Be Yourself! Be Curious!
The two most important qualities I believe that we seek in job applicants is: Be Yourself, and Be Curious. What do I mean?
Be Yourself means being honest about your own job and personal strengths and your own weaknesses, or areas that you are seeking to improve. Don’t pretend in an interview to be anything you’re not. Be Curious means asking questions. This means to ask questions at the interview, of course. But beyond the interview, on the job and while you are still in school, ask lots of questions. Be curious about the world. Good questions lead to good investigations. Investigate and solve problems. If you don’t have some of the skills needed to solve those problems, acquire and practice those skills.
About 5,000 people work at my company, Esri (Environmental Systems Research Institute). Our headquarters is in southern California (Redlands), we have 10 regional offices in the USA and some smaller satellite offices, and more than 80 worldwide distributor offices. We are the largest Geographic Information Systems (GIS) organization in the world and as such receive a lot of applications for every job we post. If you are serious about making a positive difference on our planet with GIS, I encourage you to gain those skills and consider applying at Esri or another organization that fits your own personal ethos!
Esri headquarters building, Redlands, California, USA.