Thank you in advance for your time. I thought of starting this on the Developer community, but figured the GIS Life one may be more suited for this chat.
If you will, I am at a fork in the road. Please be ready for my scatter, since this is what this is.
I have been in GIS for about 4 years, after a career shift. I've done plenty of paper mapping, web mapping, building of applications, management of data, the whole package of basic GIS tech/analyst type work. I have loved it. But, I realize that in order to continue this career path and really fulfill my overall career goals, "do" more solid GIS work and really stay sharp in the field I will probably need to take the path into development. I have learned some python, automated some tasks, built some toolboxes, etc. etc. Nothing special, just experimenting with the inner workings and using python to help make things easier and save some time and headaches. I also very much enjoy that (having come from ZERO programming or computer science background).
Where to now? I have spent quite a bit of time pondering if I should continue down the python path and read more GIS specific books, get into the API stuff, and really hone those skills, or if I should revv up the JavaScript engine and take that on in full in order to go the web development route. Yep, I know these are different paths.
My assumption is that many folks will start with the question of what do I want to do? where do I want to go? I also assume that I can do all of these things in time. However, I am also trying to be feasible with my time and energy. I don't have student or non-parent timeframes to study and really delve. I can maybe sink 10-15 hours in a week. I also want to make sure what I do fits into my orgs workflows, and can help there.
Another issue is what sort of limitations will I have? I can get onto the Odin Project or take on some more serious python books, but does developing and deploying a web app require all kinds of other arrangements that may not make this learning experience doable now?
I also realize every one of us trying to learn a new language and develop probably is working with the same limitations and is pondering their current confines.
Please share your thoughts on your path!
