How To Become A Party Chief: What It Is and Career Path

What is a party chief and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

If you're surveying your career opportunities, you might want to check out the job of party chief. As a party chief, you'll be responsible for managing land survey projects. Surveying is a crucial early step in constructing buildings, roads, bridges, and other structures. Therefore, in this job, you'll play an essential role in the accuracy of ground surveys.

Some of the duties you'll have on this job include managing survey teams, gathering field survey data, using global system positioning methods, and performing surveying calculations. You'll also be expected to maintain survey equipment and to update your knowledge of surveying technology continuously.

If you're thinking of becoming a party chief, you should be someone who enjoys working outside. You'll be required to do a lot of traveling to conduct surveying work on-site. If you're hoping to pursue this career path, you'll typically need at least a 2-year degree in survey engineering.

ScoreParty ChiefUS Average

Salary

3.5

Avg. Salary $44,955

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.8

Growth rate 1%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.51%

Asian 4.88%

Black or African American 3.27%

Hispanic or Latino 10.63%

Unknown 4.82%

White 75.90%

Gender

female 5.82%

male 94.18%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress level

7.8

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.9

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.3

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a party chief

Explore party chief education requirements

Most common party chief degrees

Bachelor's

35.9 %

Associate

25.2 %

High School Diploma

20.6 %

Start to develop specific party chief skills

Skills	Percentages
Topographic Surveys	12.41%
Boundary Surveys	10.79%
Data Collection	9.11%
Construction Layout	6.78%
CAD	6.71%

Complete relevant party chief training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 2-4 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New party chiefs learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a party chief based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real party chief resumes.

Obtain the necessary licensing

Becoming a licensed party chief usually doesn't require a college degree. However, you need to pass an exam to become a licensed party chief in most of states. 44 states require party chiefs to have license for their work. You can see the list of states below.

State	Education	Exam	License url
Alabama	Degree required	Both state and third-party exams required	Licensed Land Surveyor
Maryland	Degree required	State exam required	PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR
Alaska	-	-	Land Surveyor
Arkansas	-	State exam required	Professional Surveyor
California	Degree required	Both state and third-party exams required	Land Surveyor

Research party chief duties and responsibilities

Utilize GPS technology to manage a two man robotic crew assign to residential/ commercial development projects.
Party chief, survey technician using Carlson SurvCADD.
Learned several data collectors (SMI, Carlson, etc ...).
Learned and become an expert with the SurveyPro software on the TDS Recon.

Prepare your party chief resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your party chief resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a party chief resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable party chief resume templates

Build a professional party chief resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your party chief resume.