Geographic Information System as a Career: What I Wish I Knew

[0:00]Hey, hey you. Yeah, you. I've got a secret for you. I'm going to give you all of the dish on what I wish I would have known before I went into GIS. So, hey everybody, I am Katy Schoyer and welcome to Project Spatial. I am here to increase your spatial impact. And I am so excited to talk to you guys today because I have a bunch of little tidbits and things that I kind of wish I would have known before I got into GIS. While I didn't know these things, there's nothing that would have changed my mind getting into GIS. GIS has treated me so well. I don't think I would have believed anybody if they would have told me how much I would enjoy it. The first thing that I wish I would have known is that geography is literally everywhere. When I started looking for jobs, I was looking for jobs in the environmental sector because I had a bachelor's degree in geology. But I didn't realize that GIS is being used in nearly every single industry out there. If you have a background in something else, if you have a background in real estate, in business, you have a background in transportation or just technology in general, geography is everywhere. You can attack all sorts of problems with spatial thinking. Don't limit yourself, and if you have other experience, if you have another background, that is going to make you so much more valuable when you get your GIS certificate. One thing that I wish I would have known is that there is so much to learn. When you leave college and you think that you have a handle on everything, and you get into your first real job, you realize that you absolutely know nothing. But even so, I started working in GIS in 2006. It was when I really started working with Azure products. Ever since then, the whole GIS industry has completely changed. And it will change again, and there's constantly updates, there's constantly new tools, new capabilities of doing things, new ways to solve problems, new formulas to use, all sorts of things. So you will constantly be learning, and that's actually part of the fun. The other part of that is, you're not going to know everything. You're just not. It's just, it's not possible. So stop trying, give yourself a break and realize that the strengths that you have are strengths that other people don't have. Don't forget to check out the description down below. I have my newsletter down there and the cart is still open on my course for the GIS Career Course. This course breaks it down step-by-step your resume, your cover letter, and your digital portfolio to tell your story and send out your knowledge and experience to companies to make sure that you're the one that's at the top of the pile. And if you are looking at getting into the GIS field, if you are applying for a new job, it is a tough industry out there right now. It is tough to get seen. Everybody has a certificate, everybody has a degree, everybody is similar qualifications. So you want to make sure that you stand out with the uniqueness that you have, with the knowledge that you have, and I can help you do that step-by-step. So make sure you guys check out the links down below. Another thing I didn't realize when I got into GIS was that I was going to be considered the office tech person. Now, I don't mean necessarily IT, but though there are a lot of people that are in GIS that are also IT, I mean that you're going to be known as a techie person. And I don't consider myself to be a techie person. I've always considered myself to be more of a scientist, and maybe that's because of my science background. You will be considered a techie person, so understand when people come up and ask you for help with computer problems and with just computer tech in general, because they think that you probably know more than maybe you do. Similar to that, I wish I would have known to take a computer science course. I again, I don't know a lot about basics in computer science. I've picked up on some programming, I've picked up on some networking. You know, I picked up knowledge here and there, but I don't have a really good foundation, and that's something I do regret. If I would have known what I know now, I would have taken a lot more computer science courses in college. And I think that colleges are getting better with this, especially in GIS-centric programs. I think they are getting better in making sure that you have more technical background. But it was just something that I missed out and something that I really wish somebody would have told me to take. Another thing that I realized after I graduated and got into the GIS field a little bit more, people have no idea where data comes from. They think there's just this vast amount of data that's out there and there is to an extent, but it doesn't mean that it's for your company and it doesn't necessarily mean that it's valuable. People get sold solutions. They have sales people that will come in and say, hey, look at what this person did with our product and you know, our software is so amazing and it can do all of these things. What they don't tell you is that you need data to go into that. You can't have an analysis on 10 years of pavement studies if you haven't been keeping track of your pavement for the last 10 years to be able to put that data in there. You will probably be creating a lot of data, and you definitely need to be speaking up in a room if somebody's about to spend a bunch of money on something and you know that the data doesn't exist to support whatever they're selling. Another thing I didn't realize is how small yet how vast GIS is. The community is small, you really get to know the people in your area. But there's also so many people that are out there doing GIS in so many different industries that you don't hear about, that you don't necessarily end up being in the same areas with. But that really is cool about all of this about having GIS be such a small community in general, is that I still go to stuff like international conferences, like the Ezra UC that's coming up. And I know people. I can be sitting out on the sidewalk and I'll run into somebody I know. And that just blows my mind that it is such a small community and there are such few people doing GIS, but we all do such interesting different things with it. Another thing that I wish somebody would have told me when I started out is I will always, always, always need to explain what I do. Nobody understands what you do, especially your family. They have no idea what you do, and even after you explain it, a lot of times they just don't get it. You're going to have to figure out your elevator pitch, you're going to have to figure out what GIS means to you, how you are using it in your industry, and really how much do you want to tell people? That might change depending on who you're talking to. If you're talking to your boss, you want to get into a lot of detail about what you're doing. You want to really try to explain to them the value that you're bringing to the company because you might have to justifies why you're there. Now, when it comes to friends and family, explaining what GIS is, that's really up to you. Sometimes I'll tell people if I want to impress them, I use spatial analysis to do data driven decisions for our company to increase their return on investment. But other times I just tell them, hey, I make maps that are digital, kind of like Google Maps. And then I move on because I don't want to get into the whole rigmarole. I think this is a unique answer for anybody that's out there. You need to figure out what GIS means to you, and how do you want to translate it? Thank you so much for joining me, and please let me know in the comments what are some things that surprised you about GIS or what's something that you wish somebody would have told you? I will see you guys soon. Bye.