Finding a GIS job can be very easy… if you have 5-30 years of experience. But how do you secure that first job? Sometimes I’m asked how a GIS student can find their first GIS job. In the absence of a short, simple answer, here’s a slightly longer one:

First and foremost: Tell everyone you know that you’re looking for a job/internship/contacts in the field of GIS and geospatial. “But I don’t have any GIS contacts!”, you might think. Perhaps that’s true, but you probably know someone who does, even if you’re not aware of it. Post on LinkedIn and let serendipity work for you. Do this right now, today. Anecdote: This method worked very well for me when I was a student looking for accommodation. I simply shared my search with my network, and I always had ‘luck’ finding housing on time.

Think about what you want to do – Is it desktop GIS analysis, web development, databases, 3D, GIS/CAD/BIM integration or perhaps drones? What can you do to strenghten your capabilities in that niche?

Consider who you want to work for and what they will need in the future. It usually revolves around being able to do more with less, automating, simplifying, analyzing, presenting and visualizing. But what does that mean in concrete terms? Luckily, you don’t have to come up with the answer on your own. The easiest way to discover these needs is by asking the organizations themselves. Therefore: Set aside one day a month to have lunch with (potential) GIS contacts. This is an excellent opportunity to spend an hour getting to know your lunch contact’s work. What are they currently working on? What challenges are they facing? What do they think will be in demand in the coming years? What will be of lower value? What do they need? Do they offer internship or thesis opportunities? Do they know someone else you should meet? Perhaps your future mentor is the one you’re having lunch with? Your region might be brimming with urban planning offices, consulting firms, authorities, suppliers, administrations, and other entities, and the number of potential employers is probably in the triple digits. Wouldn’t it be a shame if they missed out on you? Can they even manage without you?

What to talk about during the lunch/interview?

• What are the GIS demands in your organizations?
• What does your GIS environment look like?
• How do you manage your GIS environment?
• How often do you update the components on the desktop and server sides? How do you test the new versions before deployment?
• What would you like to change in your GIS work?
• Have you tested your public web maps from an accessibility perspective?
• Are you satisfied with the data sources, cartography, and speed of your web maps?
• What will be your focus for the upcoming year?
• What specific skills are you currently looking for?
• Do you make any of your geodata available as open data?
• How do you work with metadata?

This should get you started. The GIS manager who is completely satisfied with their current GIS environment either doesn’t have a full understanding or doesn’t want to reveal the shortcomings.

Make sure the world knows about your growing set of skills. Do you have any interesting GIS projects worth highlighting? Are you experimenting with using a Raspberry Pi as a server for your geospatial data? Identifying natural features through elevation models? Investigating how societal sustainability can be improved through geospatial data? Testing the use of drones for geodata collection? 3D visualization? Cartography? There are surely many who would find it interesting to hear more about your project. Enthusiasm often outweighs experience. If possible, share examples of your code/work on platforms such as GitHub. While waiting for your first real GIS job, make sure to continue building your GIS skills.

Apply for many jobs and remember that technical competence and experience isn’t the whole truth.

Let me know how this works out for you.