Caltrans is hiring Transportation Surveyors

For those unaware, a Kali Licensed Land Surveyor working as a CalDOT Transportation Surveyor makes about $130,000 a year including lavish benefits and excluding overtime pay, which can add another $30,000+-. Oddly, Land Surveyors in basic Supervisory positions make about $140,000 and cannot charge overtime. Some Supervisors can gross $180,000 due to "Other Pay".

Not bad for a non-supervisory LS Transportation Surveyor. Only 40 hours a week with generous holiday and vacation time means you can moonlight a survey business (or Christmas tree farm:-D ) on the side for maybe another $20,000-$70,000 a year if you have no personal life. And, once beyond the 90 day probationary period it's almost impossible to fire your ass unless you kill someone or steal things (Union membership is mandatory). If you're a rogue, you can run your EBay business or Facebook etc., all day long on your smartphone during business hours, leave early, spend hours chatting with your cubemates, nap in your cubicle, and/or run calcs and prepare maps for your moonlight work. Your supervisor may be doing the same. There's even sweeter angles, like telecommuting, driving the survey truck home program so you'll have access to a late model total station, multiple GPS units, etc. (they're a Trimble shop), on weekends.

If you start young, 40 years later you can retire at full pay with free medical (vested in 20 years), etc. Actually you can retire at about 35 years with effective full pay as you will not be contributing to your pension, medical and union dues ($50/month) anymore.

Downside? There's an incredible amount of frustration concerning bureaucratic overhead, archaic IT infrastructure (they're still running CAiCE), witnessing incredible amounts of money being wasted, ridiculously complex work product standards, even people stealing your chair because it's better than yours. Consult Dilbert.com for the particulars. If you're unsure, see aforementioned rogues above; you will have to deal with them daily. Can you stomach coworkers telling you a sow's ear is a silk purse for 40 years?

I'm not pooh-poohing the career path; the remuneration numbers are sweet and you can game the system if that's your style, but if you're an honest man beware the heavy load your ethical standards will have to bear. You'll have to harden the f**k up to make it to the finish line.

Don't believe me about the pay?
http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?page=1&q=Transportation+Surveyor+%28Caltrans%29

"I'm not pooh-poohing the career path; the remuneration numbers are sweet and you can game the system if that's your style, but if you're an honest man beware the heavy load your ethical standards will have to bear. You'll have to harden the f**k up to make it to the finish line."

Funny because you're right, but, you already knew that.

Thanks for the laugh:-) Your whole post was amazing.

TS-D tops out at about 104k.

Party Chief tops out at 108.5k

Senior tops out at 122k

Supervising tops out at 135k.

Those are the real numbers.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the OP has some experience with the state employment.

Doesn't the state have to answer to the grand jury? Seems like the most severe abuse would be easy to look into.

Those numbers do not include the benefit package value.

Probably add another $25k+ to those numbers for health insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, life insurance, retirement, sick leave, holiday, vacation, paid CEU's, ect.

Been There, Done That, Got the T-Shirt...

Mr Marks has nailed it, you described my experience to a T.

Shortly after I started with the State, they increased the percentages that the employee contributes to retirement and health insurance. The retirement, assuming that the State doesn't follow the example of several cities by declaring bankruptcy and cutting pension payments by 2/3 or more, is nearly as good as the best governmental pension plans I've seen, marginally better than the best plans I've seen through large private engineering firms, yet way better than the average I've seen in the private sector. While most of my coworkers were pissin' & moanin' about how unfair it was when the State made employees contribute more than pocket change to their own retirement, I was feeling a great sense of relief after having been paying my employees more than I was making for several months and spending the rest to pay basic bills and keep my practice going through the recession.

Insurances, education/ceu benefits, sick and vacation leave is about on par with the larger companies I worked for. At the State, I get 2 to 4 more paid holidays than what most private companies I've worked for offered, and 11 more than I was able to give myself in my own practice. They cut two paid holidays either just before or just after I started with the State.

Base pay used to be significantly lower than what a surveyor with similar duties in the private sector in CA would make. Because of pay parity raises that had been negotiated just prior to the recession, and because of the effects of the recession on the private sector, State pay has been a little better than that of private sector surveyors with similar duties (and who were fortunate enough to be working regularly). When the economy picks up more, my private sector counterparts will be making more, in many cases a lot more than I will at the State.

There's no arguing that working for the State right now affords both good pay and excellent benefits. Mr. Marks could have made that point easily enough without having arbitrarily adding $40,000 to the figures he linked as backup.

So Mr. Marks, no, I don't believe you about the pay. Even a cursory look over the list you linked to quickly shows the proof of your unnecessary exaggeration.

Well, if Mr. Marks was actually licensed as a Land Surveyor in California, he would be eligible to compete for that "bloated" pay. Thank you Evan and Dave for providing the actual payscale information.

Man, I just settled back down in my homestate...

So I have recently relocated to Northern California, Roseville area from the east coast, I have 18 years in the field and 1 year of office experience, I am finding it a little bit more difficult to find a job out here as compared to the east coast, I am wonder do I have to have a LSIT to obtain a job with Caltrans

Richard wilson, post: 378381, member: 11851 wrote: So I have recently relocated to Northern California, Roseville area from the east coast, I have 18 years in the field and 1 year of office experience, I am finding it a little bit more difficult to find a job out here as compared to the east coast, I am wonder do I have to have a LSIT to obtain a job with Caltrans

Richard: Read the original post.

and Don't read between the lines.

Having worked in the public sector for over 37 years now and eligible for reduced retirement, I could apply and if accepted, relocate... Nah, not worth it for me even though I'm sure I could deal with the bureaucracy- the definition of which is, "Converting energy into solid waste."

Although if California were more appealing to me...

Relocate TO california?

That there is crazy talk.

So did anyone check out Mr. Marks link? http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?page=1&q=Transportation+Surveyor+%28Caltrans%29/a >
Eye opening! Jp

Jp7191, post: 378808, member: 1617 wrote: So did anyone check out Mr. Marks link? http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?page=1&q=Transportation+Surveyor+%28Caltrans%29&apos ;"> http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?page=1&q=Transportation+Surveyor+(Caltrans)
Eye opening! Jp

I wonder what that "other pay" column represents. Based on the link below, it looks like if you want to live where the jobs are you need a really good salary. I suppose if you can live "in the weeds" AND work for the State you'd be doing well.

http://www.trulia.com/home_prices/California/