There is no GIS profession ladder. Enable me make clear right before you yell at me.
I am NOT suggesting there is not job mobility and growth within just the GIS community. I am NOT suggesting that you can’t create a job in GIS. You most surely can. And you are! In point, if you go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics O*NET site, you are going to fortunately see the sunshine image next to ‘Geographic Info Devices Technologists and Technicians’ designating a ‘bright outlook’! It is not an anthropomorphized sunshine emoji with a smiley experience,
but that doesn’t halt me from seeing it that way.
I do not feel that there is one particular obvious path of upward techniques for a GIS vocation. You know, like a ladder. There is not a commonly recognized ‘Start Here’ point of origin, or any subsequent directives to ‘now action listed here,’ and then up, up, and away you go. I respect Nathan Heazlewood’s diagramming efforts to illustrate the many instructions individuals may possibly go in this industry. In its place of a career ladder, GIS looks additional like job scaffolding that you assemble as you go or it’s possible even profession parkour (scaling partitions, flipping above banisters, lateral ladder jumps, etc.).
Title Trajectory
Visualize we place typical GIS task titles like Technician, Analyst, Developer, Coordinator, and Supervisor onto major write-up-it notes. Initially, we inquire a room of GIS experts to adhere them on the wall in hierarchical job get from entry-stage roles to senior positions. When I do not assume there would be 100% consensus, I do feel that many of these roles would attain a typical agreement on where they belong based mostly on the expertise and jobs that GIS professionals associate with each title.
Now think about accomplishing the exact exercising with a area of non-GIS persons dependable for choosing GIS experts at their organization. I am not sure the notes would ever make it on the wall, or if they did, that they would be just about anything other than a layered, overlapping GIS career blob. As these folks talked over every single work title, they would find that from just one organization to the subsequent, the very same skills and tasks were carried out by different GIS roles with no authentic buy or hierarchy apparent.
GIS career titles coordinate throughout companies as effectively as women’s pants sizes throughout clothes manufacturers – that is to say, they do not coordinate at all. Dive into the task descriptions of unique GIS positions and you rapidly location this concern. Some Analyst positions read like Professionals, some Experts sound like Programmers, and some Professionals positions appear like they are the only GIS part in a enterprise remaining to fend for their geospatial selves and do it ‘all’ (even if the enterprise doesn’t know what ‘all’ is, just that they want and will need it).
But you don’t have to choose my phrase for it (Reading through Rainbow reference anybody?). Matt Forrest a short while ago compiled details from 7300 GIS or geospatial careers listings to investigate GIS salaries and skills
https://www.youtube.com/view?v=pYlb34mz5XY
1 of the main takeaways is the sheer variety of work titles and the lack of profession clarity in phrases of what every single job does, how they interact, and how (or if) they are unique. The evaluation of free text position descriptions demonstrates that there is not regularity on which techniques are associated with which roles. For a comparative search at requested competencies over time, examine out prior investigation on GIS position listings from 2007 to 2014.
Translating Prospects
With GIS position titles utilised interchangeably by distinct organizations, you must dive into work descriptions to get a perception of what the presented part entails. So, GIS job seekers are also translators, connecting writeups with tangible GIS techniques to see how the job matches their passions and abilities. Dependent on who wrote the ad, this can be difficult.
I imagine it does not choose GIS gurus exceptionally extended to place a GIS work advert NOT prepared by a person who is aware GIS. In reality, I wager you speedily refine your capabilities to spy those written by GIS specialists vs. IT professionals vs. HR professionals vs. man or woman-who-drew-the-limited-straw-and-possibly-just-utilized-ChatGPT. Frankly, how the advertisement reads can give insights into the position by itself – the stage of thought and treatment put into acquiring the position, the level of GIS knowledge in an business, or the extent that they know (or really do not know) what they want. Hey, we do not have much to go from at times, so a minimal healthful speculation from the modest clues in a pair paragraphs just can’t harm, correct?
If you have operate into this obstacle in your task search and career route, you are not by yourself. When folks post on this GIS career title / career path subject matter, it hits a nerve. Test out this LinkedIn thread or this Reddit dialogue. Equally discussions are examples of one particular of the finest strategies to beat GIS career confusion – share your encounters so we can consolidate our GIS job navigation ideas and methods.
Enjoy, Expertise, and Having Paid out
During one of my embarrassingly repeated Instagram scrolling classes, I skimmed some sort of inspirational / motivational / self-advancement / productivity write-up that reported some thing about accomplishing what you like, carrying out what you are good at, and undertaking what receives you compensated. Later I believed about how these groups could be useful for parsing as a result of GIS job ads and our very own occupations.
Initially, think about your possess GIS techniques. List which types you enjoy, which ones you experience proficient, and which ones drop into both equally of these categories. It could possibly be beneficial to have a 3rd, brutally honest class of GIS techniques you dislike or just are not able to do…yet.
2nd, don’t forget that task ad translation we talked about? Choose some GIS career adverts, translate their descriptions into GIS abilities to drop into the ‘GIS issues you can get paid’ for group. How do these paid out skills from every advertisement match up to your personalized GIS loves and talents? A lot more essentially, how do they match up with your non-beloved GIS techniques? Some task ads give breakdowns of how much of the role’s time is invested on a variety of responsibilities to assistance you steer clear of individuals less than favourite skills staying a soul-draining volume of your work. But if they never deliver those people? Hey, just inquire! It is vital to know and steer clear of disappointment and misunderstanding.
Make Your Occupation Map
GIS industry experts have a shared superpower: numerous backgrounds and one of a kind paths. Consider about this thought. As a substitute of hiding the twists and turns and apologizing for your ‘nontraditional’ GIS background, rejoice the nuances and activities that brought you there.
Amelia Travers (who researched geography and GIS amid other matters) of Avid Study shares Australian STEM profession tales on her podcast. But she also can make watercolor vocation maps from these discussions. They are excellent illustrations of how otherwise influenced and influenced our career journeys can be. She encourages it as an work out to battle imposter syndrome, and a way to realize that you are, in fact, NOT boring. It is not just an creative rendition of the bullet factors on your resume. It is an exploration of lifestyle experiences intertwined with vocation options and prospects.
If every single earlier action is aspect of the journey to our present, then shredding papers in a law office environment led me to be geospatial. Grading linguistics papers led me to be geospatial. Rearranging home furniture at house with Mom and going for walks all around on development sites with Dad led me to be geospatial.
Make your individual career map, revel in its quirks and unexpected locations. There is no GIS occupation ladder. There is just your GIS job and it is wonderfully a person-of-a-variety.