2009

My name is Kevin Gaunt. My land surveying career began in 2004 when my wife and I became pregnant with our first child. At the time, we were both making minimum wage working in restaurants in Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington. Our newfound parenthood meant we needed to find a better means of providing for our young family.

After our son was born in February 2005, my wife completed a nine-month medical assisting program and began her career in the medical field. Now, it was my turn to find a real career. I remembered that years earlier, my uncle, a developer in California, told me I should look into Land Surveying. I didn't even know what surveying was, so I "Googled it” and found my way to the Renton Technical College website, which advertised: “Do you like being outside? Are you good at math? Do you like working with maps?”, and the rest is history. I visited the school and met with Jim Coan and Martin Paquette and decided to enroll for the 2006-2007 school year.

I applied for and received an LSAW Foundation Scholarship during the 2007-2008 school year. It was an honor to have it presented at the Awards Luncheon and Annual Meeting at the 2008 LSAW Conference in Spokane in front of my peers and potential employers. The generous scholarship provided by the LSAW Foundation helped pay for textbooks and equipment, some of which I still own and use to this day, and made a significant impact on the future of our young family by allowing me to spend more time on my studies and less time worrying about money.

I graduated with a 4.0 GPA and got my first full-time surveying job in Spokane in June 2008. I began as a rodman and worked my way to party chief, office tech, and project surveyor. I have done field and office work in support of surveys in 15 different states (all West of the Mississippi). I passed the Fundamentals of Surveying exam and later the Principals & Practice of Surveying and Washington State Specific exams, becoming a Registered Professional Land Surveyor in May 2018.

Today, I am a Project Manager, Professional Land Surveyor, and Part 107 Certified Remote Pilot at Sandis where I manage projects as well as field and office staff, assist with marketing and business development, perform research, fieldwork, data processing, boundary resolutions, mapping, prepare legal descriptions, and much more, primarily in support of development projects for the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction industries.

I was recently elected as President of the Inland Empire chapter of LSAW and look forward to serving my profession in that role.

2009 & 2010

Thanks to scholarships, I graduated RTC debt-free! I am trying to "give back" by serving on the LSAW Foundation Board of Directors, serving as an officer in my local LSAW Chapter, as well as serving LSAW at the state level on the Conference Committee.

I'm not a PLS, but I do work at a surveying & engineering firm and do mapping; sometimes I work as a survey party chief or chainman; since I graduated at the bottom of the "Great Recession" (wow, how I HATE that term) & survey jobs were difficult to find, I ended up earning a Bachelors Degree in Environmental Science. I supported myself with a part-time survey job in addition to work-study wages, and eventually ended up at a survey/engineering firm that allowed me to start - from scratch - an Environmental department, while also working as a chainman ... that was a rugged couple of years ... Now I work with Engineers & Surveyors, delineate wetlands & map them with RTK GPS, calculate Base Flood Elevations, complete Elevation Certificates & work on FEMA Floodplain projects, create specialized site plans & help clients with the complicated permits involved when developing land with Regulated Critical Areas.

2013 & 2014

I received Scholarships in 2013 and in 2014.  I would have never made it through my education after deciding to go back and get my degree after 17 years.  I was able to get my degree without any loans by receiving financial aide and scholarships.

I am currently working as an Engineering Technician for the city of Portland, Oregon in the Signals and Street Lighting Maintenance department. Here is a picture of me checking an incoming order of new lighting poles on a very windy day.

2017

I first considered surveying as a career when I was working as a software engineer in Salem, Oregon while developing a general aviation grade GPS receiver for Garmin. I watched surveyors stake out a new building and site improvements adjacent to my office window. I thought, “That looks like fun: working with technology outdoors.” I Googled “Land Surveyors near me” and found two companies who kindly agreed to let me job shadow them.

I researched where I could get education related to this field and found that my hometown of Renton hosted one of the few schools in Washington with a surveying program - Renton Technical College (RTC). I called Martin Paquette, P.L.S. in spring 2017, asked him about joining the program, and if he knew where I could find an internship. He referred me to Mike McEvilly, P.L.S. at Sitts and Hill Engineers in Tacoma. They hired me as a chainman. I enjoyed the work, so I decided to register for my first quarter at RTC and was able to continue working part time during the school year at Sitts & Hill.

The program at RTC was just what I needed to begin learning the art and science of land surveying. In 2017, I applied and was awarded a scholarship from the LSAW Foundation. This scholarship helped to make the career transition more affordable. I graduated from RTC's survey program at the end of spring 2019 and have continued working at Sitts & Hill ever since. I progressed from chainman/rodman to instrument operator and then crew chief while working on boundary and topographic surveys, and construction staking.

In 2020 I sat for the Fundamentals of Surveying (FS) exam, and earned my LSIT. In 2023, after 6.5 years in the field, and motivated by a desire to continue learning and advancing in my career, I asked to transfer into the office to learn the other side of the business, which is where I have been working ever since. I am thankful to be learning from all of the licensed surveyors in our office; including Mike McEvilly, Gary Letzring, Desi Schilling, and Colby Sanders. In 2024 I passed the PLS exam, obtaining my Professional Land Surveyor's License in December. In February I got to attend the LSAW Conference at Tulalip where I got to meet and reconnect with many other surveyors including Greg Brooks who asked me to write this bio.

2018 & 2019

I was an LSAW Foundation Scholarship recipient in 2018 and 2019.  The foundation’s contribution to my education allowed me to prioritize school and complete Bellingham Technical College’s Geomatics program quickly.  I have recently returned to Seattle, where I grew up, and am working with the City of Seattle’s Parks and Recreation Land Survey and Mapping Group. I am very excited to be working on projects in my own hometown.  This picture is of me recovering a PLSS section corner for the second time; It was my first time recovering a corner I had buried!