As in love as I am with all things optical and lens-oriented, I have NEVER had a chance to look through the device a Surveyor uses. I’ve no idea what it’s called. I have tried to figure out HOW a Surveyor does their thing.
I mean, if I had a fixed starting point somewhere on land I could understand how to measure straight distances, but if I am William Penn and am starting from scratch, well… ???
Anyone know about Surveying? If I wanted to sign on as a Surveyor’s Assistant, what would I have to do? Is there college level training in this? Do states have levels of certification or licensing for Surveyors and their Assistants?
I can’t speak for your location, but being a Professional Land Surveyor and being the person that actually does most of the “surveying” are 2 different things.
A “Professional Land Surveyor” (at least where I live) is a highly regarded profession, of similar prestige to that of a “Professional Engineer.” You will require applicable post secondary education to get this, as well pass a slew of professional exams. Once the Professional Land Surveyor passes his articling exams (and also has his field time) they usually don’t go out and survey themselves much more. They’re far to valuble for that. They usually sit behind a desk and sign the legal documents and rake in the dough. Although, of course YMMV depending on the company and location.
If you just want to look the the “lens” and do actual surveying with optical and GPS gear, you usually start at the bottom as a “helper.” We call them “chainmen” here. This is basically a straight labor job. Pay is usually OK (on the low end of OK), but its the grunt work. You may do some basic measurments but your job is to help the party chief and do what he says more than anything. You’re the guy holding the pole that is getting sighted.
In my experience (I am not a surveyor, I just married one) a chainmen gets lots of field experience, and after a number of years can become a party chief and the boss of the “chainmen”. Then, you do most of the measurements and take them back to the office for the calcs and mapping (usually).
Education? I don’t know any chainmen or party chiefs that have any post secondary. Once again though, this could vary with the company and location. However, they party chiefs have a ton of practical experience and make pretty damn good cash. The ones I know make 6 figures.
Generally, you would start out as a “Rodman” or “Chainman” on a survey crew. In most cases there is no longer an actual Rod or Chain involved, but the name stuck. You would carry stuff, learn the basics of the trade, carry stuff, hammer “hubs and guards” (short and long stakes respectively) into the ground, carry stuff, hold the “stupid” end of the measuring tape, carry stuff, and do various other laborer type things. After doing this a while, you could become the "Instrument Man’, the guy who sets up and operates the transit, and also carries it and the tripod over all sorts of terrain. There are college courses in operating both an optical surveyors transit, and also the newer laser “Total Station” units.
Finally, a licensed land surveyor often works in an office supervising several crews, or acts as the “Party Chief”, taking down measurements, making calculations, and helping carry the stuff. There are mony hours of training, experience and tests to pass to become a Licensed Land Surveyor.
The equipment is really cool to work with, but you had better be an outdoors lover able to carry lots of stuff over rugged terrain. You also need to be able to stand very still and hold a plumb bob or prism pole perfectly still while measurements are being taken. Good luck to you if you deide to persue a carreer in surveying.
I do know of some technical schools that have “Survey” programs, but AFAIK they don’t do much on the professional end… they are more to give someone some background that is planning on going in “on the bottom” and working up.
Where I live, a company could hire a schmoe off the street as a helper/chainmen with not even a highschool diploma and train him. These programs from tech schools though should give you an edge over a nobody.
The Professional Surveyor that signs the survey is the one responsible for it in the end. So, if the uneducated bum fucks up and the Professional Surveyor (or mapper, or whomever else that worked on it after) didn’t catch it before he/she signs off on it, they’re on the hook for the screw up. It’s similar to a Professional Engineers seal in that way.
The doo-hickey that surveyors look through is called a “Theodolite”.
I’ve known many surveyors and members of survey crews, and will echo what the others said: you generally start as a Rodman and work your way up. Or, rather, you work your way to behind the theodolite. To be someone that can sign off on things (or be elected county surveyor or whatnot), generally requires certification, which also requires a degree (as said those above). The only school I can think of (just off the top of my head) that offers a degree in surveying is University of Texas at Tyler. Check them out thier program here.
The other doo-hickey, the electronic one, is called a Total Station. It gathers the same distance and angle measurements, but stores them in a data collector which is often nothing more than a glorified HP calculator.
If you’re ever in northern Nevada, let me know - I’ll take you out and give you a quick lesson. Bring waders (I pretty much only ever survey cross sections of stream channels).
Oh this is SO great, I thank you one and all !!! Okay. Hip waders. Check. Woolly mittens. Check. Large hat, with ear flaps. Check. PB&J Sammich stuffed into coat pocket. Check.
Remember, too, if you want to become a Registered Land Surveyor you must pass an exam and rack up a certain number of hours yearly of Continuing Education, including Ethics.
All this survey talk, and no one’s going to talk about trianglation? (I think that’s what it’s called) The idea that you can digitally recreate terrain by measuring triangles across the whole world. That’s not very clear, so someone in the biz will have to determine what I’m saying and expand on it.
A surveyor friend of mine (or whatever the job title is that runs a crew, sometimes of just two people, who goes out into the wilderness and measures shit). Anyway, he was telling me that breaking the earth into triangles of different sizes, and storing the exact elevation and location of those intersecting points, is how they can have a computer recreate the terrain so they can determine the specifics of how to level it out for new construction.
Geez not to many surveryors out there huh? I did a bit of it in college for my degree. There are a number of schools that may not have a degree but may fall under either the Geography/Geology dept or something similar. I found it quite intersting, though I have only ever done it for school. I do remember being told about the number of tests and it cost something like 25K just to take the tests, but that was only to get your license.
