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Playing devil’s advocate, Michael said that probably only 10% of what he does as a surveyor today was learned in a classroom.

“I don’t think I really figured out what I was doing until I hung my shingle and had to own it. And I had to own every gesture,” Michael
says.

But to be fair, that statement comes from the perspective of having 35 total years of experience under his belt. The metaphorical
percentage point has been an ever-changing mark over the past decades.

“If I think about what experience I needed percentage-wise to do my work for the first 23 years, I could probably get all of that from
school. But to do what I do now, 10%,” Michael says.
Brandon agreed that the importance of education and experience is balanced somewhere on the scale.

“The regulation for filing a property or how to subdivide, all of those are things that are written down. And anything that is written down
can be taught. But what made us proficient or even remarkable in our careers was the experience, hands down,” Brandon says.

That’s precisely why the surveying profession must focus on finding ways to teach experience effectively. In an ideal world, passionate
surveying professionals should write books, consult, and spread their wisdom across multiple companies or state lines.

5. Hone Expertise With or Without a
The next area of contention in surveying is whether the surveying experts
qualified to spread that type of wisdom must be licensed professionals.
Interestingly, many surveying instructors are not licensed or do not practice
actively in the field. On the flip side, many excellent licensed surveyors are
lackluster teachers.

While the debate is fiery, the bottom line is that it is possible to be an incredible
surveyor with deep expertise without possessing a license. For example, Peta
says that surveying instructors do not have to be licensed in Australia. But she
argues that she certainly feels qualified to teach.

“Many of us in the system have worked with registered surveyors, have
worked on construction sites, have worked on roads, have done all of this
different stuff. We haven’t learned the educational side as you would in a
university, but I learned from the surveyor that I worked with for 10 and a half
years: how to run the business, order the plans, and define boundaries. So I
could do it; I’m just not licensed to do it,” Peta says.

Ray said that it is also possible to teach college surveying courses without a license in the United States.

“There are many colleges that have non-licensed surveyors teaching surveying. I can think of a handful of colleges in the Midwest where
civil engineering teachers who are not licensed surveyors are teaching survey curriculums,” Ray says.

But again, the question arises of whether or not having that license matters.

“I believe that there are people with a license that I could survey a circle around, and I feel confident saying that. And there are people
that I can’t,” Brandon says. “But that license says he knows what he’s talking about, at least to a certain point.”

Ultimately a license is a helpful benchmark for the industry, but we must keep in mind that it is no guarantee of skill. There are many
ways of gaining expertise in the profession, and we should explore ways to honor that fact where possible.

6. Don’t Make Professional Development a “Checkbox” Item
One logical path for surveyors to hone or expand their expertise is to pursue annual professional development opportunities, from courses to
certificates to conferences. In fact, it’s often a requirement of State Licensing Boards that a certain number of credits be obtained each year.

Peta says that in New South Wales, professional development is valued almost to an extreme: every registered surveyor has to get a
certain amount of professional development points each year. If they don’t, they lose their license until they make up the points and reapply
for it.

Yet while it’s easy to check professional development off the list quickly, it’s harder to learn from it
and spread that learning to benefit others. CONTINUED ON PAGE 31 u

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