GIS Career Pathways: Cartographer
My role at Esri
I'm a cartographer and UX (user experience) designer for the Living Atlas team here at Esri. Technically, my title is Senior Principal GIS Engineer, but I think "cartographer and UX designer" is more descriptive so that's what I tell people.
Before this I worked at a startup in the early days of web mapping, when we were all trying to figure out ways to deliver interactive maps and charts via the browser. Before that I was a GIS technician for a tribal natural resources department. And before that I was a garbage collector. Each role, whether hauling trash, processing GIS data, or experimenting with early web maps, taught me something about people, systems, and communication. If you’re just starting out, know that your path doesn’t need to be perfectly straight. Every role, even the ones that don’t feel directly related, can teach you something valuable about how to think and work.
My day-to-day
Some of my time is spent collaborating with developers and subject matter experts on the Living Atlas team (fascinating folks who know stuff about oceans, water, demographics, imagery, that sort of thing) to make web applications that let the public explore geographic data in an intuitive and useful way.
When I'm not doing that, I experiment with ways of mapping data, using our tools, so that I can share the process via how-to videos. It's exciting to make maps, but I've learned it's even more exciting to share the process of that making. It's become a really rewarding aspect of my work.
Skills needed to be successful
If I were to name a single quality required of a successful cartographer (or UX designer, but since cartography is a user experience, I'll just use "cartographer" in a broad sense) it would be a well-practiced sense of empathy. Much of what we do starts with imagining ourselves in the place of our audience, to get a sense of goals and perspective, and work backward to which techniques and information architecture will accommodate that best. It's something anyone can do, and you get better with time.
Another useful trait is curiosity. When we really wonder about, and dig into, the phenomenon we want to communicate, we unlock new and fun ways to analyze and present information.
Technical skills are on this list, too, but they tend to grow naturally out of these other attributes. Skills without curiosity tend to grow stale. Skills driven by curiosity are always evolving and adapting.
Tips for overall success
I'm typically reluctant to deliver hard specific recommendations to others, since I'm just making it up as I go. But there is one thing that I've noticed has a clear benefit, both in terms of me as an individual, but in the health of the geographic community: Share your knowledge.
I learned as a teacher's assistant far back in college that I never truly understood something unless I had to explain it to someone else. Nothing teaches like teaching. What's more, the quality of my work improved when I felt that others might be looking at it.
Sharing our process, or just the resulting work, takes guts and the prospect was terrifying to me at first; I was afraid that someone would call me out for doing something wrong and I let it stifle me for a number of years. But eventually I found that when I shared maps and techniques the geographic community was genuinely supportive.
I've also learned a ton from others who do the same. Even if the specific work you do can't be shared, the lessons of making certainly can, and maybe there's an opportunity to mentor within your organization. There's an intrinsic interest in maps and a wonderful generosity of spirit in our community. We in the mapping realm are so fortunate!
Another, perhaps unintentional, benefit of sharing your work is that you almost accidentally build up a portfolio. It's a lovely breadcrumb of maps that encourages others and lets them know about you.
Whether your title says analyst, developer, technician, or anything else, if you make a map, you’re a cartographer. And you’re part of a generous, creative community that helps people understand this amazing world. It’s a great job, and it’s even better when we share it.
Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmnelson/ and check out my Adventures in Mapping website.
