You're Not A Cowboy, Get Over It!

A friend of mine once told me that being a cowboy wasn’t about how you dressed or what kind of music you listened to but it was what was inside your heart that made you a cowboy. Naturally, cowboys might wear a certain type of clothes to accommodate the work they do. And more than not will listen to country music, mostly because of were they were raised. But those things are not what make up their cowboy personality. If you’re a cowboy, you’re a cowboy, if you’re not, then you’re not. You can’t necessarily become one. What makes a cowboy a cowboy is his way of life, his philosophy. 

What does this have to do with being a Land Surveyor? Well maybe not much but it does demonstrate my point. Invariably, any time Land Surveyors gather together there are grumblings about being a professional and how we aren't treated as a profession. Some say that if you wear a tie to work you’re a professional. Some say if you require continuing education, you’re a professional. The latest idea is that if you have a 4-year degree you’re a professional. I think all of these ideas are wrong. Just like the cowboy, these things don’t make you a professional. Being a professional is a way of life and a philosophy. 

Webster defines a profession as “…an occupation requiring advanced education and training and involving intellectual skills…” I believe the keyword here is intellectual skills, meaning skills of the mind. Too often Land Surveying is thought of as a trade or vocation. I don’t mean only by the public, but by people within the profession. Regardless of the profession, until this philosophy changes, neither will your profession. 

I recently attended a meeting of an organization I belong to and the discussion turned to Minimum Standards. It appeared the general goal was to raise the standard of care to better protect the public. Most of the opposition I heard, however, seemed to be about protecting their business interests or preventing their product from being shared/used by others in our profession. This philosophy benefits only you and no one else, certainly not the public. 

A comment I hear most often from the public about surveyors is “why can’t they ever agree with each other?” One reason is that Surveyors refuse to file their product of public record or share it with other surveyors. There is no way for a surveyor to know that another surveyor has performed work in a particular area without some sort of public record (or sharing of information). This philosophy is not professional. It is just one example of selfish mentality that some Land Surveyors need to overcome before the profession can obtain "professional" status.

Minimum Standards should be the most insignificant thing Land Surveyors worry about; they are after all, minimum. Your quality of work should so far exceed the Minimum Standard that they should barely enter your thought process. If you are arguing about whether or not you should be required to show the acreage of a parcel on your survey, you’ve already missed the point. Instead you should be thinking about how you can help the public and leave the profession better off than when you began. Until you stop thinking about yourself and your competitor, ANY profession is going to languish in its current state. 

The point is until you treat yourself and your career as a profession, you will not rise to that status. So for now, YOU’RE NOT A PROFESSIONAL, GET OVER IT!