?!
Sure. What part would you like to enter into? 🙂
I Apologize For The Female Gender Symbol Comment
I was unaware it is a board option. I personally believe it is uneccessary.
When I saw Belle followed by the gender symbol I thought you were being pushy about your gender. My mind drew a blank on it's formal name and can understand your discomfort when I instead used sex symbol.
As to the photo, my comments still stand. What is acceptable on facebook is not always acceptable in the workplace, and this is our workplace water cooler for office chatter.
Many are now finding conflicts between facebook and work.
In another time and place there was a very popular board for surveyors. When new management came along they decided to improve it to facebook style. Almost everyone left.
Do not worry any because you will not find me on facebook.
Paul in PA
Refuse to deny who & what I am ... Far from a fake & liar!
Belle,
You might consider changing the photo you use. First impressions count and the first thing I noticed was what appears to be ear buds. Communications in the field are verbal and I for one can't talk with someone with plugs in their ears. Dress for the job you are applying for.
Larry
Refuse to deny who & what I am ... Far from a fake & liar!
> You might consider changing the photo you use. First impressions count and the first thing I noticed was what appears to be ear buds.
Yikes, I better change mine too...who wants to hire a dead gay Anglican poet? 😉
If you are determined and patient, a door will open for you. Work hard on your skill sets. Nobody called me back my first season I tried to get an entry level surveying rodman position. I had no experience or training. Heck, more than one told me to stop wasting mine and their time when I'd follow up with a phone call. I didn't give up. I went back to college and learned as much as I could about geomatics, CAD and anything else that could help further my cause.
I can't even begin to tell you the satisfaction it gives me to have my license today and run into some of those same folks who were so discouraging to me in the beginning.
Old timer once told me that if you shoot for the moon, good chance you can hit the top of a phone pole, but if you shoot for the top of the pole, you'll likely just get your foot.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
James
Yeah, James, except with cousin Ian in your bloodline it kind of takes care of that other little issue 🙂
My best advice is to speak to a manager in person and don't take no for an answer. If you can get in front of someone and they find you eager, intelligent, willing to learn, and willing to work I think you'll find a job rather quickly. This is, of course, if there's any work to be had in your area. Most areas of the country have been hit incredibly hard from a surveying standpoint. In my area at least four firms have shuttered and the rest have only a skeleton work force. Two firms in my area who were once quite large are actually struggling to keep ONE crew busy 40/week.
Refuse to deny who & what I am ... Far from a fake & liar!
I can talk to dead poets of any ilk especially if they're not looking for a job.
Read through most of these replies and agree and disagree. You seem to carry yourself well and likely look people in the eye with shoulders square when you talk to them. That's positive stuff
I know several woman surveyors that own their own business. Not sure how they got to that level, but are successful in their own right and good surveyors.
But in my 35+ yrs in this racket the "rodman" didn't really exist. I was always the party chief and I ran the rod, the front end of the tape, and called all the shots. The so call "I-man" ran the gun, and once technology improved - then the data collector. Before that there was a note taker by the I-man. Remember that the smart end of the field crew is not in the truck or behind the gun - it's collecting the data & evidence.
Nowadays it's solo time with Mr Robot, Mr GPS and yours truly. Almost wish I was hiring.
Don't undersell yourself. You will need some CAD training, and that can be a challenge. Every good field hand is also a good office hand. Go talk to the county recorder and see who's busy recording surveys and get used to meeting with them. Go talk to site superintendents at ongoing projects and see if you can fill in with a contractor. You won't find a job on the internet, only person to person contact so you can "sell" yourself in that positive way.
Good luck
Refuse to deny who & what I am ... Far from a fake & liar!
Who is that Mr. Fleming?
As to belle's picture, it's a good picture. What is wrong with a posed, b&W good photo? There isn't anything crude or nasty about it. I see a necklace with a stone or something hanging from it, I highly doubt she was posing with ear buds....?
Look at everyone's picture on the whole thread. I don't see any that I would put on a resume.....
Refuse to deny who & what I am ... Far from a fake & liar!
> Hell, if I had any employees I'd hire you just for your response to Paul. Now that's a surveyor kinda post!
Refuse to deny who & what I am ... Far from a fake & liar!
W.H. Auden
Avatar
When you had G.K. Chesterton as an avatar, I always pictured the guy saying, "Science!" on the Thomas Dolby one hit wonder looking just like that! :whistle:
Wow! What a fascinating firestorm you started there Belle!
I've worked with a couple of women in the field and they could run circles around me - right up until I figured out field-2-finish stuff on the data collector. I'm not really surveying anymore except for a rare fill-in occasion. I still hang out here because these folks have become some of my best friends.
That started with that "other" web site someone mentioned earlier. I think about 10 years ago. I was a carpenter helping a friend build a work shop for a retired surveyor turned inventor. He said something about building a website and my buddy looks over at me saying "there's your man!". I built his website and found that "other" site to announce it. None of the above was really my background. My background is software engineering, mathematics and physics. A few folks contacted me about writing some software for them - which I did. Out of the blue one day a feller calls me up offering me a job surveying at an engineering company. Except for the math behind it all I didn't know a dam thing about it. Sure why not I thought.
I was hired as a "rodman" but all I did for a few months was setup the backsights, pound stakes, hunt for pins, climb mountains, run from bees and a couple of bears, wade streams with a smattering of court house research sprinkled in. One day the big boss asks if anyone had put me on the gun yet. No. Until that day I had never setup the gun or messed with the data collector. Karen was made the party-chief and I the I-man that morning. She taught me how to get things all setup and use the DC. I got stuck with that thing for about a year. People started quitting and moving on and eventually it came down to me and Tony. He hated running the gun or the DC but we made a great team. Then I got dumped with drawing up the plans based on our day's activity. Thank God for field-2-finish otherwise we would have been seriously screwed. I'm pretty clueless when it comes to CAD work but I managed.
Anyway, best of luck to you Belle.
BTW: I was also a logger for a while. The owner was a deeply religious man so swearing was [attempted] to be kept to a minimum. Well, there was that one day when he took the skidder and a big tree back to the loader and left me behind to limb and tip a big monster we just fell. When he got back with the skidder to haul away my handy work he started yelling at me about "get out of there!!". I was shoulder deep in poison oak. He didn't know the stuff doesn't bother me. My girlfriend at the time was super allergic and couldn't wash my clothes. Some years later working at another surveying company I was cutting some stuff out of the way and the PC was yelling at me over the radio about what I was cutting and warning me. Turned out being poison sumac. Apparently that doesn't bother me either.
Sorry to ramble on. I'm good like that. 😉
E.
> Thanks Scott For reply.
Of all the comments here I think Scott's is probably closest to the mark. Its just been a really bad job market for the last 6 years. In most places there are experienced guys sitting at home, guys with PC experience working as rodmen, etc. Tough to break into that. There aren't many women in this business (not many minorities, either) and that is something of a hurdle to overcome, but when the job market is better it shouldn't be insurmountable.
Many of the women I have met in this business were, or started out as, grade hops on construction crews. You might try that angle. Big public works contractors have quotas to fill.
Not a problem BigE, I enjoy hearing of others experiences. Yes, it seems I did start a firestorm. Lol it's okay though, I got some good advice.