What Does a Surveyor Trainee Do?

A surveyor trainee gets on-the-job experience in surveying under supervision from a licensed surveyor to develop skills necessary to perform this job. Trainees engage in a variety of activities, from making records to performing research for their supervisors. This work is necessary for the field experience a license usually requires and is available through numerous organizations that accept trainees. After completing a set number of hours, a trainee can apply for certification to become a licensed surveyor.

In the field, a surveyor trainee can assist with taking measurements. This person may be in charge of charting and recording data, marking the landscape, and creating detailed records that pertain to the site. Trainees may also look after the equipment in the field and can perform other duties as necessary. As the trainee develops more experience and skill, supervisors may assign more complex and detailed tasks, and may provide less supervision as the trainee begins to work more independently.

Surveyor trainees also work in office environments. They transfer and record data, perform calculations, and organize information to make it available in an organized and logical way to people who need to access it, like supervisors who want to look up site information. They can also conduct research. A supervisor may want information on the history of a piece of land, and the surveyor trainee could conduct title searches, look through newspapers, and engage in similar activities to collect this information.

Some organizations rotate their surveyor trainees through a number of different job positions. This provides them with access to a variety of experiences that they can apply to their professional development. They also get a chance to work with people who may have different working styles and could provide information on new techniques in surveying, different ways of handling job sites, and so forth. The trainee may also appreciate a chance to explore different surveying jobs to see what kind of work is most appealing.

The surveyor trainee does not sign off on formal reports, as a licensed surveyor must do this, but can perform a wide variety of other activities on the job site. These staff members may prepare reports for review and approval by senior surveyors who use each report as a learning opportunity. If a senior surveyor identifies problems with the report, these can be discussed with the surveyor trainee to provide information about how to avoid errors in the future.