|
I worked as a GIS and Data Analyst for 6 years in local government so I'll try to cover some of the general questions fielded so far. Feel free to directly ask me more specific questions. ArcGIS is the juggernaut in the industry and has like 90% of market share when it comes to desktop analysis, so definitely heed everyone's recommendations and do as much training as you can on it. If you land an entry level gig you'll probably be spending the first month or two just doing spatial data entry, digitizing features from either geo-referenced images or other documents. It's dull and boring work but it's how everyone who I've meet in this industry started. Eventually you'll work your way up to doing basic analysis and cartography which pays alright depending on location and employer. Now, what they don't teach you in undergrad is the fact that there's quite a bit of database design, configuration and programming involved in this line of work as you work your way up since you'll be expected to configure and setup the online map services and backend for them. Most places will give you training in that once you've seen you're not useless at your job and can be trusted, so don't stress about not having this experience for an entry level job even if they ask for it. There's also QGIS which is opensource and has been keeping a very solid release schedule in terms of features, I'd recommend downloading a copy and getting a feel for it if you're interested and don't have any experience outside of what you've done in university labs with ArcGIS. SQL and all of it's different forms (MS SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Oracle) is the other main tool you'll end up using as well. In a proper enterprise environment they'll be using a SQL database since it offers better performance, management and security over having a bunch of shapefiles in a shared drive (just lol). MicroSoft SQL and Oracle are the two big players in this domain. If you have no knowledge of SQL I recommend heading over to w3schools SQL tutorial and running thru it. I learnt all I know on the job and only took me a few weeks to get the basics down just with the w3schools website, MicroSoft's own online documentation (MSDN library) and stackexchange. If you want to advance in this field past the basic "push button receive map" position it's something you'll need to know. It also annoys me that most undergrad and diploma in this field completely miss this component. But I guess database programming is seen as interesting/sexy as cartography and therefore not as marketable. Which is true, most people actually perked up when I use to tell them I make maps versus now when I tell them it's 50% database programming and 50% useless meetings. But I do also get paid more as a result. As long as you understand basics around spatial data and cartography you'll be fine in applying for entry positions. Every single GIS job description I've seen have like five times as many requirements as you'll end-up using because Bob once used a bit of VBA in Excel to do some basic data transformation so they'll put down "must experience with Excel VBA" even thought it's stuff anyone can google in 2 mins. Have a look at paid internships on indeed.com and you should be able to find something. Also, if you're young and thinking of doing an Australia/NZ Working Holiday you'll easily find short 6 week to 6 month contract work in this field over here. Thought I recommend getting 2-3 years experience beforehand to help build up your CV.
|
#
¿
May 14, 2017 12:43
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 2, 2024 07:37 |
|