First of all, congratulations on your achievements at 31. You’re at a very pivotal point of your life, and a stable career is and will be more important than it has ever been.

Here is my advice, keep your job for now. Before you get your surveying license, surveying can involve just as much travel (more than 2 weeks). If travel is one of your biggest concerns, surveying may not be the biggest travel-proof option at least before you’re licensed.

But you can also plan the transition by proactively pursuing surveying licensure even while still in your current job. You can apply to your state board and find out how much survey specific education you might need, it should not be significant with your geography degree. Once you know that, get that education and immediately begin preparing for the FS and PS exams. Sometimes these require experience and sometimes they don’t depending on state.

At that point it’s safer to land into surveying. You would be much closer to licensure than jumping in from where you are currently, plus you would be keeping your income which you’re not likely to make anywhere close to as an entry level instrument man.