Sunburned_Surveyor
11-07-2003, 06:38 AM
I often hear of a looming crisis in the Surveying Profession. Older surveyors retire, the population expands, and young men and women entering the field are few and far between. Surveying programs at colleges and universities are scarce, and becoming even more rare as budgets are cut. It's becoming more difficult to find a decent surveying technician.
The intent of this post is not to discuss whether or not education is needed to enter the surveying profession. There seems to be a good deal of discussion on this subject already. The intent of this post is to propose a possible solution, and to inspire constructive criticism and possibly momentum for the idea.
I am new to the surveying profession, graduating from a community college with an A.A.S. in Land Surveying in 2002. I have been working for a small engineering and surveying company since that time, working mostly with survey-grade GPS on public works projects. I thought the surveying community might benefit from the viewpoint of someone who had recently made the choice to become a Land Surveyor and who overcame the obstacle to do so. Although new to the profession, I am also very concerned about its future, as I have a passionate affection for the work and a significant investment in my career.
Before I propose my possible solution to our looming crisis, if you would like to call it that, let me give you a brief review of the journey I had to become a Land Surveyor and some of the problems I think they illustrate.
(1) I knew nothing about Land Surveying when I was trying to find a career, and only stumbled upon it when looking for a drafting course in a community college catalogue. [Problem: Most young people graduating high school don't even know what surveying is, much less consider it as a career option.]
(2) After choosing Land Surveying as a career, I worked two jobs, on at a local grocery store and one at a ski resort to put myself through school. Although I was supporting myself and also a first generation college student, I didn't qualify for Pell Grants and did not want to take on debt to pay for school. Scholarships for surveying were rare, and if they existed, I didn't find out about them until after they were awarded. I scraped my way through two years of college; I never would have made it through four or six. (Problem: Secondary education is becoming more and more expensive, and financial aid for Surveying Students is not as plentiful or well known as it is for students pursuing other fields. For many high school graduates secondary education is not financially possible.)
(3) For three months before graduation I searched for surveying employment. I finally received an employment offer just three weeks before graduation, despite having an excellent grade point average and excellent work references. (Problem: Surveying and engineering companies complain of a shortage of survey technicians, but there isn't really an organized, not for profit forum to connect or match surveying graduates with the companies that need them.)
(4) During my GPS class I shared two Trimble 4600 GPS Receivers with 11 other surveying students. When the Trimble dealer showed up to give us a RTK demo he was shocked at this "shortage" and promised to send us some older receivers from the Trimble warehouse. The promised equipment never materialized, and my professor’s inquiries were quietly put aside.
(Problem: Surveying equipment and surveying programs are expensive, especially when compared to class size. It's a lot cheaper to equip 200 English majors than it is 10 surveying students. Colleges and Universities don't want to bear these kinds of costs for a minority of their student population. As a result surveying equipment, software and other resources in these programs are getting older and older, or new resources are spread extremely thin.)
(5) My cousin works as a carpenter in San Francisco. Every three months his union sends him to a one-week course to learn skills related to his trade. All the material and instruction for his classes are provided at no cost. (Problem: has anyone heard of this kind of thing in the Land Surveying Profession? If you are fortunate you work for a company that supports this kind of education for its employees, and is willing to pay for it, you benefit. If not, pony up that weeks pay or stay home.)
I realize that many of these obstacles may have been due to the college I went to, or my own personal circumstances. I am not saying that all surveying students go through all of these problems, and a few may not go through any of them at all. But I think it illustrates in general some of the obstacles that might prevent more young people from pursuing our profession. What is the solution? A possibility is described below.
Solution: A non-profit organization formed by surveyors, supported by surveyors and administered by surveyors to accomplish the following mission:
(1) Educate young people on the existence of the Land Surveying Profession, the benefits and enjoyment that can be derived from a career as a Land Surveyor, and the way to get there.
(2) Arrange and coordinate financial and other support for those students that choose to pursue a Land Surveying career. Coordinate and arrange support for the college and university Land Surveying Programs that remain.
(3) Connect the companies and agencies that need to hire surveying technicians with the surveying technicians graduating from Land Surveying Programs and with those that can't afford education but are willing to learn in a working environment.
(4) Actively support affordable education opportunities and apprenticeship programs for those in the surveying profession that may not be licensed and need to acquire skills not gained through their education or at their current place of employment.
It is no secret that in general Land Surveying does not compensate as financially well as other professions with similar education and licensing requirements. I would assert that those that choose the profession do so because they truly enjoy the type of work involved, not because money is there priority. These types of individuals are hard to find in today's world. But I believe these types of individuals will make the best future surveyors. No one will go out to find, support, train and employ these individuals for us.
We as a community must take care of these needs ourselves. It will not be inexpensive, or without difficulty, but I believe it can be done. I think a central, non-profit organization supported by Land Surveyors may be the entity needed to meet these goals.
I will now leave this topic open for discussion, and hope it leads to a more positive future for the Land Surveying Profession.
A Young Surveyor
The intent of this post is not to discuss whether or not education is needed to enter the surveying profession. There seems to be a good deal of discussion on this subject already. The intent of this post is to propose a possible solution, and to inspire constructive criticism and possibly momentum for the idea.
I am new to the surveying profession, graduating from a community college with an A.A.S. in Land Surveying in 2002. I have been working for a small engineering and surveying company since that time, working mostly with survey-grade GPS on public works projects. I thought the surveying community might benefit from the viewpoint of someone who had recently made the choice to become a Land Surveyor and who overcame the obstacle to do so. Although new to the profession, I am also very concerned about its future, as I have a passionate affection for the work and a significant investment in my career.
Before I propose my possible solution to our looming crisis, if you would like to call it that, let me give you a brief review of the journey I had to become a Land Surveyor and some of the problems I think they illustrate.
(1) I knew nothing about Land Surveying when I was trying to find a career, and only stumbled upon it when looking for a drafting course in a community college catalogue. [Problem: Most young people graduating high school don't even know what surveying is, much less consider it as a career option.]
(2) After choosing Land Surveying as a career, I worked two jobs, on at a local grocery store and one at a ski resort to put myself through school. Although I was supporting myself and also a first generation college student, I didn't qualify for Pell Grants and did not want to take on debt to pay for school. Scholarships for surveying were rare, and if they existed, I didn't find out about them until after they were awarded. I scraped my way through two years of college; I never would have made it through four or six. (Problem: Secondary education is becoming more and more expensive, and financial aid for Surveying Students is not as plentiful or well known as it is for students pursuing other fields. For many high school graduates secondary education is not financially possible.)
(3) For three months before graduation I searched for surveying employment. I finally received an employment offer just three weeks before graduation, despite having an excellent grade point average and excellent work references. (Problem: Surveying and engineering companies complain of a shortage of survey technicians, but there isn't really an organized, not for profit forum to connect or match surveying graduates with the companies that need them.)
(4) During my GPS class I shared two Trimble 4600 GPS Receivers with 11 other surveying students. When the Trimble dealer showed up to give us a RTK demo he was shocked at this "shortage" and promised to send us some older receivers from the Trimble warehouse. The promised equipment never materialized, and my professor’s inquiries were quietly put aside.
(Problem: Surveying equipment and surveying programs are expensive, especially when compared to class size. It's a lot cheaper to equip 200 English majors than it is 10 surveying students. Colleges and Universities don't want to bear these kinds of costs for a minority of their student population. As a result surveying equipment, software and other resources in these programs are getting older and older, or new resources are spread extremely thin.)
(5) My cousin works as a carpenter in San Francisco. Every three months his union sends him to a one-week course to learn skills related to his trade. All the material and instruction for his classes are provided at no cost. (Problem: has anyone heard of this kind of thing in the Land Surveying Profession? If you are fortunate you work for a company that supports this kind of education for its employees, and is willing to pay for it, you benefit. If not, pony up that weeks pay or stay home.)
I realize that many of these obstacles may have been due to the college I went to, or my own personal circumstances. I am not saying that all surveying students go through all of these problems, and a few may not go through any of them at all. But I think it illustrates in general some of the obstacles that might prevent more young people from pursuing our profession. What is the solution? A possibility is described below.
Solution: A non-profit organization formed by surveyors, supported by surveyors and administered by surveyors to accomplish the following mission:
(1) Educate young people on the existence of the Land Surveying Profession, the benefits and enjoyment that can be derived from a career as a Land Surveyor, and the way to get there.
(2) Arrange and coordinate financial and other support for those students that choose to pursue a Land Surveying career. Coordinate and arrange support for the college and university Land Surveying Programs that remain.
(3) Connect the companies and agencies that need to hire surveying technicians with the surveying technicians graduating from Land Surveying Programs and with those that can't afford education but are willing to learn in a working environment.
(4) Actively support affordable education opportunities and apprenticeship programs for those in the surveying profession that may not be licensed and need to acquire skills not gained through their education or at their current place of employment.
It is no secret that in general Land Surveying does not compensate as financially well as other professions with similar education and licensing requirements. I would assert that those that choose the profession do so because they truly enjoy the type of work involved, not because money is there priority. These types of individuals are hard to find in today's world. But I believe these types of individuals will make the best future surveyors. No one will go out to find, support, train and employ these individuals for us.
We as a community must take care of these needs ourselves. It will not be inexpensive, or without difficulty, but I believe it can be done. I think a central, non-profit organization supported by Land Surveyors may be the entity needed to meet these goals.
I will now leave this topic open for discussion, and hope it leads to a more positive future for the Land Surveying Profession.
A Young Surveyor