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“Some of the basic stuff that I’m teaching them right now, they’re doing out in the field, but they do not understand why they’re doing
it,” Peta says.

Her goal is to change that by encouraging students to think about how to think about tasks past the surface level.

“Instead of just getting a bit of data onto your data recorder and going out and setting out or picking up, they’re using their brain and
thinking about what they’re actually doing out there, and how they can check things while they’re out there instead of just being the
monkey, picking it up, sending it back to the office, and getting somebody else to look at it,” Peta says.

While the classroom curriculum itself consists of immediately useful items and items that students may not use for years, Peta says the
goal is to go beyond the curriculum and hone problem-solving skills.

Peta described one student who was having trouble getting direction at work. She told him it was his project, so he needed to take
charge and organize the necessary meetings to help the project move forward.

“That afternoon, he went and did it, taking that step. He’s already learned that he can’t sit back anymore. He needs to start moving
forward and being responsible,” Peta says.

The ultimate key to unlocking critical thinking is learning how to own up to mistakes and ask questions that help you improve.

3. Hone Soft Skills
Learning to ask questions isn’t a technical surveying skill. Instead, it’s part of
a broader array of “soft skills” that are nevertheless critical to advancing in
any profession—surveying included.

“I think soft skills are the real answer for the surveying industry and that they
are extremely under-promoted. If we’re ever going to get anywhere, it’s going
to be through soft skills,” Brandon says.
Soft skills include the ability to do things like:
l Communicate well with owners and project stakeholders
l Reliably check in at the start and end of site visits
l Mentor colleagues and employees
Whether you are out in the field, at a construction site, or answering phones
in the office, those soft skills can turn a mediocre surveyor into a talented
surveyor that other professionals are eager to work with or hire.

Michael’s decades of experience have proven to him that soft skills are essential.

“If you don’t know how to communicate effectively with people and guide people through very complex and convoluted pathways,
you’re not going to have that role as a leader and as a good consultant,” Michael says.

Developing soft skills happens over time, and you can’t always teach them quickly and efficiently in a classroom. Yet highlighting the
value and long-term importance of soft skills is critical.
4. Understand How Classroom and Field Skills Work Together

In the surveying profession, it’s common to hear arguments about the value of classroom knowledge versus the power of on-the-job
experience. Of course, both serve a purpose, but it’s nearly impossible for surveyors to agree on how much.

Ray Lillibridge is a PLS at OHM Advisors and an adjunct professor at Lawrence Technological University and Eastern Michigan University.
His perspective is that a profession like surveying requires some type of classroom education.

“I had an entire semester in writing legal descriptions,” Ray says. “Does it still need to be that way? Yes. Because there are very
important considerations when it comes to legal descriptions. That is a boring class, but you’ve got to do it.”

For example, an entire semester could easily be spent teaching a class how to lay out parking lots. But in order to take that course, you
would first need prerequisite classes that teach you what control is and how it’s set.

Whether that learning happens in a classroom environment or not ultimately may not matter. Yet a distinct element of “teaching” is
necessary for young surveyors to succeed. And while you could have one member of a two-man crew teach the other, it can certainly be
effective to teach 12 surveyors all at once in a classroom setting.

6 The Nevada Traverse Vol.49, No.4, 2022