I've met very few professional land surveyors who regret their career path, and even fewer, who are out of work, even during economic slowdowns.

I'm required to do every job well enough that I'd use it as evidence in court - that doesn't come cheaply! Property is a critical asset for individuals. Maintaining the cadastre (legal survey fabric) is an important job and a valuable service.

There's a popular misconception that property boundaries are based on coordinates that surveyors can simply "walk to" with our instruments. The reality is that, while physical coordination of monuments is easier than it's ever been, property boundaries often need to be determined based on evidence and plans that are old, decrepit, and done with different technology and expectations than we have today.

There are lots of ways to design a workflow - for instance, some land surveyors book their notes by hand, and some use electronic data collectors. Every firm has its own unique way of arriving at the end product. However, from a licensed land surveyor, the product should always be of the same high quality.

A lot of people don't think much about what land surveyors do. In a nutshell, we are the interpreters and providers of landmarks and records that directly impact real property.

When I got my commission, other land surveyors told me to ask for advice from my peers when I was struggling with something.

I'm lucky enough to split my time between the field and the office. Some land surveyors in larger outfits can work mostly from behind a desk, managing many field crews at once.