Surveying?

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Anybody know what Surveying is like as a job?
Is this something that would require a lot of interaction or is more on your own kind of thing? Would this a good thing for an aspie to look into?

I just wondering since there are classes for it at my college.

Surveyers usually work in teams. I don't think it can be done with fewer than two people.

Hmm... I suppose so. It might not be too bad provided one gets along well with the other team members. But there's no guarantee of such things I know.

Land Surveying is great. Interaction will depend on whether you want to work in the office or in the field. If you work in the office there will be lots of interaction with other office staff. If you work in the field your interatction will be anywheres between 2-4 people. Somedays it could just be you and the party chief, some days it could be you, the party chief, the conuslant and sometimes the land owner.
Other factors will be wether or not you plan on working for a company that does oilfield surveying, municipal surveying, constuction and engineering surveying.

Oilfield surveying requires lots of travel time and camp work and very little interaction with people. its usually you and the party chief out in the bush or prairie. Long hours are worked each day, anywhere's between 10-12 on average. Bush surveying compared to prairie surveying can be very physically demanding and requires one to be in good shape. Some examples of daily duties for a bush surveying crew are cutting line with a chainsaw, pounding monuments into the ground, flagging boundaries of wellsites and pipelines. Helicopter work is required time from time to get to the more remote locations. Many safety tickets are required for this job but company will pay for training.

Municipal surveying and constuction/engineering surveying are not as physically demanding but requires you to work outdoors within the city but is still you and the party chief and any passing traffic or people walking, biking etc.
Be ware, landowners can be pretty cranky at times for various reasons such as may think your tresspassing etc. So there is a personal aspect of dealing with people who could get upset with you or the party chief. The party chief will usually be the one dealing with land owners.

Some surveys can be done with just one person in the field due to technology such as RTK GPS systems but rarely happens for safety reasons(buddy system). This more or less applies to remote locations. In the city you could get away with one person doing the survey but its very rare.

Pretty long winded post but hope this is informative for you.

Thank you for the post. It was informative.
It doesn't sound so bad for field work. I do a lot of hiking and have experience with backcountry camping so I would be used to going out in the field in remote areas. Having 2 or three people around for professional situations is very bearable for me. I don't mind talking to coworkers business wise

Your welcome.

What type of classes or program is offered at your college?


I got my start in surveying by getting a job with a survey company. After a month of surveying i knew this was the career for me and i applied to SAIT's Geomatics Engineering Technology program. This could be a good route to go, get a job first in surveying then look at going to school in your area. First of it gives you first hand experience and a better idea if this the career path to chose. Another advantage to getting a job first is that fair size companys have education and training subsitance programs. They will help pay for schooling if the program of choice is a surveying or a related field such as GIS(Geographical Information Systems) and the program of choice can also allow for advancement within the company if so desired.

The class that is offered looks to covers the basics of surveying.
Introduces surveying equipment, procedures and computations including adjustment of instruments, distance measurement, leveling, angle measurement, traversing, traverse adjustments, area computations and introduction to topography. Prerequisite: Engineering Technical Math or divisional approval.

I just copied it's description. It sounds interesting for a technical field.
Beyond that, i know my college has a certificate deal with a higher college for GIS. Something I've thought about doing before.

What kind of requirements did a first job want? What sort of experience was needed for hire?

That sounds like a great begineers course to take. If you have the engineering math prerequiste requirment meet. However, as long as you have a good understanding of Trig. that's all that is needed for basic survey calculations. Take that course, put on your resume that you took that course. It will help the employer make a better descision. The employer will be more likely to hire someone with some experience over no experience. However no experience is needed to get a job as a survey assistant in my experience with surveying and seeing the type of survey assistants that get hired.

When i was trying to get a job in surveying i put on my cover letter that i was interested in taking Geomatics Engineering Technology, within the spand of a week i got phone calls from two different survey companies asking me to come in for interviews.


If you do decide to take the course and want extra help(studying, have questions etc) that the instructor can't provide due to a busy schedule or classmates can't provide as their in the learning stage as well. You can send me private messages any time you want. I be more then glad to help answer any questions. It will also give me a chance to refresh my memory on those topics.

Im currently reading a book right now that describes one surveyor as being a cranky eccentric man who spends all day working and all evening studying surveying. Some surveyors have odd sense of humors as well. You will most likely fit in. Surveyors are famous for their drinking habits as well. If your one that likes history as well, surveying has a great history dating as far back as the egytians in 4000-2000 BC. There is a great book that goes into great detail how the metric system and the meter was established in France from a combination of surveying the prime meridian in France and by Triagulation. Note. The prime meridian is now in Greenwich England.

Good Luck on your new potential career of choice. If you do decide to take a class.

You need an engineering background for surveying, right?

Yes you need a little bit of an engineering background. Depending on what type of program you take, the amount of engineering background varies. If one takes a diploma 2 year program from a Technical school one will have to take calculus and physics in there first year of the program. In Technical school one starts taking courses relating to surveying in the first semester of the first year.

If one takes a university program one will be required to take calculus, physics, statics and dynamics, C++, etc in their first year which is a wide range of courses that deal with all different aspects of engineering. Geomatics, Civil, computer etc. Once one is in the second half of your second year of university the courses start to become more specific to your actual field of choice and one takes courses to do with surveying. In my opinion and i think going the university route is a waste of time.

Technical school is much more hands on experience and survey theory, where as university is mostly theory and very little hands on experience.

This is in Canada, it could be slightly different in the US. or other countries.

Surveying is a math science. Most common math used in surveying is Trig., Statstics and Least square adjustments. Another very important topic in surveying is Survey Law. Commisoned land surveyors have to have a good understanding of the Legal system. Boundaries disputes between land owners can be a common occurence that goes to court, in which case the commisoned land surveyor is going to court as well. Getting a little side tracked.

So depending on what route of schooling you decide to take to becoming a Commisioned Land Surveyor the more of an engineering background you will have. If one has no desire of being a commisioned land surveyor, but just a survey technician(party chief) the best route is Technical school.

Thank you again for the info.
It's something i might consider now. Although I haven't done engineering math, so I'll have to look for that I suppose. (actually I don't think I've seen Eng Tech math offered before, didn't see listed either so I might have to ask the counselors about it)

Have you considered GIS? It's closely related to surveying.

Tim

Your welcome.

Ive never heard of engineering tech math. I would like to know what they mean by that.

I've come across several land and engineering surveyors who I'd have put money on having AS. It's very aspie friendly if you find the right niche and are confident with basic mathematics.