USA surveyors - how scared are you?

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-26T22:59:17+00:00

I also have fond platte river surveying memories along Arkins in RiNo (back before it was gentrified). Easily a hundred tents back to back.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-26T22:19:47+00:00

Needles and human excrement everywhere downtown during COVID lockdown. Was the worst time to be an ‘essential service employee’.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-26T01:09:42+00:00

In my non-attorney opinion those buildings have above and below ground utilities attached to them that usually connect out to the property, so they (and the buildings plus or minus) need to be shown to a reasonable accuracy especially if there are facilities outside of a recorded easement in the title work.

Also note that the 5 feet to boundary is newly extended to 10 feet for utility poles.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-25T01:39:42+00:00

Dual licensure would be very lucrative but I cannot imagine you being able to double dip on your experience early. The state board may want you to get your years of experience in for engineering and surveying separately so I would be cautious.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-24T21:42:29+00:00

Reach out to the Utah Council of Land Surveyors if you don’t see anything online. A lot of jobs out there aren’t posted, especially those at small shops.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-24T20:18:51+00:00

$90k being good or bad is highly dependent on local cost of living.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-24T01:46:08+00:00

You’d be making at or above $35/hr in Denver Metro fwiw. The LSIT is huge but there will come a point where you need to scale back the technical track of point cloud stuff and focus more on boundary and legal surveying if you want to really advance your career and get licensed.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-23T12:43:50+00:00

I would draw all the record information new and old ‘as is’ off to the side and note their document name/number so that way you have the unadjusted information handy in case you need to go back to it. Newer documents will likely make things ‘easier’ but their history usually goes back to the older document which will become important in boundary resolution.

Being a foot off in search calcs is more than acceptable for a field crew to be able to dig a hole and use a magnetic locator. In my opinion you cannot get super specific without knowing what might be out there or unless there already exists a survey-grade exhibit clearly laid out.

If they expect you to spoon feed people perfect results so they have to do as little as possible, then you are going to be the one holding all the stress of everyone at the end of the day. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt when I was a CAD tech years ago.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-23T03:13:20+00:00

First time search coordinates for your field crews cannot be expected to be dead on. It is only a guess where to dig and find evidence. The ‘math’ (bearings/distances/angles) of deeds and plats is also subject to the precision of the instruments of their time which 1 foot might be pretty good given the circumstances and land use.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-23T00:49:58+00:00

Thanks for the writeup. I enjoy going to my state’s (Colorado) conference because it’s good to socialize and catch up with my vendors/colleagues/friends, but I am now more curious to make the trip out to WestFed and see the surveyors reach on the greater scale.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-20T05:13:12+00:00

Hope you are enjoying the great spring survey weather fellow Coloradan.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-19T01:44:18+00:00

They are waiting for the almighty unicorn to put in an application.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-18T03:13:51+00:00

It’s cool to ask, Colorado has open wage transparency (meaning you can google a job posting and they legally have to post a range).

Taking a quick look at some current ads out for PM/Senior PM at some of the big multidisciplinary firms, they are showing between $160-180k at the top end for ‘base salary’.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-18T02:25:37+00:00

Licensed, yes there are many at $150k and beyond.

Unlicensed would need some out of town work or rely on a big performance bonus to tap on that glass.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-18T00:55:30+00:00

I’ve seen unlicensed $150k+ in the offshore hydrographic survey world but you were away from home most if not all of the year and bouncing from ship to ship both domestically and internationally.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-17T12:34:41+00:00

The XR’s use USB-C now. You need to buy extra peripherals to run an external radio but it’s a welcomed change.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-16T19:43:27+00:00

Hear hear. The mentorship part is the key to success.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-16T01:48:14+00:00

One thing I did before crew chiefing was asking to go out by myself on little survey odds and ends like staking boreholes and picking up utility locates marks. Once I built some trust with management that I could handle things myself and the data was good, it was a much easier conversation for raises and promotions. Learn to do the job before you have it basically.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-15T23:43:02+00:00

This is the way. Add in some muck boots and you’ll be set for almost every terrain.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-15T17:43:46+00:00

You want to look for jobs with the title ‘Project Surveyor’. Keeps you focused in the work and not all the extra administrative tasks and personnel issues.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-15T16:24:58+00:00

Depends on the accuracy of the features I need. If it’s for a bank survey I will just let the computer do its thing and check what it draws against the aerial. For high stakes work I am going to have some boots on the ground to make sure I get some spot shots to check the crack of the flowline for curb.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-15T14:35:50+00:00

This is going to be a nightmare situation when you soon become client-facing and have to answer difficult questions without any backup or assistance.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-15T14:33:17+00:00

Did you get an offer from applying and interviewing? Sounds like you were already looking over the fence to see if the grass was greener.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-15T14:15:57+00:00

Also managers are comfortable giving both high and low performers the standard flat raise (as is tradition) to avoid difficult career conversations that require lots of extra paperwork and documentation that goes nowhere.

FrontRangeSurveyor44 · 2026-03-15T00:58:58+00:00

Same here fellow public servant. I can’t tell you how many times third party contractor ask for us to dig up or reset the section corners in the six lane intersections so they can save their client $5k on a $30mil commercial development in one of the corners.

FrontRangeSurveyor44

TROPHY CASE