Not sure if this has been posted already or something similar, but I’m looking for advice.

I’m a recent graduate with a bachelor’s in computer science. There’s an upcoming workshop for land surveying. Where I’m at, there’s a shortage for them. I inquired with the head of the department that’s hosting it and explained my situation. I inquired if my degree/field of study could be incorporated into anything dealing with it. They steered me into the drone piloting path. I have no knowledge about land surveying or drone piloting (not sure that’s the formal name). I plan to go with an open mind of course. What’s the day to day life like? Are you able to have a work/life balance? Do you have to travel often? Are you able to live comfortably with the salary you receive from doing this line of work?

Also, I’m a woman so if any other women can share insights on how the field is. Open to anyone to give insight too of course :)

Hello, let’s start by saying I’m a land surveyor in the south in a big city. I have my own company (partner) and we are just getting rolling and bringing in the work in confident in providing. MY experience is in heavy construction, running vertical control on high-rises, setting grid lines, running control in tunnels, construction layout, 3d scanning and bim modeling.

As a new business owner I have a lot of questions on pricing, whether to bid lump sum or when to give T&M. How much is too much and what’s the sweet spot. I don’t know much surveyors that can help me in real life or lend an opinion so I’m asking here since this group has always been a help.

These projects are very big municipal commercial projects so very valuable. I do not want to be pricing to low and not taking that into account the size and scale and amount of sheer money attached to the project.

If you have experience with bidding this type of work or can help with pricing please dm me. If anyone can help or offer some tricks and tips for pricing in general please do. I’m young and just starting my business.

I am very rough on devices and like to have a good quality case. I am constantly beating the woods and back 40 in some rough environments. Pelican has really let me down over the last few years.

What are you guys running?

I've been an instrument man / field crew in southeast Georgia for a few years now. My wife works in aerospace so we are moving to the Denver area, she has a great job opportunity there.

What is it like to do land surveying work along the front range, compared to what I'm used to? Are job prospects good for someone who might be locating to Denver? Anyone with experience in this area would be great to hear from. I'll be trying to find some interviews pretty soon. Thanks!

I’m a LiDAR project manager working in the Southeast US, considering moving to Canada, and I’m curious what the industry is like in the Calgary area.
Are there many companies hiring in that area?
How does weather affect your work?
How different is surveying from the US to Canada?
Anything I should take into consideration before moving?
I’d appreciate any input!

Slightly off topic... but I'm at a point in my surveying career where I'm getting to do CAD linework/feature extraction nonstop at my job and find that the mouse I'm using gives me quite the hand cramp. Wondering if there's recommended comfortable computer mouses (mice?) that might help alleviate this? Or any other helpful tips from those who may struggle with this?

**EDIT**

Damn, wasn't expecting all these great suggestions! I landed on the Logitech MX Vertical Advanced Ergonomic Mouse, we'll see how that does for me. Thanks all!

I'm a solo developer, not a surveyor, but I kept getting pulled into survey-adjacent work and kept hearing the same gripe: the good COGO tools are either heavy desktop software or clunky programs you key in by hand. So I built a small iOS app for the everyday coordinate geometry math, and made it run fully offline since the field usually has no signal.

What it handles now:

• Traverse with closure, Compass (Bowditch) and Transit adjustment, loop and link traverses
• Horizontal and vertical curves, plus stakeout tables
• State Plane (SPCS83) with scale factor and convergence, grid to ground, and UTM
• COGO intersections and Tienstra resection
• Level book (HI method, arithmetic check), sideshot reduction, area, and DXF/CSV/PDF export

It's a calculator for quick field checks, not a data collector or a replacement for your full package.

I'd rather hear one blunt thing than a polite list. If you opened this in the truck, what's the single feature or fix that decides whether you keep it or delete it? The last few additions came straight from people in this line of work saying what they needed, so answers here genuinely steer what I build next.

Link in the comments so this stays about the feedback, not the download.

My son is 21 and interested in surveying preferably heavy highway construction Anyone hiring in the Austin Texas area

Finally buying my first house. The mortgage company says $350 for the survey and done. I'm fine with the price, but I'm concerned about the product's quality. As much as I would love to rip into a poorly done survey and report it to the board. I don't want it to affect my closing timeline. but i also don't want the lender to flag it because the survey for mr.blaizer123 was done by blaizer123 surveying.

I have heard conflicting information from other surveyors of signing your own property survey. "It's unethical," and "if you do it right, how is it any different than anyone else"

I also have heard of people just getting their surveyor buddies to sign it for them.

thoughts?

Also, sidenote while i wait for Mod Approval. Since when does making a post require Mod Approval?

EDIT: I have been running ragged with work and buying a house, I didn't realise that i had today off so i did the survey myself.
Took me about 4 hours to do it. topo/trees included. It's a great way to meet your new neighbors. But man I'm not used to this field work. I struggled to jump a 4' fence. now to relax in the office to draft it up.

I have been thinking about this a lot lately.

AutoCAD is getting features every year and artificial intelligence tools are being used more and more.

Do you still need to use plugins made by companies for your work every day or is AutoCAD good enough, by itself?

If you still use plugins:

• Which plugins do you always use?
• What tasks do these plugins save you from doing?
• Is there something that you wish someone would make a tool for to save you time?

I really want to know how other people who do surveying work with CAD and use AutoCAD do their jobs today.

I want to hear about how plugins are used by other AutoCAD users.

I’ve been a surveyor since 2006 and I’m a by tired of it, I’m not really tired of what I do but the way your treated on construction sites and that those who make the decisions never learn how things work and the time it actually takes to do things.

I hope to get into GIS, Geodata or something similar.

I wonder how I can make the change.