looking into Land Surveying/Geomatics. Any Arfcommers who do this for a living past/present or employed by a Surveying/Engineering company, please give me some insight.Thanks

_BTH

Anyone ?????

I am an Architect. I know a lot of civil/survey companies. I  dont know a lot about the way they work, but i know to start you shoot a lot of grades and do a lot of AutoCAD work. With affection people in my business call it CAD-monkey Status...

If you want to do it, get a copy of AutoDesk AutoCAD. There is a specific Civil program.

As I understand it, the fellows that work in a Civil Enginnering office make a lot more than guys in a Survey only office.

Not sure what you are planning to do, if it's field work or drafting but I will run this out there and hopefully it will help.

Civil work is not a well paying area, especially survey work.

Petrochemical & offshore platform work pays more. In that field, piping pays the most, then electrical and then civil/structural.

Civil/Structural/Architectural is sort of the red headed step child. Our stuff has to be in the ground, or being fabricated before pipe and cable trays. Any Civil discipline is under the gun to get it done quick. That goes for the guys shooting the elevations as well as those who draft it. We actually go and do our own field work, and very rarely use surveyors unless the job is huge.
What you will find is commercial, residential, pipeline type work.

If you have 3D CAD experience that helps a huge amount. Most companies and clients us Microstation and PDS/Frameworks. There are classes available, but one must be experienced in CAD first.

It's not unusual for people to pull in $100,000 in this business in a year with 20 years plus experience. I have been at it for about 23 years now myself.

I was a land surveyor in Dallas, TX in the early '80s.  It is a great profession because you are outdoors getting exercise all day and you are working your mind at the same time.  There is some grunt work at times but it is very challenging.  

The company I worked for was called Geogram Corporation.  I was a party chief with a crew of 3 - instrument man, rod man, and me the chief .  Each morning we got our work order from the head honchof and headed out into the Dallas/Fortwork area.  Sometimes in the city, often in the country, in deep woods, fields, etc.. performing boundary and topographic surveys.  We used innovative techniques to avoid long level circuits through steep terrain.  I always was challenged by trying to locate old pins, etc..  It is a very old profession - only prositution is older.  

But anyway, it is a great profession.  As far as salary, I have not checked lately, but I would guess that a good instrument man could make $50K easy.  And party chief $70K.  If you have and engineering or engineering technology degree, you can move up to management and engineering work in the office required to get the product out the door.  

Its a blast, go for it

cheers

I would say the only negative aspect is that you will have to work each season of the year, including the dead of winter, which can be rough, you are always going into a fast food restaurant to warm up.

Guys, Thanks for the input, I am interested in the field work and enjoy being outside all year. Just started out looking into this profession to see if it suits me and if I've got the brains for it.

My brother did one year at the local university then went to community college and got his surveying degree (two years).  He had an internship with a city engineering department as an inspector for a bridge project before graduating.  He went to work for a local civil/mech/elec/survey firm.  He was on a survey crew for two years.  Moved to crew leader.  The company offered him the opportunity to move indoors to do the drafting side of the work.  He went back to the survey crew leader position after 3 months.  He took the state and national test to become a licensed surveyor after 7 years out of school.  He passed the state exam and all but two sections on the national.  He took the two sections on the national the next time it was offered and passed.  The company he works for opened an office in the Denver area.  The local guy that was hired to run the survey department was fired.  My brother was promoted to management.  He still gets to work outside (1 to 2 days a week) but spends a lot of time marketing and keeping his two crews and draftsperson busy.  It is a good field to get into with potential for advancement.  Look for a good company to work for and you will get out of it what you put into it.

Also, many technology changes happening in the field.  Civil engineering is closely related to the survey field.  Look into some civil engineering web sites to see the changes taking place and the relationship between surveying and civil engineering.  CE News is a magazine that has information on surveying and geomatics every month.  Check some universities.  Four year degrees are being offered as well.

Quoted: My brother did one year at the local university then went to community college and got his surveying degree (two years).  He had an internship with a city engineering department as an inspector for a bridge project before graduating.  He went to work for a local civil/mech/elec/survey firm.  He was on a survey crew for two years.  Moved to crew leader.  The company offered him the opportunity to move indoors to do the drafting side of the work.  He went back to the survey crew leader position after 3 months.  He took the state and national test to become a licensed surveyor after 7 years out of school.  He passed the state exam and all but two sections on the national.  He took the two sections on the national the next time it was offered and passed.  The company he works for opened an office in the Denver area.  The local guy that was hired to run the survey department was fired.  My brother was promoted to management.  He still gets to work outside (1 to 2 days a week) but spends a lot of time marketing and keeping his two crews and draftsperson busy.  It is a good field to get into with potential for advancement.  Look for a good company to work for and you will get out of it what you put into it. Also, many technology changes happening in the field.  Civil engineering is closely related to the survey field.  Look into some civil engineering web sites to see the changes taking place and the relationship between surveying and civil engineering.  CE News is a magazine that has information on surveying and geomatics every month.  Check some universities.  Four year degrees are being offered as well.