Career Overview: What I Do As a Land Surveyor
When it comes to land ownership, someone has to draw the line. You can’t just decide to put your picket fence where you want. The task of surveyors is to determine the legal boundaries of property on a large and small scale, both in urban environments and in remote wilderness.
To learn a little about the day-to-day work of a land surveyor, we spoke with Mark Mason in British Columbia, Canada. It’s a combination of fieldwork, historical research, and navigating bureaucracy to pinpoint boundaries for contemporary projects, as well as find links for any questions that may arise in the future. As Mark put it, “Surveyors must stand up for their work for the rest of their lives.”
Tell us a little about your current job and how long you have been doing it.
I am a British Columbia Surveyor (BCLS) with Browne Johnson Land Surveyors in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, Canada. I’ve been in the industry since 2003, but only worked as a land surveyor for a couple of years. Prior to that, I spent a lot of time at school writing professional exams and doing development / training on the job to become a professional surveyor. As a legal surveyor, I often work with property rights: exploring and restoring old boundaries, helping people understand the rights they have and guiding people in the process of creating new parcels or changing parcels boundaries.
It is a career with a unique mix of physical and intellectual challenges. We need to know how to interpret tight legislation or calculate a complex spiral curve, but also how to sharpen a machete or dig frozen ground with a freezer bar!
To learn more about British Columbia land management, visit the British Columbia Land Surveyors Association .
What prompted you to choose your career path?
I loved the idea of working outside, using my body and mind together. I was not disappointed! Surveying can be a very physical job, but it also has a strong intellectual and technological component. I was also attracted by the direct connection to history that surveyors experience in the form of plans, field notes, and when photographing monuments from decades or even centuries in the past.
How did you get a job? What kind of education and experience did you need?
I have a technical degree and a bachelor’s degree in engineering geomatics. In British Columbia, a BCLS candidate must have either an approved program or a technical degree, and must pass a series of 13 board exams. The publication period for articles and drafts is followed by another set of professional exams and a final personal interview with the board. This is a complex process that usually takes 10 years or more! However, it is a jurisdictional right to be a professional surveyor and different regions will have different requirements for your members.
What are you doing besides what most people see? Do you spend most of your time in the field or in the office?
Many people don’t think about what land surveyors are doing. In short, we are interpreters and providers of landmarks and records that directly affect real estate. Considering that many people call their land their main asset, this is a very serious responsibility indeed! We also conduct many other types of surveys, such as building layouts and topographic surveys, but only a legal surveyor can survey property boundaries.
There is a common misconception that property boundaries are based on coordinates that surveyors can simply “walk” to with our tools. The reality is that while the physical coordination of monuments is easier than ever, property boundaries often need to be defined based on evidence and plans that are old, dilapidated and built with different technologies and expectations than we have today. Learning to weigh the evidence and set boundaries accurately can be not only a science, but an art.
Surveyors can spend as much time reading legislation, regulations and technical documents as we spend in front of instruments in the field or calculating coordinates for a unit. We are mathematicians, historians, project managers, lawyers, engineers, and even chainsaw operators!
I was fortunate enough to divide my time between the field and the office. Some surveyors in larger units may work mostly from the desk while managing multiple field crews at the same time. I work mainly in British Columbia, but I traveled toBaffin Island for work and know other surveyors who have worked on literally every continent!
What misconceptions do people often have about your job?
All we do is stand by the road! This is where people often see us working, but it’s the same when the inspector says that all the public does is drive cars!
Seriously, I think that people can get carried away by the technology of geodesy, which is constantly changing, and forget about the legal aspects and professional responsibility of surveyors – something that has not changed at all. in hundreds of years.
It is also important to know that, unlike lawyers, land managers put the public interest first. This means that we are not discriminating against our client – this means that the property line will be drawn in the fairest position, no matter which neighbor is paying the bill. We often defend the interests of our clients in the event of changes to the charter or zoning rules, but we remain completely impartial when it comes to border resolution.
What’s your average uptime? Is this a typical 9 to 5 situation or not?
It depends on the company and the season. In our case, we spend more hours when we are busy and rest more when everything is quiet. Some surveyors live for work, working weeks or months in remote locations. With a young family and the hobbies that I am passionate about, this is not the path I have chosen. As with many other professions, you have to make your own decisions and go your own way.
What personal tips and shortcuts have made your job easier?
I automate some tasks and delegate many others. Doing research, organizing work, processing data, fieldwork, and preparing a plan can be tedious and detailed work. Building smart processes to optimize workflow can make things easier and more reliable results, which keeps my head up and keeps my clients happy.
When I received my commission, other surveyors advised me to seek advice from my peers when I am struggling with something. I have found that other professionals are more than willing to advise on a serious issue. The conversation can be beneficial for everyone. I never doubt that I will reach out my hand when I am not myself, and I will never hesitate to answer a request.
What are you doing differently from your colleagues or colleagues in the same profession? What are they doing instead?
There are many ways to design a workflow — for example, some surveyors make notes by hand, and some use electronic data collectors. Each company has its own unique way of obtaining the final product. However, from a licensed land surveyor, the product must always be of the same high quality.
Some land surveyors are promoting land management, working with local governments on behalf of clients to help move the project forward. Others adhere to strict geodesy. The approach depends on the specific firm and local needs.
What’s the worst part of a job and how do you deal with it?
Some field days can be tough. I have worked inside fuel tanks with a ceiling height of 3 feet, in temperatures ranging from -42 to 42 Celsius, in snow, smoke and hail, and I dug for snow, ice and sidewalk to find legal evidence. I worked all night in the headlights, and I flew a wobbly islander with propane tanks strapped to other seats. I rigged up the missing equipment, hacked my truck, and carved out the helicopter’s emergency pad with a machete. I was hungry, cold, tired, lost, injured and completely hopeless!
However, the hardest days were those days that I had to spend correcting the error. We are all human and make mistakes even though we try not to. It’s important to take the situation into your own hands and work to fix it. It’s easy to be hard on yourself, but it’s important to turn error into rewarding experience.
What is the most enjoyable part of the job?
Some of the places where we work are unique and beautiful and often closed to the public. Traveling to areas I usually don’t travel to, nearby or further away can be exciting. Sometimes we spend field days “following in the footsteps” of the original surveyor, exploring untouched, distant monuments a century or more ago. We also leave new monuments, and sometimes I imagine a surveyor in 100 years reading my plan, crossing my boundaries and finding the monuments that I have erected. It is a great honor for me to leave such a mark on history.
Completing a large or complex survey can be very enjoyable, especially if there have been obstacles or setbacks along the way. We often mark the work with a tick in our work, so a sense of completeness can be helpful as well.
How much money can you expect at your job?
As with other professions, the salary range depends on negotiating skills, level of responsibility, and location. Professional land surveyors take on a great deal of responsibility and should be compensated accordingly. In general, surveyors receive a salary similar to that of a professional engineer or lawyer – surveyors are often “convenient” but not “rich.”
Is there a way to “advance” in your field?
Definitely. There are few surveyors and lawyers, and they may be in demand. Land surveyors start out as employees and go on to partnering with a firm or owning their own business if they wish. Some end up working in government, private corporations, or state-owned enterprises.
What do people underestimate / overestimate in what you do?
Sometimes people get the impression that finding their corners of property should cost as much as changing the oil or blowing out the sprinklers. What they don’t understand is that surveyors have a responsibility to keep their work going for the rest of their lives. I am required to do each job well enough to use it as evidence in court – and it costs a lot! Property is a critical asset for people and for our economy as a whole. Inventory keeping (the fabric of a legal survey) is an important job and a valuable service.
What advice would you give to those who want to become your profession?
If you’re looking for adventure, intellectual challenge and a close-knit community of professionals, consider land management! This is not for everyone, and I would recommend getting a job as an assistant surveyor or office worker before moving on to the required education. However, you may find that surveying can give you the career satisfaction that many have only dreamed of!
I have met very few professional land surveyors who regret their careers, and even fewer (at least in British Columbia) are unemployed even during the economic downturn. Surveying has had a positive impact on my life, and I urge everyone who has not thought about it to give it a chance!
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.