Building a Career in GIS
The starting point in building a successful career in GIS is a solid education. This involves taking classes in cartography, GIS, database management and programming. There are a lot of GIS certificate courses emerging that help solve the confusion as to which classes to take, but any department offering GIS coursework is a great starting point. Start by taking a general "what is GIS" themed course. This is important because it is important to understand the general concepts in GIS before actually attempting some of the functionality. I also highly recommend taking a good cartography course as well. Often overlooked by many seeking GIS knowledge, a comprehension of cartographic techniques is especially important for understanding mapmaking. The end process of visualizing spatial analysis can be tricky. Understand the methods by which one can display data is essential to effectively communicating with maps.
Learning GIS Software Applications
The next step is to take coursework that applies the concepts of GIS and cartography. These courses are always software specific so it's important to choose a class that teaches the software you will be using once employed. Currently, ESRI products dominate about 70% of the GIS software market with MapInfo the nearest competitor. If you are unsure which software to learn, I suggest learning ArcView and/or ArcInfo, as these are the two software applications most required by employers. You can also do a job search of companies and agencies in the area you want to work in to see what GIS software they are requiring for employment. Classes specific to a GIS software package can be taken at most Universities, through satellite courses from the software companies themselves or through online or distance learning. ESRI offers free modules online for many introductory courses to their products.
The Next Level
The current trend in GIS is customization and application.
More and more GIS packages are being altered to serve a specific GIS
purpose. This could range from an Emergency Response System to an
application customized to allow a user to generate mailing lists based
on a spatially selected area. Many of the software packages contain
some ability for customization using programming languages. The most
common type of programming language is object-oriented. If you are
going to specialize in ESRI products then learning Avenue (you can
take a free class online) is a definite requirement. Learning Visual
Basic is also a must.
Since GIS analysis is involves the integration of spatial and tabular
data, some knowledge of relational database management (RDBMS) is
a must. A lot of databases reside in Access, but others will use Informix
or Oracle. Taking a class in SQL (structured query language) is important
to mastering RDBMS.
Getting GIS Experience
As with all fields, nothing beats experience. Internships are extremely popular in GIS as they allow the employer a cheap source of labor for lower level GIS tasks and provide a valuable training experience. The only way to truly become proficient in GIS is to simply use it. The coursework will only serve to provide a base knowledge of the field and without some form of practical experience, most companies will not be interested in hiring. To find internships check with your school's geography or urban planning department. Oftentimes companies and agencies looking for student help will advertise there. You can also directly inquire with places that you are interested in working for. Internships can lead to full-time positions.
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