Hey folks a few weeks ago in another thread it was suggested that I check out Geographic Information Systems as a possible career. I really think this could be for me because of the fact that it would require a person who is talented in detailed images. Since I’m an illustrator and obviously love to draw I think this could be right up my alley.
Now what I was wondering is how should I proceed to the next step because the following three colleges below are my options for studying this:
Right now I have my AS in Business Administration and and four year degree in Accounting, which has not worked out and has been nothing but a flop, so I am pursuing other avenues that from what I have read up so far is a growing field with jobs that I would enjoy being in.
So of the three links I posted above what would you recommend I go for?
The connection to illustration isn’t very direct. Most GIS folks seldom do any drawing more involved than finding the corners of a rectangular building on an aerial photograph. In fact, the GIS revolution in cartography has greatly diminished the drawing part of drawing maps.
There is still a need for GIS technicians to have a feeling for things like proportion, balance, line weight hierarchy, and color schemes. That can separate the good ones from the mediocre ones. But there are also a lot of GIS technicians coming out of various college programs these days. Employment prospects are brightest for those who can code, can engineer databases, and can build apps.
What he said. In short, GIS isn’t the same as cartography. Its primary function is not the production of beautiful maps but the crunching of (potentially beautiful) numbers. The numbers relate to the physical world, but in the end there is far more math than aesthetics.
If you’re coming into the field thinking “I love art and I get to be creative with my maps, this is awesome”… you’re in for a rude awakening. Most of it is the tedious manipulation of datasets that somebody else generated: writing database queries, overlaying raster layers and doing math on their color channels, calculating the various intersections of vectors, etc. It’s more geeky than artsy, more analytical than creative.
Watch some random videos on YouTube like this one on digital elevation models. If you’re not excited by stuff like that, it’s probably not the right field for you. The final production of a map (if that is the agency’s desired output, which it isn’t always) might involve some illustration know-how, but otherwise there’s not a lot of drawing involved.
If you want something that combines art and computers, maybe consider level or world design for games instead? That’s a cutthroat, brutal industry though.
Or maybe scientific illustrator? Lots of agencies make various brochures and signs, and they combine technical detail with visual interpretation in a way that GIS doesn’t really.
I’m getting to the point that I just want is a Job that can turn into a meaningful career that’s why I’m aiming at GIS. I’m getting a vibe of "stay away ".
It all depends on where you end up. I work for small county government. There are four people in the GIS department.
I perform most of the database work, web site maintenence. Others keep data up to date, perform analysis and create maps. Maybe not a lot of maps, but those that they do requires a good creative eye.
Like any job, there are tedious tasks that may have you doing data entry for a project. Or, if you are hired by a conversion company, you may be digitizing from aerial photos. That may be the price you have to pay to get your foot in the door.
I myself don’t have a degree or cert. I got into GIS before anything was offered. So I’m afraid I don’t have any comment on the OP’s links.
Visualization within GIS is important (especially focusing on web solutions), and it sounds like your skills and interest would lead that way, but you usually have to get in the trenches a bit before you’d have that opportunity.
Not so much “stay away”, just be sure you know what you’re getting into! I think GIS is darned awesome, but don’t want you to start a career in it with a misunderstanding and end up hating it.
Watch some videos and see of it’s the sort of thing you can enjoy or at tolerate
I use a GIS as part of my job every day. I like making the maps, but the real meat is the data. Taking at least one course on cartography is important because that way you’ll know why all the professionally made maps you see look the same. But learn how to do SQL queries, enter metes and bounds descriptions, Township and Range descriptions, digital image processing, rectifying images to map projections and coordinate systems, etc… Think about taking 25 years of census data on mortgage trends and trying to figure out important spatial patterns. How about trying to split a County into commission districts that give each commissioner equal power while various political groups try to tweak your work to their advantage. These are all things that I or my coworkers have had to do, among other tasks. Right now I’m creating a database of properties with vested development rights. Some of the old legal descriptions are things like, “The 2nd house on the left after X road.” Those are some of the possible tasks you may encounter.
So, no recommendation for or against. Just some examples of GIS work.
I also deal with GIS daily as part of my job, but since I work with navigation systems the kind of data I work with is different. I work with things like road characteristics, one-ways, turn restrictions, overpasses, house addresses, etc.
I’m a data geek with a big artistic streak. So GIS definitely appeals to my right brained self. But I know I’d hate it if it weren’t for my love of data and statistical analyses. GIS is a tool for me to display and manipulate data. It is just a beautiful means to a glorious end.
I work with someone who has “GIS specialist” as her title. She’s the least creative person I know. I know that sounds like an insult–it really isn’t, though. It’s just the truth. But she’s awesome with GIS because she knows how to manage data. It isn’t her maps that keep her employed, but her ability to manage very complex geodatabases. That’s the hard stuff.
All that said, GIS is a very marketable skill. The majority of my coworkers do not know how to make maps, and so the few of us who do always have a chance to show-off our mad skillz. An even smaller number of us know how to query geodatabases. I’m the only one who regularly performs geostatistical analyses. So I guess what I’m saying is that GIS isn’t any one thing. If you’re going to market yourself as an expert, acquire as many skills as you can. (And don’t be afraid to learn Python!) Your resume may end up in front of someone who has plenty of “map-makers” but no one who knows how to do the less sexy stuff, like validating a topology.
Ok all fair enough. I looked through all of this and I think this would be something I really want to do. Now with that said going back to the three options for the AS degree, the certificate and the Masters degree in it. I’m just trying to figure out which one I should pick.
Can you get into the gis master’s programs with your existing accounting degree?
I feel like a lot of the gis employers are governmental and AS degrees don’t mean much to them unless you have a lot of experience to substitute. Master’s seems safer, especially if you don’t have to go through another undergrad program again.
Not to jump on the naysayer wagon, but I have some experience with this, and right now GIS is experiencing a pretty big boom. Companies are hiring GIS experts and everyone is eager to include geospatial analysis into their projects. But few of these people have a strong understanding of what GIS is or how to use it effectively. In the meantime, college kids and career switchers just like you are rushing to enter the field.
What this means is that in the near future, organizations are going to start pruning GIS staff as they sort out what is helpful from the buzzwords. In the meantime, hordes of fresh graduates are going to be flooding the market.
You’ll want to manage your early career VERY carefully, doing whatever it takes to get an internship or other relevant career experience. It will be much more competitive two years from now than it is today, and it will stay competitive as employers focus on the most skilled employees.
My first question is why did an associates in business and BA in accounting prove to be a flop? Why aren’t you enjoying these and/or why aren’t you finding work with these? Answering these will help determine if GIS is something you want to pursue.
Other key questions are what do you hope to get out of it? A job? An interesting career? Both are possible but jobs can be really different, a lot of GIS happens in local/state government but these don’t tend to be very design/cartography oriented.
In terms of what level, if you have an AA and BA already it doesn’t make much sense to get another one, i.e., a BA specifically in GIS isn’t going to get you any more than having a BA with GIS skills.
A couple of links:
A decent overview of graduate programs of different types.
I think it’s very hard for you to answer that question if you don’t have a good sense of what types of GIS careers are out there for you to pursue and what types of GIS jobs appeal to you.
Read the job postings to see what type of work GIS professionals actually do. From there you can follow links to GIS employers and read more about what these companies do and what role GIS plays in their business.
Once you have a better understanding of what roles GIS professionals play within an organization, then you can start figuring out what types of jobs you would like to have in GIS and what type of degree will make you most competitive to land those jobs and most successful in advancing along that career path.