AUG 13, 2020 - Thank for your interest in our current job offerings (found at https://garingtaylor.com/careers) . The point of this post is to answer some of the common questions we are receiving about the two jobs for which we are recruiting at this time. Those jobs are: Survey Party Chief; and Seasoned (or Sr.) Public Works Engineer. Survey Party Chief Question 1: How does this position align with your current strategy? Okay, for this job posting, I'll admit that nobody has asked this question. However, I think it is an important question to examine if you are a party chief or potential party chief seeking greener pastures. The reason for this job post is quite simple. Our Vice President of Land Surveying, Mr. James Cooper, PE, LS, has two reliable field hands who are smart and trustworthy, but not quite ready to do much field work on their own. As such, Mr. Cooper finds himself in the field quite a bit, which makes it difficult to perform all of the office work expected of a Vice President. In our strategic vision, the right fit for this job will help train our two up-and-coming surveyors, and handle some jobs on his or her own. This gives Mr. Cooper more time to implement the systems and further develop the business relationships that will enable our land surveying team to grow. Question 2: Am I required to be an LS, or even and LSIT? No, though it is preferred. Question 3: How much travel is expected? In the last five years, there has not been one job that required a surveyor to stay the night away from home. Our work is typically geographically limited to Paso Robles (45 minutes north), and Lompoc (1-hour south). The vast majority of our work is within a 20 minute drive of our Arroyo Grande office. Seasoned (or Sr.) Public Works Engineer Question 1: Is this person to work as a consultant to various public works departments around the Central Coastal California area? Yes and no. This is certainly one of the goals, though it may not be realized right from the get-go. When the Senior Public Works Engineer begins working at our firm, he or she will provide assistance to our private development team and assist our President’s efforts to get more agency work, to productively fill time when there is no public agency work to be done. At one time, our office was indeed THE public works department for several of the local agencies; most notably, Grover Beach. This person’s resume will be a key piece of getting our team shortlisted at more of the local agencies, which will eventually lead to enough agency work to necessitate a Public Works Division. Question 2: He or she will perform this role for GTA, as the cities themselves may not have this person internally, so GTA performs this function for them. Is this correct? Most of the Cities have either a City Engineer, Public Works Director and/or a Capital Improvements Project Manager. Those that don’t have the CIP Manager and several other supplemental engineering staff will need help managing consultants and contractors so they are not in the weeds all day every day. Several of these Cities and the Counties do not have all of these positions filled and need help with project management, as well as design services. In addition to Public Works Design services, we will be working on generating more of a Construction Management resume. GTA plans to grow a Construction Management arm within the next 12-18 months as well. Question 3: Do I understand correctly, from the Overview in the job description, that the main purpose of the role is business development? It is easy to see how the overview may lead to this interpretation. While business development is one of the primary functions of the position, it is certainly not the main purpose of the position . Managing and performing the work that we have comes first. Helping our President and VP of Engineering procure more Public Agency work comes second. Third would be helping our firm develop the 3-5 year business plan for the future of the Public Works Division. The overview is meant to paint the picture, in broad strokes, as to what will be expected of the right person for this position. We don’t get into the weeds with job duties in the overview. The person, their fit, their belief in our purpose and their energy to do excellent work in the community while building a division they can call their own is what truly matters. Well, there you have it. Do you have any additional questions after reading this post? Please feel free to ask in the comments or submit them in the form below!