Surveyor Career Assessment

2What is a Surveyor?

A surveyor measures where things are on the ground, exactly. They use GPS gear and an instrument called a total station, plus drones on some jobs. They find old property corner markers, called monuments, that may have been set a hundred years ago. They research deeds and old maps in the courthouse. Then they decide where a property line legally is, and they mark it. They also set the stakes that a road crew or a building crew builds to. A licensed surveyor can stamp a survey. A stamp is an official mark that says "I am responsible for this, and it is legally correct." Only a licensed surveyor may do that.

The Reality: Here is the part people miss. Surveying is a licensed profession, like engineering, but it has a genuine two-year door and an apprenticeship-style climb. The North Dakota board that licenses surveyors accepts a two-year technology program: with one, you need 2 more years of experience to become a Land Surveyor Intern, instead of the 4 years with no degree. Bismarck State College says its Land Surveying Technology program "meets the ND State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors board-approved educational requirements for individuals pursuing Land Surveyor Intern status in North Dakota." So you can go to work on a survey crew, get paid, and climb toward a license without ever taking calculus at a university. The full license still takes years. With a two-year technology degree, the board requires 6 years of experience for the Professional Land Surveyor license, plus two national exams. Now the honest downside: this is outdoor work in North Dakota. Summer means long days, sun, wind, bugs, ticks, and standing in a ditch. Spring and fall mean mud and cold rain. Some crews work through winter. You drive a lot, sometimes hours a day, and in western North Dakota you may stay overnight. Field work is also seasonal in places, so ask any employer straight out how they handle the winter months.

Your Responsibilities:

• Measure land with GPS gear, a total station, and sometimes a drone
• Find and mark old property corner monuments
• Research deeds, old maps, and records at the courthouse
• Set stakes that road and building crews build to
• Write the legal descriptions that go in property documents
• Draw the finished survey map on a computer
• Measure how high and low the ground is for grading and drainage
• Explain a boundary line to landowners, including when they disagree

Everything built on land starts from a line a surveyor set.

3A Day in the Life

6:30 AM — Load the truck. Check the GPS gear and batteries. Get the day's job files.

7:00 AM — Drive an hour to a rural section line.

8:00 AM — Hunt for an old corner monument in tall grass with a metal detector. Find it.

10:00 AM — Set the GPS over the corner and take measurements. Log everything.

12:00 PM — Lunch in the truck. It is 88 degrees and windy.

12:30 PM — Drive to a new housing lot in town and stake the building corners.

3:00 PM — Back in the office. Download the data and start the survey drawing.

4:30 PM — Check the courthouse records against what you found. Log your hours.

A real mix: outdoors in the field most of the day, then computer and records work.

4Training in North Dakota

A two-year degree gets you started. The license comes from experience plus exams. Surveying is unusual. You can be hired onto a survey crew and start learning immediately, and a two-year technology degree cuts years off the license requirements. The North Dakota board counts education and experience together, so more school means fewer years of required experience.

Training Pathways:

• Two-year AAS, then climb (about 8 years to full license): Get the two-year degree, work as a technician, take the FS exam, become a Land Surveyor Intern, then keep working toward the Professional Land Surveyor license.
• Certificate first, then work (fastest start): BSC offers a Land Surveying Technology certificate as well as the AAS. Start earning on a crew sooner and finish school while you work.
• Four-year degree (fewer required years of experience): With an ABET accredited degree the ND board requires no experience for the intern step and 4 years for the full license, instead of 6 with a two-year degree or 8 with none.

Where to Train in North Dakota:

• Bismarck State College (Bismarck) — Land Surveying Technology, AAS or program certificate, on campus. BSC says the program "meets the ND State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors board-approved educational requirements for individuals pursuing Land Surveyor Intern status in North Dakota" and prepares students to work as land surveying technicians — bismarckstate.edu/academics/programs/LandSurveying Technology
• North Dakota State College of Science (Wahpeton) — Land Surveying and Civil Engineering Technology, AAS, 70 credits. Covers surveying operations with modern measuring equipment, computer drafting of maps, and material testing. NDSCS says graduates work for state, county, and city engineering offices and for consulting engineers and land surveyors — catalog.ndscs.edu/land-surveying-and-civil-engineering-technology
• North Dakota State College of Science (Wahpeton) — UAS Land Surveying, AAS. The surveying degree with drone courses added — ndscs.edu/academics/programs/
• Bismarck State College (Bismarck) — Geospatial Technology certificate, on campus or online. GIS, GPS, mapping, remote sensing, and drones. BSC lists surveying and engineering among the fields that hire these skills — bismarckstate.edu/academics/programs/GeospatialTechnology

Before You Start: High school diploma or GED. You need good arithmetic, geometry, and trigonometry. Trigonometry is the math that really matters here, and it is high school math, not college calculus. A valid driver's license is close to required, because you drive to every job. Being comfortable outdoors in all weather matters as much as the math.

Tip: Start with financial aid and scholarships. Fill out the FAFSA, ask the school’s financial aid office what you qualify for, and ask an employer whether they help pay for school. That is where the money starts. After that, ask a career counselor or Job Service North Dakota whether WIOA or other programs can help with what is left over, like tuition, books, a laptop, or exam fees. What can be paid for depends on the program and on your own situation, so ask before you enroll rather than after. Worth asking about specifically: two-year degrees that train you for a job, like civil engineering technology, land surveying, mechatronics, electronics, or instrumentation. North Dakota two-year colleges also cost far less than a university. Ask about paid summer internships too — engineering firms, plants, and survey crews hire students while they are still in school.

5Certification & Licensing

Surveying is a licensed profession in North Dakota. School shortens the climb. The North Dakota State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors licenses surveyors here. There are two rungs: Land Surveyor Intern first, then Professional Land Surveyor. The exams come from NCEES, the national group that writes them.

The License Ladder in North Dakota:

• FS exam — Fundamentals of Surveying — the first national exam. The ND board says this requirement cannot be waived. NCEES says it has 110 questions, the appointment is 6 hours with 5 hours and 20 minutes of test time, and it is taken on a computer at a Pearson test center year-round (ndpelsboard.org, ncees.org)
• Land Surveyor Intern (LSI, also called LSIT) — the ND board requires 4 years of qualifying surveying experience, reduced by school: an ABET accredited engineering or surveying degree means no experience needed, a non-ABET degree or a two-year technology program means 2 years, and no degree means the full 4 years (ndpelsboard.org)
• Intern paperwork — the ND application asks for three references who are not family and not board members, plus official transcripts if you have a degree. The board says processing takes 6 to 8 weeks (ndpelsboard.org)
• PS exam — Principles and Practice of Surveying — the second national exam. NCEES says it is for candidates with at least four years of professional experience, is given year-round on a computer, and the fee is $375 (ncees.org)
• Professional Land Surveyor (PLS) — the full license. The ND board requires 8 years of experience, reduced by school: 4 years with an ABET accredited degree, 6 years with a non-ABET degree, and 6 years with a two-year technology degree (ndpelsboard.org)
• PLS paperwork — the ND application asks for a Land Survey Monument Record sample, work experience documentation, and five references: three must be registered land surveyors and two may be character references. Processing is 6 to 8 weeks (ndpelsboard.org)

The Exams: The FS costs $225 and the PS costs $375, both paid to NCEES. Both are on a computer at a Pearson test center and are offered year-round. Many people take the FS near the end of their two-year program while the math is fresh. The ND board also charges its own application fee on top of the exam fee.

Cost: NCEES exam fees are $225 for the FS and $375 for the PS (ncees.org). The ND board charges application fees that are not listed on its public pages, so call the board at (701) 258-0786 or email help@ndpelsboard.org and ask for current amounts. The two-year degree is the main cost, and it is far less than a university.

Keeping It Current: North Dakota personal registrations run on a two-year cycle. Ask the board for the current renewal fee and the continuing education hours required for surveyors, because the board does not list those on the public pages and they do change (ndpelsboard.org).

6Salary & Job Outlook

North Dakota Surveyor Pay (May 2025):

• Starting out (bottom 10–25%): $25.33–$35.91/hour ($52,680–$74,700/year)
• Middle (median — half earn more, half earn less): $38.15/hour ($79,360/year)
• Experienced (top 25–10%): $52.53–$61.44/hour ($109,260–$127,780/year)

What that means: North Dakota wage data for surveyors was published, so these are real ND numbers. The middle ND surveyor earns about $38.15 an hour, or about $79,360 a year, above the national middle of $36.27. Look at the shape of this table, because it tells a story. The 25th percentile in ND, $35.91, is far above the national $27.97 and very close to the ND median. That usually means ND has few low-paid surveyors and a lot of solid mid-career ones. The bottom tenth, $25.33, is a crew technician who is not licensed yet. The top tenth, $61.44, is a Professional Land Surveyor who runs crews or owns a firm. That jump from $38 to $61 is largely the license. Two cautions: only about 340 surveyors work in the whole state, so the sample is small, and field work in ND can be seasonal, which means annual pay may include winter slow time or, for some, a lot of summer overtime. Ask any employer directly how their winter months work.

Jobs in North Dakota: About 340 people do this work in ND today. By 2034, that should be about 370 (about 10% growth). Expect about 30 job openings every year in ND from growth and people retiring or changing jobs. Across the U.S., the change is about 4% growth — average.

Outlook: Good. About 30 openings a year in North Dakota, and ND is growing at about two and a half times the national rate, 10% against 4%. Oil field work, new construction, road projects, and farmland sales all require surveys. A lot of licensed surveyors in ND are near retirement, which is opening doors for the people climbing behind them.

Who Hires in ND: Private surveying and engineering firms, county and city engineering offices, the North Dakota Department of Transportation, oil and gas companies and their contractors, utilities and pipeline companies, and construction contractors.

Work Setting: Outdoors most of the day, in whatever North Dakota is doing. Long summer days with sun, wind, bugs, and ticks. Mud in spring and fall. Some crews work through winter with cold and snow. You drive to every job, and western ND work can mean overnight stays. Office days happen too, drawing the survey and digging through courthouse records.

Physical Demands: Medium to high. Walking uneven ground, carrying gear, climbing fences and ditches, digging for buried monuments, and standing for hours. You need to be comfortable in heat and cold. Good distance vision helps. Office and drafting roles in a survey firm are less physical, so ask about those if the field part is a problem.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, North Dakota, May 2025 (SOC 17-1022); North Dakota and U.S. long-term employment projections 2024–2034, via O*NET OnLine. Numbers are rounded.

7Where This Leads

Path 1: Survey Crew Member — You hold the rod and learn the gear on the job.

Path 2: Party Chief — You run the crew and decide how a job gets done.

Path 3: Land Surveyor Intern (LSI) — You passed the FS exam and are building experience.

Path 4: Professional Land Surveyor (PLS) — Licensed. You can stamp surveys.

Path 5: Firm Owner — You run your own surveying business.

Path 6: Geospatial or Drone Specialist — You run the GIS and drone mapping side.

8The Real Talk

What's Great:

• A licensed profession with a two-year door
• Outdoors and not stuck at a desk
• Middle ND pay near $79,360
• Top tenth near $127,780 with a license
• ND growing at over twice the national rate
• Many current surveyors near retirement

What's Hard:

• ND weather: heat, cold, mud, wind, bugs
• Long summer days and a lot of driving
• Field work can be seasonal
• Six more years of experience after a two-year degree
• Two national exams
• Landowners sometimes argue about the line you set

Be Honest: Are you genuinely OK working outside in North Dakota heat, cold, wind, and mud? Can you drive an hour each way to a job and sometimes stay overnight? Can you keep at it for six more years after your two-year degree to reach the full license?

9Part 1: What Attracts You?

10Part 2: Are You Ready?

11Part 3: Your Next Move

Your Surveyor Assessment Results