IS Meetup & Educational Seminar Summary #8
Presented on: December 7th, 2017.
Presenters:
- Nathan Heazlewood - Management Consulting Practice Lead at Eagle Technology https://nz.linkedin.com/in/nheazlewood
- Joseph Kerski - Education Manager and Geographer, Esri, https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephkerski
Advice and Strategies
This video offers advice and strategies for planning and pursuing a career in GIS. It includes suggestions for skill to acquire, what organizations to consider, and how to market your skills. Nathan Heazlewood begins by defining GIS as simply any branch of IT or software that uses geography. Using this definition reveals some surprising opportunities, for example, the gaming and movie industries now uses geospatial technology. Therefore, you should not limit your career search to only traditional definitions of GIS. The main tip from this presentation is to think about what you want from your career and do it now; you can retrain and change direction at any age. Typically, people want a selection of one or more of the following outcomes from their careers:
-
Work with an awesome team.
-
Do interesting new things and be respected.
-
Make a difference to society or the environment.
-
Work-life balance.
-
Get out into the great outdoors.
-
Opportunities to travel around the world.
-
Job security
-
Make mountains of cash.
Scientific Approach
To achieve your goals, you should adopt a scientific approach to planning your career. On one hand, some people see the GIS industry as composed of a narrow set of specialist GIS roles such as GIS analysts, data entry operators, photogrammetrists, cartographers, and oceanographer. On the other hand, Nathan includes a wider list of roles including glaciologist, meteorologists, volcanologist, geologists, geographer, GIS solution architects, project managers, surveyors, and drafts people. These are all roles that use GIS in some part of their job. He groups these roles into four categories:
-
The measurers
-
IT people
-
Cartographers
-
Consumers of GIS information
Modest Growth
Joseph Kerski agrees, whereas he see modest only growth for GIS analysts, supervisors, and managers, he expects more growth for roles which use GIS as just one tool in their toolbelt. Unfortunately, employers are not going to pay you because you are simply interested in a topic or issue. In addition to your passion, you must bring some skills, abilities, and perspectives.
Beware of Hype
You should exercise care with industry forecasts especially self-appointed experts who do not provide their evidence. You should adopt a scientific approach; do some research and look for real data, for example, Urisa (https://www.urisa.org/) has conducted salary studies on GIS careers. Also, beware of the hype-cycle for emerging technologies which progresses through the following stages:
-
Climbing mountain of expectations
-
Peak of inflated expectations
-
Trough of disillusionment
-
Slope of enlightenment
Supply and Demand
On one hand, many geography and GIS graduates find it difficult to get their first job. On the other hand, companies struggle to fill the GIS positions they have. This situation is exacerbated by GIS job titles which are vague and confusing, there are many job titles in the industry. Many junior roles ask for five years of experience, but this is not realistic, so don’t be thwarted by these requirements. The biggest segments of the GIS industry with the most jobs include:
-
Local government
-
Utilities,
-
Transportation and logistics
Types of GIS Jobs
Heazlewood identifies four modes of GIS jobs within organizations as follows:
-
Solo map person – does everything in a small organization - 16%
-
Production chain – in large organization each step employs very specialist staff - 8%
-
Enterprise –– integrate GIS into enterprise systems like ERP, CRM/call centers - 67%
-
Disruptor – not traditional GIS people, coders & IT people e.g. Uber - 7%
Unfortunately, academic GIS is still focusing on the only the first two modes above.
Trade-offs
There are trade-offs between the different goals people have for their careers; unfortunately, you cannot have everything you want. Therefore, it is important to plan the types of skills you are developing. Overall, GIS is good, and you can find opportunities to pursue your goals in unexpected places, for example, the British MOD has a large environmental team. You do not need to work for the EPA to help the environment. Transportation and logistics organizations are using GIS to cut fuel and labor costs. As a by-product of optimizing routes these organizations are polluting less. So, although commercial organizations are driven by profit a secondary benefit to using GIS is that it is good for the planet.
Matching Opportunity and Motivation
The presentation wraps up with some suggestions for matching certain opportunities to specific motivations and suggests that important additional skills that can boost your career include:
-
Project Management
-
Public speaking
-
Training
-
Research
To boost your success, you should also consider the following:
-
Course selection
-
Training selection
-
Ask to be put on the right projects
-
Take any job with the right organization – get your foot in the door
Reaction
Overall, I thought that this was a fantastic presentation full of useful insights. I feel it has given me a valuable framework to think about career opportunities and make better decisions. However, it will take me some time to process and apply this information.