Hangouts with James Fee - Geospatial Career Panel 2012 - Navigating the Field
Special Episode - This week’s hangout was very special. In honor of GIS Day, we organized a 90-minute career panel with 3 great guests; David DiBiase of Esri, Kenny Miller from the State of Maryland, and Jessica Touchard, Senior Recruiter with GeoSearch, Inc. We took some questions from the IRC chat and those that were proposed via Google Moderator. This should be a great resource for those who are looking for their first job, a new job or a new career in GIS.
We discussed a broad array of topics – here are a few of them:
- How to keep up with new developments in the field
- Where to go for great distance learning resources
- Differences between public sector and private sector cultures and job markets
- How to get that first job
- The importance of learning to script, and how to do it
- Spatial patterns in the GIS job market (hint - Houston is hot)
- Which non-GIS skills are most important
- The new Geospatial Technology Competency Model
- Professional certification (GISP and ASPRS)
- How to prepare your resume and portfolio
The most important takeaways were:
- You’ve got to love what you do, or it’s not worth it and you won’t last at it
- Scripting is the way forward!
- Our industry is healthy, growing, and multifaceted, and it’s a great time to be working in GIS and related professions!
During the show, participants in our IRC channel had a lively conversation, and shared some of the following helpful links:
Educational Resources
- An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python
- Geoprocessing with Python using Open Source GIS
- Esri Training
- Boston GIS Reference Collection
- Training on building a PostGIS Database from Penn State (and check out the rest of their free courseware here
Ways to get involved and give back:
- As of broadcast day, the URISA Vanguard Cabinet has on open position
- URISA GIS CORP
- Emerging GIS Leaders
Thanks again to our amazing panelists, and to everyone who watched and sent in questions!