An older gentleman requested his property line be defined in particular spots, so I did just so. He paid me for my work, thanked me, then asked me to pull out anything I set.

More photos from Kiribati.

Leica Geosystems announced today their new controller. What are your thoughts?

https://leica-geosystems.com/products/total-stations/controllers/leica-cs50

I am running into an issue when using base and rover. I can come off points previously established and the horizontal and vertical are checking off. 0.3 horizontal and about 1.2 vertical. Everything was working fine with the unit and if I check in using strict RTK I have really good residuals. The only thing that has changed was during the middle of a project I have imported some additional look points. I have not made any changes to any of the datumns and am following the correct protocol in setting up the base and rover. I think some form of setting is off or unchecked. Has anyone ran into this problem before? If so what did you do to resolve it?

Saw some sketchy setup posts.. wanted to add to it

Found it Port Washington WI.

“My adjustable pole is missing and it has my bracket to hold the data collector on it”
What is your response?
Context: Monday am on Frist job of the week. He is the only one who drives his truck.
Where was his equipment?

Wilmington, NC

As the title says, has there ever been a better time to start a solo land surveying business than right now?

With how far technology has come, it seems like it's becoming more realistic than ever to run an efficient and profitable solo operation than it was 10, 20, or 30 years ago, heck even 1-5 years ago.

On the office side, AI has the potential to streamline accounting, record keeping, project tracking, proposals, deed research and interpretation (obviously with professional review), report writing, administrative tasks, etc.

On the field side, GNSS, VRS networks, robotic total stations, drones, and modern data collection software allow one person to accomplish work that historically required multiple people. With a laptop you can essentially bring the office into the field and potentially complete more jobs in a single trip.

On top of all that, with a significant portion of the surveying profession approaching retirement, it seems like there could be a growing demand for surveying services and fewer professionals available to meet it. Combine that with today's technology, and it seems like a pretty unique opportunity for someone looking to go out on their own.

Obviously, none of this eliminates the professional judgment, liability, physical work, or responsibility that comes with surveying. I also realize running a solo business still means wearing every hat, working long days, weekends, and sometimes seven days a week.

For those running solo operations, how much of an impact has today's technology had on your efficiency and profitability? Are you finding practical ways to incorporate AI into your daily workflow? And do you think the advancements in technology have made going solo more attractive than in years past?

For those who have recently gone out on their own, how has your experience been, and would you do it again?

So I graduated with a Civil Engineering Tech degree in 2020, it had 3 survey classes all super old school. My first job was inspection focused at a land development firm but I got to help survey and do alot of construction staking.

I didn't mind the construction staking but pounding a whole subdivision in was a workout. I liked doing topos and shooting stuff for as builts alot more.

I also got my FAA drone license for inspection but really want to get into more drone stuff. Especially with how the survey field is advancing in that.

Do you guys have any advice? I'm currently in Wisconsin

I’m based in Texas and usually after my degree would need about 2 years to get my RPLS, but come time to graduate next fall I’ll have 2 years full time at a firm I’m at and would be able to apply through Tennessee’s licensing board. And granted I pass I can apply through comity in Texas and get my RPLS 2 years early. Not sure if I’m missing anything or any obvious downsides to this plan but please let me know as currently this is what I plan on doing after I graduate.

tl;dr: basically what the title says, I feel like I am stuck in my assistant/helper position with no advancement in the foreseeable future, and am incredibly burnt out on my education and not sure what I want to do about it

Hello everyone,

I don't really post here often but feel the need to vent today and not sure where else to do it besides here, sorry if this runs on not sure how much I'll write.

I'm a 21 year old survey tech at a civil engineering firm in Indiana and I've been in a sort of field assistant role for the last couple years I've worked here, hopping between party chiefs helping them with whatever needs done around the state. I love the job and the work we do, mostly topos for infrastructure projects for INDOT and a few counties and municipalities around Indiana and the occasional ROW staking and section corner perpetuation.

I love surveying and plan on doing this for a long time but I feel like I rarely ever get the chance to actually do surveying work. I have worked for 2, almost 3 years this coming February and feel like my level of responsibility on the job has only decreased over this time, not increased. The first year I worked here, 2024, that summer our survey manager had me do a full topo of a mile of residential street, the blocks on both sides of the road, and had me process it all in Civil3D afterwards and I figured I would continue doing that kind of thing as I worked here. However I have never been able to do that kind of work since. Most of my job now is just standing next to the total station making sure it isn't stolen or sitting in the truck while my chief does topo work, since it's a one-man job at my company. The only opportunities I get to really contribute is when we are running bench circuits or doing section corner work, neither of which is very often. I love this job when I'm given the chance to shoot topo myself, or I'm sent to look for property corners or section corners by myself while my boss is shooting topo, but the 80% of the time I'm just standing there all I can think about is going home or even changing careers, and most of all I guess I just feel bored.

I'm not sure if I just have very incorrect expectations of the level of responsibility I should have with my experience, I know I only have a little over 2.5 years of experience (only 1.5 of which was full-time) but I just wish I had more chances to really do surveying work. There's times I'm so bored that I'm excited to just cut line or get inverts on structures. I don't hold anything against my crew chiefs, they really do their best to make sure I get a chance to contribute, but just being practical most of our work is one-man work, so when I am on the data collector they are the ones that end up just standing around and I think our survey manager just isn't too concerned with my advancement considering he's only a couple months from retiring.

In my last annual review I asked the boss if I was doing anything wrong or if there were any areas I could improve, any criticism from the chiefs I work with, etc. and he said I was doing great, but when I asked if there was some kind of plan or roadmap for me getting some more responsibility, the chance to do work on my own, a set of equipment, a company truck, really ANYTHING more than where I am at right now, he said he had no plans on it in the foreseeable future, at least until one of our chiefs retires. Well, our oldest chief is 57 and a decade out from retirement so that's not happening anytime soon, especially since INDOT work has slowed wayyyy down with the gas tax suspension and the owners warning of a slow 1, or potentially 2+, years ahead for my company.

I am also burnt out in my education. I was attending Purdue University for civil engineering when I got hired as a part-time intern, but due to some major family events that resulted in no longer speaking to my father my mental was fucked and I had to transfer to an online surveying program at Vincennes. I am thankful that our survey manager hired me on as a full-time survey tech, under one condition, I finish my education at Vincennes. I am just so burnt out on school, though. I am paying out-of-pocket for it and it is seriously hitting my finances, I get reimbursed after every semester but until that reimbursement comes in it is very difficult. I have been attending university since 2022 and won't graduate until the end of 2027 at the earliest, and after paying one of the tuition bills today I realized I just don't care about the education. I've barely learned anything in over a year of online school as my lectures and coursework are AI-generated for the most part, and I just don't have any interest in the licensed, office-facing side of the industry.

The part of surveying I enjoy is being outdoors, working with my hands, translating maps into the real world and the real world into maps, being in a new place every day, travel, etc. and I'm just not interested at all in the office side of things, besides maybe a field to finish role.

I guess my questions, if anyone has bothered reading this far, are is there anything I can do to advance my career more, to get into a position where I can do more field work myself? Am I just being delusional about where I should be in my career with my experience and just keep grinding away as a helper boy? Even though I love the work my company does and my coworkers, would jumping to another company give me that opportunity with my 2.5 years of experience? And even though I know it probably isn't smart, would I be able to advance into doing more field work without finishing my degree?

Sorry for yapping that much, wasn't really planning on writing that much and don't really expect anyone to read this whole thing just felt extra annoyed and burnt-out today

Hey everyone, am I alone in finding it difficult to secure an entry-level position in land surveying? I need one course to complete my degree in land surveying and have not located any openings. My background is in landscape construction. Professor and people I would speak to said their was a “high demand” and believed them lol

In Los Angeles County, California.

The board never returns my emails or calls, so maybe someone here can advise:

My status: Passed FS, PS, and currently licensed in Missouri.
Illinois requires a 4-year degree, which I will complete in May.

I know that I can not apply for licensure until I pass the IL-state specific and complete my degree, but can I apply to take the exam before I complete my degree?

There is an April exam date which I would like to sit for, then once I get the degree, I can apply for the actual licensure.

On the board's website, I found the Qualifications for Licensure, but I don't see the application for the exam.

Came across this Friday.

Looking for any insight someone here may have. My office and I are at a total loss currently and have been the last few days as to what the issue is.

I am on a project, 2 miles long, was staked by one of crews using VRS. Checks were clean. His recorded data points match the site plans/DWG. I do not run VRS, I run a base with 2 R10s and a TSC5. I go 2 days later and stake the CL of an access road via a DXF. My recorded shots are on line, nuts, all looks clean. When it was processed in the office, everything looks clean and matches the design. My shots are on design and the initial crews shots are on design. All check shots line up.

2 days later I am back on this project for the asbuilt/construction phase. The client is asking for some specific locations to be staked, when I stake out to them they look off. So I stake out to the DXF nodes for the nearest point and I am H Grid 8.4' away from the stake despite being on the stake. I check multiple stakes throughout the 2 mile route and I am a consistent 8.4' NW away from any physical stake. Come to find out even though during processing my access road stakes show to be on CL, they are physically off the initial staking stakes, determined by pulling a tape.

Things I have done:

1. Wiping files numerous times, wiping tons, starting fresh with new files

2. Checking in across multiple different CPs. All clean and all triangulation back to eachother clean

3. Pulled tape to verify stakes are in fact distanced according to design. They are.

4. Set up on different CPs to see if it is a bunk CP but they all check clean

5. Verified all DC settings multiple times

In 10 years I havent had an issue where it wasnt glaringly obvious the solution as to why something is off, nothing is really making sense on how both mine and the initials crews show to be "on design" yet physically they are 8.4' from eachother. Unsure what to try to troubleshoot next. Help?!

Drone multispectral mapping for a water quality investigations in South Tarawa, Kiribati 🇰🇮. I will post more photos during the week.