Plan to travel and possibly move west

mark99tj · #1 11-11-2003, 05:50 AM

My marriage is quickly going south, and if it hits rock bottom, there is no reason for me to live in the east any longer.

I have always wanted to live in the west. Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, west.

I will need a job. Right now, I work for an engineering firm running a GIS department (Geographic Information Systems), and have worked for Mapquest in the past. Does anyone here have a connection with anyone in the GIS or engineering community that may be looking for GIS help? It is not an immediate need, as I still hold out hope for my marriage to work out. I am just starting to dream really, and possibly make some connections.

Does anyone have any useful information for me?

Wheeling is important to me, as I help run an off road park out here. I wheel almost every weekend, and my TJ is my DD, and I do all my own work, but I do not have any fabrication tools, so I am quickly outgrowing my wrenching abilities.

This may not be the best place to post, but, oh well.

Thanks all!

karstman · #2 11-11-2003, 06:30 AM

Mark,
We do a little GIS work but keep it all in house. I'll poke around a bit at work and see if anyone knows anyone in the area that is looking.

later,
Mark H.

mark99tj · #3 11-11-2003, 06:54 AM

Awesome. Thanks!

Most of my experience of late is with municipal applications (water, storm, sewer) applications and GPS integration. I am mostly a marketing and project manager type person right now, but miss the production portion of it.

karstman · #4 11-11-2003, 07:26 AM

Done a little of that myself. Surveying bridges in PA we made extensive use of Trimble Xl 8 channel GPS and XRS 12 channel DGPS units.

Who do you work for?

mark99tj · #5 11-11-2003, 08:37 AM

Rettew Associates. I work out of the headquarters in Lancaster. We have Camp Hill, York, Pottsville and Bethlehem offices too.

You were from Pittsburg, right? My wifes family is from near Indiana. And I just wheeled with a bunch of guys from some Triangle club out there.

Did you work on the big project to capture all the bridge information for PA a few years ago? I worked with a girl in DC that did that for a while. Her name was Cassidy somehting. It was back in 96. That was for USGS or someone like that wasn't it?

Our survey department deals with the equipment, so I can't talk that talk too well. I do know that we use Trimble exclusivly, and we use code and RTK based receivers, depending upon the client needs. I am more about the data and the software end of things. I do play with some cool handheld devices that connect to GPS for data collection, but the GPS stuff is set up with our in house expert.

The field guys are always wanting to take my Jeep to the field with them though. Funny how that is. And the owner just discovered my winch, and he asked if I would go get stuck guys out so they don't have to call in the wreckers and stuff. I told him for the right price....

We are a business parnter of ESRI, so I may try to use those connections to get a job with them as well. We will see.

karstman · #6 11-11-2003, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by mark99tj

You were from Pittsburg, right? My wifes family is from near Indiana. And I just wheeled with a bunch of guys from some Triangle club out there.

Did you work on the big project to capture all the bridge information for PA a few years ago? I worked with a girl in DC that did that for a while. Her name was Cassidy somehting. It was back in 96. That was for USGS or someone like that wasn't it?

Yup, lived in Pittsburgh from 98 to last spring. And yes, I worked for USGS on the PA Bridge Scour Project. I ran the Pittsburgh field teams from 98 until we completed the project in the fall of 01. Small friggin world, eh? I didn't start with USGS until March 97. Can't recall a Cassidy, but we had over 40 people working on that project across the state and I can't remember them all.

How were the Triangle folks? I've wheeled with a few of them, but got real tired real fast of the my jeep is bigger, I have 60's, If you don't break it you're not wheelin hard enough attitude a lot of them tend to spew.

I'll check with some folks tomorrow and pm ya.
later,
mark

mark99tj · #7 11-11-2003, 06:47 PM

Cass left before you started then.

The triangle guys I wheeled with were decent. They had moderate TJs-- locked, 35s and appropriate lift. They were pretty harsh to one another.

I get to meet a lot of guys in different clubs at the park. Ecah group is certainly different. Had one guy who drove an XJ with an Incredible Hulk hood orniment, holding a thong, and had a blow up doll in the passenger seat. Strange one.

What sort of firm do you work for? Are there many smaller civil/municipal engineering firms out there, or are there just a few big ones?

karstman · #8 11-12-2003, 06:50 AM

PM'd you Mark.