Geocaching landed the job!

[+Okiebryan]

I interviewed for a Party Chief position for a surveying company that does pipeline surveying. The only experience I have as a surveyor is helping my Grandpa (a retired LS) on suryeys over 20 years ago, and that was very unrelated to this work.

 

However, I told the owner about my management experience - I used to run my own timber business in CO and had 2 crews - and then I told him about my hobby... Geocaching and Benchmarking, and that I am doing the volunteer thing for the NMC. That cinched it for him. He didn't know about geocaching, but when I explained it to him, he said that I am doing for fun what he does for a living...lol

 

I have wanted to be a licensed surveyor. This is my start.

[+Ambrosia]

We've gotten out of two tickets because of geocaching.

 

Congrats on your job.

[+mgbmusic]

Getting paid by the hour or salary? If it's salaried, I'd suggest skipping those micros in the woods...

 

Congrats...

 

Incidentally, I was being qualifed for one of those "getting paid for you opinion" surveys (the legit ones, not the banner ads) and they asked me what my hobby was. First response - Geocaching.

 

Dead air...."Huh?"

[+Snoogans]

We've gotten out of two tickets because of geocaching.

 

Congrats on your job.

 

Yep, congrats.

 

I got out of a ticket on I-40, near the Painted Desert. To make one of my usually long stories short, I gave the painted Desert Virt page to the officer because I had decided to pass it bye. The officer thanked me and let me go. I've always wondered if he started caching???

[+Wayfinders]

I would certainly take the fact that you are a geocacher and use GPS regularly in an interview for a Survey position. I would also inform you I am aware of the addiction in the hobby, and that you would be using the survey chariot for surveying....not caching . Don't get you're new boss into it......he can watch your profile. Do you require a degree in OK?

[+TotemLake]

To make one of my usually long stories short,

 

[wolfbait]

I have a question... I have seen people out and about with gps surveying equipment looking around and also looking very much like they didn't know what they were doing... do you think they would hire someone with no job experience but a love of geocaching?... *Cough* me *cough* also what do you think their policies on teenagers *cough* me *cough* working... It's not at all dangerous work or anything

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

I have a question... I have seen people out and about with gps surveying equipment looking around and also looking very much like they didn't know what they were doing... do you think they would hire someone with no job experience but a love of geocaching?... *Cough* me *cough* also what do you think their policies on teenagers *cough* me *cough* working... It's not at all dangerous work or anything

 

Sounds like a great opportunity for an internship!

 

Study GIS in school and offer your services as a surveyor intern to local companies and build yourself a career!

 

Ed

[wolfbait]

... Hmmm...sound interesting... at least as a career for this summer. Oh and by the way what is GIS?

[+Okiebryan]

I would certainly take the fact that you are a geocacher and use GPS regularly in an interview for a Survey position. I would also inform you I am aware of the addiction in the hobby, and that you would be using the survey chariot for surveying....not caching . Don't get you're new boss into it......he can watch your profile. Do you require a degree in OK?

 

Actually, I am using my own truck for this job, and he pays for all the fuel and oil changes. I am paid by the hour. I will be going to another part of the state several days a week, and staying there. I will have nights free to do whatever I want, in a fairly cache-rich area. I'll be staying in my RV when I overnight there, and he's paying for that, too. Saves him motels. Then I will return home on weekends, at his expense.

 

Starting next year, OK will require a 4 year degree. Right now there is a career path that will sit one for the RLPS test in 8 years, LSIT in (I think) 3 years. I will be grandfathered in under the old rules.

 

Today I plotted a cemetary annex. I set 330 points that were corner boundaries for each family plot. I was amazed by working with GPS equipment that is accurate to 5 digits past the decimal. I was told to set each point to within 7/100 of a foot, and it was quite easy. Of course, real boundary work requires more precision.

[wolfbait]

I see a problem to this already... I am a teenager (young teens, pre vehicle)

who can't drive yet

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

... Hmmm...sound interesting... at least as a career for this summer. Oh and by the way what is GIS?

 

OK, maybe not!

 

What is GIS?

 

Google is your friend.

[wolfbait]

Just a little bit hesitant because I want to explore all the career options out there for me. I have quite a bit of intellectual potential (so says the proficiency test along with the Gifted services for above average intellegence program at my school) I am interested in this field... but I am also interested in engineering, architecture, computers, robotics... heck im interested in way too much

[+Airmapper]

Congratulations Okiebryan on the job.

 

I was once offered a job mapping utility poles out west. I took a family member of some close friends out Geocaching, and he offered it before we got back. He basically said if I could run the Geocaching equipment/ software, the job wouldn't be much different. I was not able to take the offer, it sounded really cool, but I am enrolled in college working for a degree, so I need to stick with that.

 

Just a little bit hesitant because I want to explore all the career options out there for me. I have quite a bit of intellectual potential (so says the proficiency test along with the Gifted services for above average intellegence program at my school) I am interested in this field... but I am also interested in engineering, architecture, computers, robotics... heck im interested in way too much

 

Wolfbait, I am about 5-6 years older than you, and am taking computer aided drafting at the local community college. Drafting seems to be a pretty good career in of itself, but what you learn in that applies to a lot of fields, including architecture, surveying, landscaping, GIS, Mapping, engineering, you name it. Sometimes you can take basic drafting in High School, I did and it helped a lot. If your interested in those things, something like drafting might tie a bunch of those interests together, so you can go into about anything.

 

I worked for a short period as a "rodman" (Surveyors assistant) and it was fun. Surveying is like one huge mix between a multi and an offset cache.

[wolfbait]

Congratulations Okiebryan on the job.

 

I was once offered a job mapping utility poles out west. I took a family member of some close friends out Geocaching, and he offered it before we got back. He basically said if I could run the Geocaching equipment/ software, the job wouldn't be much different. I was not able to take the offer, it sounded really cool, but I am enrolled in college working for a degree, so I need to stick with that.

 

Just a little bit hesitant because I want to explore all the career options out there for me. I have quite a bit of intellectual potential (so says the proficiency test along with the Gifted services for above average intellegence program at my school) I am interested in this field... but I am also interested in engineering, architecture, computers, robotics... heck im interested in way too much

 

Wolfbait, I am about 5-6 years older than you, and am taking computer aided drafting at the local community college. Drafting seems to be a pretty good career in of itself, but what you learn in that applies to a lot of fields, including architecture, surveying, landscaping, GIS, Mapping, engineering, you name it. Sometimes you can take basic drafting in High School, I did and it helped a lot. If your interested in those things, something like drafting might tie a bunch of those interests together, so you can go into about anything.

 

I worked for a short period as a "rodman" (Surveyors assistant) and it was fun. Surveying is like one huge mix between a multi and an offset cache.

 

Sweetness... maybe I could look into a job mixing the fields of architecture and surveying... That would probably be something to consider as a full time job for the future. Right now... I'm a kid and I'm going to enjoy it.

Edited November 8, 2006 by wolfbait

[Shiraz-mataz]

wolfbait,

 

Like a couple of others who have responded, I worked for a surveyor one summer while I was in college majoring in engineering. And like everyone else who lacks a certain level of experience I was given a position befitting my "green horn" status - I was the ROD MAN! Sounds so technical, doesn't it? On the surface it's an easy job - hold the rod on a point, center the bubble, and wait for the Instrument Man to take a reading. Ah, if it were only that simple... Being the low man on the totem pole (and we all know what runs downhill) the rod man is also the guy who gets to bushwhack down a line, load the truck, unload the truck, cut stakes, etc ad nauseum. I remember going to one lot where the property marker was under about three feet of water - guess who had to tromp out into the mud!?!? We often came home sweaty, stinking and covered with ticks!

 

But I gotta tell you, in the 22 years that have passed since that summer, I've never had a job that was so cool. Our little survey crew went all over the state of South Carolina and did every conceivable type of surveying work: Topos, Boundaries, Construction... It is the perfect job for a young person who aspires to do engineering or drafting work because it puts you at the pointed tip where math and science meet the real world. And I think that ultimately that's what attracts me to geocaching. Go for it!

[+emurock]

I see a problem to this already... I am a teenager (young teens, pre vehicle)

who can't drive yet

I am a teenager to, but I have a permit and working on getting my license. On the job front I am going to wait intel I am seventeen to get a job.