Architecture & Engineering
Surveyors
Also called: City Surveyor, County Surveyor, Land Surveyor, Licensed Land Surveyor
US median pay
$75,440
per year, 2025
Job growth 2025–35
+5.8%
faster than average
Openings a year (US)
3,100
52,000 employed
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree
Preparation 4/5 · Considerable preparation
What this job is
Make exact measurements and determine property boundaries. Provide data relevant to the shape, contour, gravitation, location, elevation, or dimension of land or land features on or near the earth's surface for engineering, mapmaking, mining, land evaluation, construction, and other purposes.
What they do day to day
- Direct or conduct surveys to establish legal boundaries for properties, based on legal deeds and titles.
- Prepare and maintain sketches, maps, reports, and legal descriptions of surveys to describe, certify, and assume liability for work performed.
- Write descriptions of property boundary surveys for use in deeds, leases, or other legal documents.
- Verify the accuracy of survey data, including measurements and calculations conducted at survey sites.
- Search legal records, survey records, and land titles to obtain information about property boundaries in areas to be surveyed.
- Record the results of surveys, including the shape, contour, location, elevation, and dimensions of land or land features.
- Prepare, or supervise preparation of, all data, charts, plots, maps, records, and documents related to surveys.
- Compute geodetic measurements and interpret survey data to determine positions, shapes, and elevations of geomorphic and topographic features.
- Calculate heights, depths, relative positions, property lines, and other characteristics of terrain.
- Plan and conduct ground surveys designed to establish baselines, elevations, and other geodetic measurements.
Skills and knowledge that matter most
Skills
- Coordination3.5/5
- Judgment and Decision Making3.2/5
- Time Management3.1/5
- Complex Problem Solving3.1/5
- Systems Analysis3.0/5
- Social Perceptiveness3.0/5
- Instructing3.0/5
- Management of Personnel Resources2.9/5
Knowledge
- Mathematics4.7/5
- Engineering and Technology4.2/5
- Geography4.0/5
- Computers and Electronics4.0/5
- Design3.7/5
- Customer and Personal Service3.7/5
Importance rated by people working in the job (1 = not important, 5 = extremely important).
Education and preparation
Preparation level 4 of 5 — Considerable preparation. Usually a bachelor's degree and several years of related experience.
Typical entry education (BLS): Bachelor's degree.
Highest education of people in this job:
- Bachelor's degree47%
- Some college21%
- High school diploma16%
Who this job suits
Mostly Conventional
Organising data, details and procedures
Realistic
Hands-on work with tools, machines, plants or animals
Investigative
Ideas, research and solving problems
Based on the Holland (RIASEC) interest profile for this occupation.