Originally Posted by MS Fowler
Don,
Contact some local Engineering firms. We are always looking for good, reliable help., I would suppose it is the same everywhere. The complaint is that most "surveyors" now have no concept of the job--the computer does it all- they simply push buttons. The problem is that they cannot recognoze when the computer gives them bad information.
Same for CAD people--We need them. I do not believe "certification" is an issue. Just show up, and prove that you can do the work.
If you feel like relocating to northern MD, let me know; I will arrange some kind of an interview--internet, phone, something.
Even in my field of Construction Materials Testing, I cannot get good people. An awlful lot of people your age just do not want to work, especially in the heat and the cold and the dust of a construction site. I get applications from people who tell me all about their computer skilss--all I need is a realiable person, strong enough to lift 60-70 lbs, with a reliable vehicle that they do not mind if it gets dirty, and who can do basic arithmetic ( add, subtract, multiply, divide, and the occasional sq rt). We start people with no skills at $11 or better--they can get to $13-$14 pretty quickly. If they show some aptitude for the work, and the ability to learn the job, and communicate with people in a rational way, they can get into a little management. I have one job that requires 4 people each day--I would LOVE to have a capable, responsible person to put on that site to handle all the little management-type issues and not continually call my senior-level people.
As an example of the poor quality of people I am seeing coming out of HS and college--- I had a young guy in the field, and as part of the daily work, he has to perform some simple calibrations on the euipment. One task is to average the results from three runs. The data from his three runs was, 3.08, 3.12, 3.10. I am not making this up) I asked him to average them. he punched some numbers on his hand-held graphing calculator and after several minutes, announced the answer was 23.7. I said " No, that is wrong, try it again" He protested, showing me the calculator display. I asked him to try again. On the third try, he got it right. My problem was that he had so little actual understanding of what is an average that he could not recognze that his first answer was absurd.
The work we do is not hard--we test, and make observations, and report what we observe and test.
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