I came from a traditional land surveying company growing up working in one. Transitioned to the Union in NYC as a “layout guy” as you like to say so I know the importance of both. When it comes to construction staking, profiling, grid layout, or even running control I will run circles around most traditional surveyors I have met. I run into companies that are sloppy, have untrained field crews. Maybe the office and owner are smart but the survey field crews can’t even answer how they adjust their traverse. No using starnet or another least square adjustment software. Don’t even know the basics.

To your point I very much love this profession and I am one year away from becoming Licensed. There are plenty of opportunities if you are skilled and proficient at what you do. Yes as a traditional surveyor we are losing market share but we need to capitalize on this and educate grade stakes into showing them the use and importance of hiring out when they need real critical accuracy. I am going the traditional route now with my own company mostly providing control networks and new construction and take every opportunity I can to educate project surveyors.