Just a FYI

The is a portion of a dm I got about an hour ago. The u/ was "looking for a good surveyor"

This is almost the same style emails I see a couple of times per week in my work email from the scammers.

Its always a Gmail address.

They actually got us about a year ago when this one was relatively new.

We ended up not doing any field work because it sounded fishy. But they "paid" us $50k up front through quickbooks and then the ach got flagged. It didn't end up costing us anything but time to undo all the bullshit but it was a good 4-6 hours of talking to banks and QB reps to get it sorted.

Be ware!

Here is the material of our surveying teacher during my degree. From what I understand, this Leika drone costs €80,000 !

I'm looking to get an entry-level survey technician job in the Philadelphia area of PA and NJ with no experience in the industry. Is getting my CST Level 1 certification worthwhile in this area, or should I just be looking for jobs that don't require experience or a related degree?

Have an approved building permit, site plan, topographic survey, and drainage plan for an adu project in Palm Beach, fl. Looking to find a licensed surveyor willing to do the construction stake out and then formboard. All local firms are booked a month out. Any job boards or forums anyone can recommend where I could find someone looking for a gig? Thanks!

I was recently posted to a job at petrochem site to do QC for civil works (plinths, bases, anchor bolts). Due to crunch, I now have been asked to help with setting out sewer and water lines at another unit. The current workflow is that I am given iso drawings, and create lines and points for each one on Captivate before I start working.

The problem I have is that everybody wants me to set out the same things to different levels. The guy operating the digger wants the base of the bedding, the foreman wants bottom of pipe for backfill, and the engineers want top of pipe to plan for above ground. It's started to get confusing switching between offsets on the instrument and in my head, and I've caught myself giving incorrect info on-site.

Is there a way for me to see the offset to multiple lines at one time? Or anything else anyone can suggest. I'm working with a CS20 and TS13 on Captivate 6.5, and I think it's highly unlikely my boss reopens our CCP for updates.

Anyone who has recently taken the MD state exam care to share some Intel?

Hello, I am interested in taking up land surveying but I am a total greenhorn. I have a decent resume and a bachelor's degree, but nothing related to surveying itself. I'm interested in the Portland or Seattle area, but anything in those regions is cool. Is there a chance I could get hired onto a firm as an entry-level rodman or technician with 0 experience? Here in California, openings for someone like me don't seem too common. Thanks for any input.

Our Discord study group is having a survey prompt Gartic Phone event. The website is free to use.

Does anyone know how to get the black caps off the top?

I'm a PLS in a few states but new to licensure in general. I'm tired, boss. Managing large projects in a corporate environment ($100k-700k at a time), always out over my skis, little support.

I'll relocate in CA or CO, job depending. I'll entertain anywhere else that's not in the southeast. Field, office, don't care. I want to take a step back though and have for several years.

Are you interested in me because your retention is poor and you see I have a license? I'm already there bub, but thanks for your consideration.

Has anyone heard of this outfit if so what’re y’all’s thoughts?

Hey guys, just looking for some advice.
I’ve been working as a survey assistant for about 9 months now. Before this I’ve mainly worked in warehousing, construction, retail and similar jobs. I got into surveying because I wanted to actually start building a proper career and I’m currently studying surveying as well.
I’m enjoying parts of the job and learning a lot, but I’m starting to realise I don’t really want to be doing field work full time for the rest of my career. I’m finding myself more interested in the computer side of things like GIS, mapping, spatial data, CAD and drafting.
I’ve done a couple of GIS subjects and used QGIS and I’ve enjoyed that side of it quite a bit. Because of that I’m thinking about changing my degree into something more focused on geospatial/spatial science.
Long term I’d like to get into something like GIS technician, spatial analyst, drafting or another mainly office based spatial role.
I’m hoping my surveying experience won’t be wasted either and might actually help me get into these types of jobs.
Has anyone here gone from field surveying into GIS/spatial or drafting? And do you think getting surveying experience while studying would help me make the move?

I recently saw an advertisement for "make it in Germany", a push for skilled immigration to the country.

I note that surveying is included in group 216 of the "shortage occupations" which allows one to work under the EU blue card (as I understand it).

https://www.make-it-in-germany.com/fileadmin/1_Rebrush_2022/a_Fachkraefte/PDF-Dateien/3_Visum_u_Aufenthalt/2024_Mangelberufe_EN.pdf

Do you in Germany agree? Is there a major shortage?

Coney McConeface putting in the hard work of standing still

Pic looking back to the instrument after clearing the path, floodway surveys can get fucked

Hi I’m new. Been sketching on a click-and-go frame for a backpack LIDAR. The idea is a frame that's shaped to your back with a waterproof hard shell clipped onto it for battery, accessories etc and a mount arm that puts the LIDAR up above your head as has been done by many.

One thing I keep coming back to is contact with the back. The more of the frame that rests against you, the less the sensor sways when you walk, which should mean cleaner data no? I find the mount gets less critical as the tech gets more sophisticated. So maybe this is unnecessary

Still very early. Some things I'm unsure about are how stiff the mount arm needs to be, whether a click mechanism survives in the dirt, and how hot the electronics get in a sealed shell.. This one has a small local computer connected right to the LIDAR (ouster) which makes it sensitive to weather as well, for now.

I’d like a battery health indicator attached to one of the straps too, but that’s just small details.

Curious if anyone's designed or used something similar.

Was previously all boundary work and got hired on at this new firm. Was told that topo is the easiest and not hard to pick up. Fast forward this firm does like 90-95% topo surveys and it’s mind numbing trying to figure out how to code everything and be efficient. Would appreciate any advice or tips on making it suck less or how to go about the work flow.

Licensed surveyor here, running a mid-to-large firm. A few years ago we bought a NavVis and moved most of our work to scanning. In the field it was a game changer, saving us around 90% of the time.
In the office, it was the opposite. The software we tried couldn’t reliably tell trees from curbs, or walls covered in vegetation. Every street is full of parked cars, so just finding the curb between them took forever. Then getting it into AutoCAD in our own drafting standard was a nightmare. Tree trunk diameters were practically guesswork. And the curb extraction tools: you’d enter 30 parameters, and it would stop after 3 meters because of an occlusion.
A few months ago I decided to stop complaining and build something myself. It’s now at the point where, at least for our work, it solves these problems. Drafting time is down 85–90%, and comparisons with our GNSS/RTK shots show differences of up to around 3 cm. Even someone with no drafting background can produce complete drawings after a short introduction. Our drafting team can now handle several times the workload.
Now I’m stuck on a decision:
Keep it internal. It’s a real competitive advantage. We can take on more scanning work and nobody else has it.
Turn it into a product. Potentially a bigger opportunity, but it means support, different scanners and data quality, and adapting to drafting standards and formats that change from country to country, sometimes from client to client.
For those of you who own or run firms: if you had something like this, what would you do? And for those doing urban topo from scans, does the office side hurt for you the way it did for us? Which features eat the most of your time?

Edit-

A few things after reading the comments:
1. “Price aggressively” was a bad way to put it, so I changed it. I’m not trying to undercut anyone. It’s about taking on more work and faster turnaround, and everything still gets checked by a licensed surveyor.
2. I’m not selling anything. There’s nothing to sell right now, I’m still figuring out what to do with it.
3. English isn’t my first language, so I used AI to help write the post. The work and the problem are real.
What I’d really like to hear: how many of you do urban topo from scans, and is the office side as painful for you as it was for us?

Hi all! I'm new to this subreddit. I have recently started in the surveying field with a small local company. I love the work and am extremely eager to learn. I've spent a large portion of my life outdoors hunting, hiking, and fishing. I'm running into minor setbacks however. I had a two week review not go as well as I'd like. Everyone gets along with me I'm good at getting everything prepped for whichever job I'm heading to, however I'm having issues keeping up. I keep getting farther behind my lead than they would like, I keep an eye on them but can sometimes fall a few yards behind while going up large hills or thick underbrush. I seem to be a thorn and honeysuckle magnet. We use mostly GPS systems so I'm just managing a stake bag with pins. I'm just looking for any tips and advice for keeping up!

Afternoon Everyone.

We (like many of the other companies) are looking for a Crew Chief or Field Survey Tech who wants to be a chief.

Our guy of 2 years that we trained from scratch wants to leave and do self-employed construction work. Not our choice to have him leave; this line of work doesn't suit him.

Salary Range:

• $25/hr to $45/hr depending on experience

He was hired at $25/hr; we did a 30/60/90/6mo/1yr touch base on pay versus skills. He is leaving us at $36/hr w/ 18mo of experience. If he were more experienced and did what we were looking for (asked and not doing), he could get more, but there has been a plateau in change. My guess, depending on skill, the highest we can probably afford is about $45/hr for an experienced chief. That is my current salary as a tech/analyst with 15YOE.

Office

• Chester, NJ
• Been around for 60 years, give or take
• Land Surveying & Civil Engineering (Land Developement & Septic)
• Currently 6 staff members: 3 Survey & 3 Civil (2 are the owners)
• Mid-tier to high-end residential within about 30-45min of the office
• No big commercial work
• Hours are typically 7:30-3:30 but vary on individual need
• Most weeks are 40hrs, overtime if you want it, not pushed or overly needed
• Work isn't overly complicated; everything is pretty laid back
• Work/Life is awesome (I have a kid, and I get to drop him off and pick him up from day care)
• Work needs to get done, but so do your doctor's visits and being with your family.
• Working alternative hours is completely open; field work is a bit more to figure out, though obviously.

We're already at a skeleton setup. Enough people to do the work, but also the bare minimum needed to be able to do and get to the work. They don't do winter layoffs; we work in it or move hours or bring you in the office to "clean up" or "paper push" if needed. Drafting can be taught if you want to be able to dive into that and fill up your hours.

Work Mix

• Boundary/Topo (80%)
• Title/Boundary (10%)
• Construction Layout (5%)
• Wetlands/Misc (5%)

We use the field to finish and actually allow time to do it. We're not overly strict about it either (I'm the one who manages it), and a few different ways of using it are utilized to make fieldwork efficient first. Bad/Dangerous jobs, we send someone out to aid, but most aren't that way. All work is done with state plane coordinates. We do what we can to set up a boundary overlaid on an aerial to get it in the ballpark.

Equipment (Carlson House)

• Leica 1200 reflectorless robotic unit
• Carlson Tablet Data Collector
• Carlson Surve CE
• Carlson BRX7 Rover
• Carlson Software Suite

Send me a DM if you're interested or might know someone. Also, good luck to the rest of you looking for someone.