Your initiation...?

Rodman needed 555-1212.

Thats all the ad said. I called and asked the girl that answered if they trained. She said that she thought that he did, took my number and said he would be in around 8 that night and would call me back. Sure enough around 830 he called, we talked for a few minutes and he told me to be at his house in the morning at 10 til 6. That was 1989. Ive been working those effed up hours since.+o(

I think I was 13. I had just got home from school. My uncle (who worked for my grandfather) was working on a property across the street from where I lived. It was a fenced in property with dobermans. Since I knew the dogs and they knew me, I got to get a crash course in locating buildings with a rod. I decided I liked it and started hanging out with my grandfather more thru the summers. Pretty much been doing it on and off ever since.

> (I got into it because my Dad is also a Land Surveyor.)

I was raised under a transit!

I was riding a motorcycle through Northern Ontario through the woods and lakes, beautiful country, came across a tripod by the side of the road, about 1/2 mile past, came across a surveyor carrying another tripod on its shoulder. I said to myself: "that be a good job for me"

It was the early 80s. My dad, also a surveyor, decided I was old enough to head out with the crew. Our equipment was an old K&E with a Beetle 1000s EDM mounted on top. My job was to carry a motorcycle battery in an old antifreeze jug cut in half with a heavy wire for a handle. This was used to power the Beetle via a pair of tiny jumper cables. My duties also included carrying a three-gallon water cooler for the crew and whatever else they didn't want to carry.
Ten years old. A battery. A water cooler. Sometimes a small McCullough chainsaw was thrown in the mix.
Ahh, the good ole days...

I started school in Forestry. A couple core courses were surveying, property law, drafting, etc. I loved it, looked more into it (yes - at the library, under careers), asked the profs a few more questions and then switched majors. 1976. My ma & pa liked that, mostly because they had no idea what forestry was.

Sometimes I wish I'd have stayed in Forestry, but not very often. Now my daughter is graduating in Natural Resource Management with a Business major, my son is an engineer (aerospace), other daughter is a nurse tech (surgical). Go figure... I guess surveying didn't impress them much. So I guess I'll remain the only one in this bloodline to be a surveyor

Was supposed to show up for my new engineering job on Thursday. Stopped in at the office on Wednesday afternoon to let them know I had arrived and should be ready to start the next morning. Boss said, if I didn't mind, they could use some help with a topo survey right then as another guy had a family emergency come up. So I spent the rest of the afternoon running the rod while wandering along a beautiful creek finishing up the final shots for an irrigation dam project.

I cut my teeth in the early 90s(I was a young man). I had nothing more than a bush hook standing knee deep in a south GA river swamp. I cut 5000 feet of line my first week on the job. It was two months of chopping line before I ever touched a rod. I was trained by an old surveyor, and he taught me traditional land surveying techniques such as hand drafting, calc. lat and depart with a field book, throwing a chain, balancing level loops, and sharpening a hook.

I loved and respected my mentor, he was a great man, and I am his single registered apprentice... The only one the earned a stamp, and I have 5 states as of yet. He is the main reason I am a surveyor today. God rest his soul, we had to bury him last year.

My survey journey began after an injury as a "professional well driller"(I say ‘pro’ because I was good)
Took an aptitude test and was diagnosed as having civil engineering tendencies.
After some civil drafting and design classes that included course work in field surveying, I was hooked.
Started as a civil drafter, then onto design, I still had a desire for surveying and was given the opportunity.
It all started in 1989.
Not much construction any more, mostly boundaries now.

I like "diagnosed", got a chuckle out of that. 🙂

My Dad was a Civil PE. I knew a few things from working for him.

Freshly married, I needed a job. I got the yellow pages and went to every company in there. One of them hired me temporary. It was a small land development firm. That lasted 10 years. I did everything, including emptying trash cans at the end of the day, civil design, surveying, maps, drafting, calculations, hydrology, etc.

Being someone who is constantly procrastinating paperwork, I missed some deadlines on paperwork for my first year of college. So instead of going to one of the 'more impressive' sounding universities I had been accepted to, I ended up at the local community college for my first year. A very fortunate occurrence for me.

That year gave me the opportunity to hear of several friends who had traveled off for college and how they had basically lost their minds with partying (some even to the point of being booted from school for grades).

I decided to attend a near to home college the second year and went to orientation. The school had somehow placed me in a mathematics program instead of mechanical engineering tech. The mechanical program had closed out and I was not interested in the math degree. The young lady (also a student) who was my orientation counselor was very cute, so when she suggested Civil Engineering Tech, I quickly agreed that sounded good. Another lucky happenstance.

After my first surveying course, I was hooked. It was awesome to me that you could go outside and use some fancy equipment to make measurements, then take those measurements and make all kinds of cool maps. I was very fortunate to have an instructor (corny survey joke alert) who is 'outstanding in his field' - Professor Andrew Kellie at Murray State University. After a couple of surveying courses, he hooked me up with a teaching assistant position.

There was no turning back for me - and I still enjoy every day of it. Of course some of the really hot summer days are only enjoyed in retrospect.

1968. Setting aerial photo targets in portions of Southeast Asia where we really were not supposed to be.

Walking home from my girlfriend's house one Saturday when I passed my future employer's home. He had gone to school with my sister and we had a nodding acquaintance. That day I said "Hi", he said "I hear you need a job." I said yup and started the next Monday knowing absolutely nothing about surveying. That was 1977. I guess I liked the work.

My dad was an electrician in the coal mines of southern WV. I knew I did not want to work in the mines. My parents divorced when I was 16 and 2 years later my mom remarried; she married a man that she went to high school with that had moved to the Atlanta, GA area. We moved to the suburbs the summer after I graduated high school (1997). He is a surveyor and a professor at SPSU in Marietta, GA. I went to work with him that fall and began taking evening classes. Took 2 years off, because I always thought I wanted to be a doctor, and went to school full time. Didn't take long to realize I missed surveying. Been surveying ever since.

In 1986 I stepped off a makeshift tour bus after 4+ hard years of being the soundman for a rock/metal band playing the southeast's club circuit. Didn't have many any other options and a good friend got me a job "holding the pole" for a small shop local surveyor. Went from living in the darkness of the bars to working in the sunshine of the woods and mountains of western WV. Turns out those high school drafting classes were worth something. By the time I realized "surveying" had chose me it was too late.

My father was a surveyor in New Orleans. Looking back he was a very Professional Surveyor. He and his pardner Sam Landry were over the top. I started at a young age holding the back rod. Until I was old enough to swing a blade. When I first started there was steady flow of old crew hands that pasted through the company. They taught all kinds of tips and tricks. Then as time passed they were a clearing house for young engineers and surveyors in training. Many I thought were hiding from the law. WOW! From the early 60's to today!

I guess I'm the one who said "I want to be a land surveyor".

I was in high school, and looking at the career brochures, surveying looked pretty neat.

Did not know any surveyors. Just started making cold calls into surveying offices and asked to talk to someone about surveying, and got hired.

Left surveying a year later to go to jr. college during day, and to stock the paper aisle at Albertson's at night. When I realized that I was not so interested about stocking the aisle as I was about getting plusses and ties to the products from the aisle centerline, I knew I was hooked on surveying. Went back shortly after that.

1971 shop class. Stu Finley took us out back of the high school and showed us how to do a topo with a K&E and level rod. I was hooked then. My interest leaned towards law and when i learned of the legal aspects i knew surevying was for me.
My grandfather was a survetoy down GA way but we weren't close.

I do thank Stu when I run into him.