National Surveyor Week
1. In your own words, what does a surveyor do?
We have an integral role in anything that has to do with property. We work with clients on a daily basis to help them with any needs they have anywhere from putting a fence up to building a million square foot warehouse. Teamwork is the key to having a successful surveying department!
2. What is something unique, interesting, or important you would share with someone interested in becoming a surveyor?
Being a surveyor gives you the chance to see projects from beginning to end. We are the first ones on a site and typically the last ones as well.
3. Why should someone consider a career as a surveyor?
There is a wide range of career paths that you can consider whether it’s working for a larger firm, smaller firm, owning your own business, laser scanning, or drones.
4. What led or inspired you to become a surveyor?
It was the variety of our projects, being outdoors, and the mix of history with cutting-edge technology.
Matt Habedank, PS
Group Leader, Survey
1. In your own words, what does a surveyor do?
Build better worlds through expertise in measuring.
2. What is something unique, interesting, or important you would share with someone interested in becoming a surveyor?
You could work anywhere in the world as a surveyor.
3. Why should someone consider a career as a surveyor?
The reward of seeing a project from the very beginning to its completion.
4. What led or inspired you to become a surveyor?
Love of construction and being outdoors.
Kirk Kohlbrand
Senior Survey Technician
1. In your own words, what does a surveyor do?
A surveyor can and does have many different roles, field personnel can be tasked to:
- provide evidence of boundary line locations.
- gather physical features in the field both horizontally and vertically to aid in design.
- provide the layout of utilities, curb, pavement, and building during construction.
Office personnel can be tasked to:
- gather courthouse research and utilize field locations gathered to establish boundary line locations.
- map field data for engineering design.
- provide maps and legal descriptions for conveyance purposes.
2. What is something unique, interesting, or important you would share with someone interested in becoming a surveyor?
I would share that each job is totally different and has its unique set of requirements and challenges. Each day can bring new possibilities in what we can collect and provide for the creation of maps/plats for a specific client expectation. Technology is at your disposal and your toolbox is filled with many different tools to help with the task at hand from data collectors, to robotic total stations, to drones, to laser scanning equipment.
3. Why should someone consider a career as a surveyor?
Surveying can provide a wide range of opportunities to be in the field, in the office, collaborate with design teams, or work closely with clients and attorneys in many different aspects of real estate.
4. What led or inspired you to become a surveyor?
I have always enjoyed math and sciences. Having engineering and surveying degrees allows me to see a full range of information from the collection of design data in the field, to the mapping of point data, to the design of a product, to the construction of someone’s ideas. I like that each job is different and offers a lot of different challenges and opportunities for solutions.
Randy Wolfe, PS
Director, Land Surveying
1. In your own words, what does a surveyor do?
We walk around outside and measure stuff.
2. What is something unique, interesting, or important you would share with someone interested in becoming a surveyor?
You get to be a math geek without looking like one.
3. Why should someone consider a career as a surveyor?
Surveying is a very unique way to solve problems while working in the most varied situations and circumstances imaginable.
4. What led or inspired you to become a surveyor?
Friends and family.
Tim Stamper
Survey Crew Chief IV
1. In your own words, what does a surveyor do?
Make measurements.
2. What is something unique, interesting, or important you would share with someone interested in becoming a surveyor?
You get to work on different sites and see areas where you’ve never been before (mostly good, but some not so great).
3. Why should someone consider a career as a surveyor?
It’s a great job if you like working outdoors and on a variety of job sites.
4. What led or inspired you to become a surveyor?
I took a class in college and found it to be something that I really wanted to do.
Mike Keller, PS
Group Leader, Central Ohio Survey
1. In your own words, what does a surveyor do?
Research, locate and establish property corners and lines. We also layout buildings and infrastructure.
2. What is something unique, interesting, or important you would share with someone interested in becoming a surveyor?
Enjoy the outdoors for all the seasons.
3. Why should someone consider a career as a surveyor?
Fresh air, great exercise, different views almost every day. Feeling of satisfaction watching a project from start to finish.
4. What led or inspired you to become a surveyor?
Family legacy.
Cody Schanfish
Surveyor Crew Chief III
1. In your own words, what does a surveyor do?
A Surveyor is given a problem to solve, comes up with a solution, then implements it.
2. What is something unique, interesting, or important you would share with someone interested in becoming a surveyor?
You will work in a different place almost every day and you will see things most people will never get to see.
3. Why should someone consider a career as a surveyor?
If you love the outdoors you will never work a day in your life.
4. What led or inspired you to become a surveyor?
Drafting got me into Surveying, being outdoors kept me in it.
Tom Riedel
Survey Crew Coordinator
1. In your own words, what does a surveyor do?
Surveyors perform detailed measurements and provide mapping services which form the foundation of planning and design for our physical infrastructure.
2. What is something unique, interesting, or important you would share with someone interested in becoming a surveyor?
Surveyors are the only professionals that are legally qualified, through education and training, to reestablish ancient boundary lines and create new land parcels.
3. Why should someone consider a career as a surveyor?
A career in surveying can be as diverse as you want it to be. A surveyor can work in the field or the office to collect evidence of historical markers and documents, applying legal principles and sound judgment to determine property boundaries; a career in surveying can be directly related to the construction industry; a career in surveying can utilize the latest technology to collect and display information regarding our physical environment.
4. What led or inspired you to become a surveyor?
The ability to apply my love of math, science, history, technology, the law, and the outdoors to solve a diverse set of problems…either from my desk or from the field.
David Cox
Senior Advisor, Survey
1. In your own words, what does a surveyor do?
A surveyor creates a map.
2. What is something unique, interesting, or important you would share with someone interested in becoming a surveyor?
Every day is an adventure.
3. Why should someone consider a career as a surveyor?
There is something new every day.
4. What led or inspired you to become a surveyor?
When I was sixteen I got a summer job as a surveyor. When I got older I realized I was good at it.
John Bell
Survey Tech III
1. In your own words, what does a surveyor do?
A surveyor combines math, history and art to determine the location of a boundary of a parcel of land.
2. What is something unique, interesting, or important you would share with someone interested in becoming a surveyor?
A 4-year degree is now required. It used to only be a 2-year degree, and it surprises people that are interested in becoming a surveyor today.
3. Why should someone consider a career as a surveyor?
The future is bright for surveyors. There are less and less surveyors creating a demand for them. Aspects of surveying have and continue to be automated with technology, but there will always be the need for boots on the ground in surveying.
4. What led or inspired you to become a surveyor?
My uncle is a surveyor in Florida. He offered for me to come work summers while in college, and it seemed pretty cool to spend the summers in Florida, so I took him up on it. I ended up loving surveying and changed majors to pursue surveying as a profession.
Christopher Morris, PLS
Group Leader, Survey
1. In your own words, what does a surveyor do?
Makes real-world measurements to establish boundaries and property characteristics as required for a multitude of uses in land development and building construction.
2. What is something unique, interesting, or important you would share with someone interested in becoming a surveyor?
The founding fathers were all surveyors.
3. Why should someone consider a career as a surveyor?
The market is in need. Always something interesting going on. Job changes from day-to-day.
4. What led or inspired you to become a surveyor?
My uncle is a surveyor in Florida. He offered for me to come work summers while in college, and it seemed pretty cool to spend the summers in Interest in the outdoors and land development.
Ken Roell
Survey Tech III