Land Surveyor - How to become a Land Surveyor

Land Surveyor is the professional responsible for estimating the terrestrial positions like angles, distance and multi dimensional points of the assigned  piece of land to make precise estimates about land for making maps and  other governmental purposes. The survey reports prepared by the professional Land Surveyor are used for the description of land for land leases, deeds and various legal documents. His job description also involves providing information regarding the location, contour, shape, dimension and elevation of the land being surveyed.

From a field of limit opportunities in government sector to a field of immense opportunity in the recent past, the scope of Land Surveyor has increased in leaps and bounds thanks to hundreds of infrastructure and land development companies. Increase in the urbanization has necessitated the acquiring of land for various infrastructural and housing development activities thereby creating job opportunities for certified Land surveyor as these are the professional who are apt to analyse the feasibility of such projects by surveying the land extracts to be used for these developmental activities.

Considering the continuing growth of infrastructural development activities in the near future adopting Land Surveyor as a career can be a right decision. Being a highly technical field Land surveyor must meet strict educational, testing and work requirements before they can earn certification.

So to become a professional Land Surveyor one should have to be hardworking and committed and aptly qualified.

How to become a Land Surveyor?

Few decades earlier there was no need to go for formal training to become a Land Surveyor. Joining a survey crew as a crew member and gaining the on job experience was the only thing the aspiring candidates have to do to become a licensed surveyor.

Increasing use of the technology and state of art developments has made it highly technical field requiring excellent formal education and certification. Thus you must obtain a degree in a related field from a good institute to become a highly qualified and certified Land surveyor.

The basic qualification required for candidates to become surveyors is a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering. However there are various international universities and colleges that offer degrees in land survey and survey technology too. They will not however offer you the land survey license you will need to work.

Eligibility to join a Civil engineering course

There are two options that one can follow to be a Civil Engineering graduate.

1. One can join Diploma College after 10^th and get a Diploma in Engineering (in civil trade)

1. Educational Qualification

To be eligible for joining a Diploma in Civil Engineering course one should be 10^th Class pass or appeared.

Step 1

Interested candidate has to appear in an entrance test conducted by the Technical Education Boards of various State Governments and selected candidates are admitted in the Diploma collages according to the rank of the candidate in the entrance exam. Like in the State of Punjab in India Joint Entrance Test (JET) is taken to admit the students in its diploma engineering collages. 

This exam is generally held in the month of May-June and consists of Objective type questions on the subject of English, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Aptitude.

Step 2

After completing this three years of Diploma course one can either join some job of Junior Engineer level or can compete to get admission in the second year of degree in engineering course which is provided by some of the regional engineering collages of the state.  OR

One can complete its engineering studies through AMIE (Associate Membership of Institution of Engineers) - An alternate option for getting an engineering degree

AMIE introduce non-formal engineering education Programme, successful completion of which is recognized as equivalent to a degree in engineering by the government of India, the union public service commission, state governments and public/ private sector organizations.

2. The second option is that the engineering aspirant can opt for 10+2 followed by admission in the degree collage.

1. Educational Qualification.

To be eligible for joining a Degree course in Engineering one should be 10+2 Class pass or appeared  in Non-Medical stream with Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics as main subjects with minimum of 60% marks in PCM for most of the prestigious collages. 

Step 1

Eligible candidates have to appear in the entrance tests conducted  by various state  universities (like Delhi CEE by Delhi University etc.) of the  state, Central Govt Organizations like AIEEE and  independent institution (like IIT-JEE by  IIT’s , BITS Pilani etc) present at various places in the India. Candidate get admission into these collages for four year degree Programme according to their merit in the examination taken and stream of their interest as selected by them.

Step 2

After successful completion degree course or equivalent right qualifications you will be required to obtain a license to work in MNC’s. For that you must pass the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) test and have worked as an assistant surveyor for some period of time.

Each country has its own licensing examination, and the requirements will vary from country to country. Various countries may also require a certain number of hours of training to be completed per year.

Land Surveyor Job Description and Career Prospects

Job description of land surveyor involves compiling of vital data after doing the land surveyors using technology like radar, lasers, cameras and other equipment to  analyse the feasibility of the project in hand. They can find employment with government’s infrastructural development organization like PWD’s of various state government, NHI as well as with private consultant to construction or real estate companies.

Land Surveyor Salary

Certified Land Surveyor in Government sector can get approximately Rs.20,000 - Rs.25,000 as starting salary. Where as in private sector these professional can work as consultant and earn handsomely on contract basis. In private sector there is no limit for professional with experience and ability.