GIS Career Pathways: Software Engineer
Hello Esri YPN community! My name is Tyler Moon, and I am a Senior Software Engineer at Esri. Specifically, I work on developing and supporting the ArcGIS Velocity product. With enough GIS knowledge to understand the customer use cases, combined with a passion for creating reliable and powerful software, my skills and interests align perfectly for the role that I have found myself in here.
Starting Out
While my interest in GIS did not really start until the middle of college, programming and software development have been something I have been doing since I was about 12 or 13 years old. My earliest programming memories are from learning to make websites with HTML and CSS from my mom. Then in high school I learned to create Android applications with help from my dad (who is also a Software Engineer). There was really no question what in my mind what to major in when I went to college, so I went to the University of South Carolina to study Computer Science.
At the halfway point through the program, every Computer Science major was required to select an electives concentration which resolved around a theme. There were many different options, but I chose a lesser known one called GIS. In addition to my general interest in the subject and seeing what all it entailed; this was also one of the only concentrations that did not require additional math classes and so that was why I picked it! Through the courses that I took as electives I was fascinated by how software can be used not only to make maps of information but also answer important questions in a visual and engaging way. This is also where I first learned of Esri and used the ArcGIS products.
My path to get to Esri took a 5-year detour through the wild world of FinTech software development. Through that time, I learned very quickly how to work in an enterprise corporate environment, and it really started my career off well. In 2023 I was looking for a change and came across a post for an open position for Senior Software Engineer at Esri. I remembered working with ArcGIS in college and still found GIS a fascinating way of solving real world problem. So, I applied for the position, and after interviews I received a job offer! It happened to be on the same week of my wedding, which is a crazy time to be switching jobs, but I knew that it was the right move and I am very glad that I did!
My Day-to-Day Work
The day-to-day work that I get up to looks very similar to software engineers in any other industry. While some GIS knowledge is helpful to understand customer use cases, for the most part my work is just regular software development. I work with very knowledgeable GIS professionals so whenever I have a GIS related question, it's easy to find an answer. I spend my days designing, implementing, and testing new features within the ArcGIS Velocity product. There's also a healthy amount of troubleshooting and fixing bugs or broken functionality as those come up. I obviously could not do this alone, so I work with an amazing team in a collaborative environment to make everything come together seamlessly. We will typically meet most days to discuss issues, help each other when we get stuck, and brainstorm new ideas or designs.
The structure of my workdays is relatively consistent in an intentional way. Most of my effort is spent on the problem solving for whatever issue I am working on (either new feature or fixing broken functionality). So, by having a consistent daily schedule I free up cognitive bandwidth for focusing on the work itself. Most days I start with a quick review of what I was working on the day before. Then a quick check for what the calendar looks like for the coming day. After that its normally time to launch into whatever task I have assigned. Typically around lunch or early afternoon, I then have a meeting or two.
Finally in the late afternoon is often when I have calls with the other engineers to collaborate on designs or help with troubleshooting issues. That is pretty consistently what my day looks like, and I very much enjoy it!
Tips for Success
There are numerous technical skills that go into being effective as a Software Engineer, but one of the greatest challenges of this profession is the fact that it is always rapidly changing faster than just about any other career. So, one of the most valuable skills that I have learned and continue to use daily is simply the ability to learn on the fly whatever is needed for the problem at hand. Programming languages come and go, frameworks become all the rage and then get deprecated, techniques that were popular and effective just a few years ago are no longer able to keep up. These are real challenges but also keep things fresh and new which is part of why I love doing it every day.
In a tangential way related to the first point, I find a lot of value in consistent focused education. It is easy to get caught up in always looking at the next task or issue and forsake learning something new to keep up with the industry standards. One skill (or maybe just a mindset) I have learned over the years is to focus on attaining at least one technical certification every year. The certifications, in my experience, themselves do not hold that much value, but the focused effort of truly learning something new and setting a deadline for accomplishing it does. I will typically go ahead and schedule the certification exam months ahead of time, forcing myself to sit down and study for it. It takes a lot of focused effort and discipline to learn new things!
The final thing that I would like to mention here is another mindset that I have come to really appreciate here at Esri. That is simply to have a self-starting attitude every day. The leadership on my team is great at giving us space to innovate and work on the problems that we find interesting. Always looking for the next problem to solve and then going after it is one of the biggest things that has made me successful so far during my time here at Esri. In my 3+ years here at Esri there has never been a shortage of problems that could be solved, and I do not see that changing anytime soon. Oftentimes the challenge is not identifying problems but rather getting group consensus on which ones to prioritize next. That is where teamwork and collaboration become vital in this role. There are far too many things that could be done, and only so much time to do them in. But when working together as a team we can accomplish much more than any individual could.
Final Thoughts
What I want to leave with here today is simply this: there is always a better way to do everything. It just takes effort and a willingness to explore new ideas and problems to find it. If you always look for the next problem that needs solving, try to learn something new every day, and intentionally collaborate with other fantastic engineers, then you will find success along the way.
Feel free to comment any questions you might have. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn.