The Complete Guide to Becoming A Geodetic Surveyor

I was hoping for more technical detail about the actual equipment and software, but for someone still deciding, it's a solid overview. The salary chapter is realistic - my cousin is a PLS in Texas and the numbers match what he's said. I wish they'd gone deeper into the licensing exam prep, but I get that it's not that kind of book. Worth a read if you're on the fence.

This is the book I wish I'd had in college. I've been an engineering major weighing a switch, and Chapter 1 alone answered questions I couldn't get from any website - like what you actually do on a Tuesday, not just what the brochures say. The salary table is brutally honest, and the 'signs this isn't for you' section stopped me from making a mistake. I've read it twice and I'm buying a copy for my nephew.

Good practical guide. I appreciated the honest breakdown of the four different paths into the career - the comparison table with timelines and costs was exactly what I needed. The hour-by-hour day in the life chapter felt real, including the parts where you're sitting in a truck waiting for rain to stop. Only ding is some sections feel a little repetitive, but overall it helped me decide to pursue this.

Decent overview but a bit thin on the actual software side - I was expecting more about GNSS processing and GIS tools. The chapter on salaries made me feel better about the long licensing timeline, so that was useful. It reads like a career counselor talking, which is good, but I wanted a bit more depth. Not a bad start if you know nothing.

I'm a career-changer from retail management and this laid out the path realistically. The numbers for education costs and the licensing timeline helped me budget. The chapter on landing your first job had specific advice I could actually use - I updated my resume the same day. Good book, especially the premise sections. Put off by some repetition but the substance is there.

The tone is grounded, which I liked, but I felt it could have spent more time on the physical demands of the job. The day-in-the-life chapter mentions hiking equipment but I didn't get a real sense of how physically draining a bad week can be. The self-assessment checklist was the most useful part for me - honest about the traits you need. A good starting point, but read some field blogs too.

I've been a land surveyor's assistant for two years and this book validated why I'm getting my degree. The 'what you'll earn' chapter matches what I'm seeing in the field, and the career growth chapter showed me where I can go beyond crew chief. The networking advice in Chapter 5 is gold - I already used it to get a better internship. This replaced a stack of vague articles I'd been collecting.