Mapping Out Success: Strategies for Thriving in Your New Remote Geospatial Job
One of the advantages of a geospatial career path is it can all be done virtually! This opens up the opportunity to work from anywhere and explore new GIS career paths to truly find your niche However, starting a new GIS career from your living room is not as easy, or exciting, as it can be in person, and it has some unique difficulties. Whether you're a seasoned GIS professional or just starting out in your career, there are several key steps you can take to set yourself up for success. In this article, we'll share tips and best practices for navigating the unique challenges of starting a new remote GIS job. From setting up your home office to building strong relationships with your team, these insights will help you hit the ground running and thrive in your new role.
Managing time and productivity will be more challenging
When working from home, it can be challenging to maintain a proper work-life balance and stay productive throughout the day. Add on the challenges of starting a new position where you are unaware of the company culture and project structure. It will take time to adjust.
It's important to establish a routine and create a designated workspace to help you stay focused and motivated. Set breaks through alarms on your phone. Leave your phone on airplane mode or do not disturb. Fight the negative ergonomics! Set up your office space so it is your geospatial production sanctuary. Set up your desk by a window with lots of lights and nature views. Ask your new company if they will supply office materials such as standing desks, extra monitors (curved even better!), headset, and office chair. I live as a digital nomad so I recommend laptop lifters, portable mice, headsets, etc. Some companies offer coworking rental space! Separating work can help manage time and boost productivity through body doubling.
Utilizing a Co-Working Space:
'Body doubling' boosts productivity for people with ADHD - CNN
Digital Nomad Essentials:
29 Digital Nomad Tools That Simplify Your Life Immediately (digitalnomadsoul.com)
Set up Home Office:
23 Work From Home Office Essentials for the Perfect Home Setup (2023) - Nomad Paradise
Office Design Trends to Optimize Productivity: https://giscompanies.co/home-office-design-trends-to-maximize-remote-working-productivity/
Difficulties understanding your role, the company culture, and project structures
Understanding your role and how you can contribute to projects to successfully deliver geospatial solutions to your client is crucial for measuring success. Further, it's important to quickly know the company culture to confirm if this is the right position for you and your style of geospatial work. In remote positions, it is especially difficult with a lack of communication and visible body language. Collaboration on projects, feedback, team connection, and motivation, will suffer drastically.
There are ways to fight back! Learn your manager's personality and work style. Observe the way he organizes meetings and the topics he touches upon.
Be proactive and schedule a recurring one-on-one meeting bi-weekly to see how your progress meets his or her expectations and get feedback.
Encourage video chats! This way the tone of a slack or email message is not lost. Visibility seeing someone's honest facial reactions and body language when communicating leads to connection, collaboration, throwing around ideas, and getting to know co-workers' personality styles. I have found voice chats or video calls are always positive and get a better and quicker result versus a confusing or negative-sounding email guessing what a co-worker wants.
Ask the company how they have handled adjusting to remote work and virtual onboarding in your interview.
Virtual interview tips:
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/education/virtual-interview-tips/
Questions to ask in your virtual interview:
https://weworkremotely.com/top-questions-to-ask-remote-companies-in-your-virtual-interviews
Remote Specific Questions for Interview
- What does your virtual onboarding look like? Will I be onboarded with others?
- How do you ensure there is a community among your employees? Is there a way to easily see what projects everyone is working on?
- What is at-home technology provided? Are high-processing computers and extra monitors provided?
- What GIS software is provided and is extra training and time available to replace what would be learned in a hands-on environment?
- Can you talk about the virtual company culture?
- Did you, or others join the team virtually?
- Describe the virtual management style at this organization.
- What is the biggest virtual challenge the company currently faces?
It will take more effort to make a first impression and get useful feedback
Lack of in-person communication and team connection makes it harder to make an impression and receive beneficial feedback. Without in-person reactions, it can lead to confusion about how a co-worker thinks about your work, attitude towards a project, or character. In virtual positions, current team members will be less motivated to reach out and start a casual conversation over slack than they would be leaning over a desk in the office due to different time zones and locations. Team members are online at different hours and networking events occur few and far between.
Make a good impression. Go above and beyond using project management software. The board is a reflection of you. This will allow your co-workers to see your progression, motivation, and organization, as well as you feel connected and see the moving parts of the project task. Highly recommend taking a scrum agile course. Every task should include a link to the deliverable, and break out the task into subtasks, points, risk levels, and due dates. This can also be a useful tool to plan collaboration with team members. I always tag an extra member on a card so we can bounce ideas and take accountability.
Be proactive and ask for feedback. After turning in a project, schedule a quick meeting with the customer or supervisor post “presentation” to discuss how it went and where you can improve.
Set up meetings with team members to introduce yourself, present your past work, share something personal, and what you would like to learn. Ask not just about their work but their hobbies, how they got into a GIS career field and things you should know about the company and projects. This can progress into finding a mentor within the company to whom you can look for guidance on. Forbes has documented great material on the importance of mentorship and questions to ask to build a more meaningful bond.
Best Project Management Software:
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-project-management-software/
Free Software for Agile: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/free-project-management-software/
Agile Courses:
https://www.coursera.org/courses?query=agile
How to Make a Good Impression Working Remotely:
https://nypost.com/2020/08/09/how-to-make-an-impression-and-get-noticed-working-remotely/
Questions for Mentors:
40 Questions To Ask A Mentor (forbes.com)
Finding A Mentor Remote Work:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-school-way-to-find-mentor-when-doing-remote-work-11643290156
Getting Feedback Working Remotely:
Feedback Practices For Employees Working Remotely (forbes.com)
Many positions may require learning new cloud-based Geographic Information Systems
With the increase in remote work, there has been an even bigger push for GIS to be a cloud-based system. Rather than having a network, data, or software developer/engineer at your fingertips in the office, you have to solve a lot of your own problems and be willing to learn. Some companies may even be hesitant to hire a GIS professional without experience in cloud-based systems or managing web applications. Be prepared for questions about these things to come up in an interview or upon hire. Because there is a lack of hands-on training, and learning from the osmosis of being in the office for this type of work, employers of remote workers want to make sure their employees are technically savvy and self-starters.
Be sure to look into and take online courses that will further develop in GIS cloud-based systems. Utilize the training time to set up a course program to earn a certificate or badge. ESRI training is a great platform to plan a learning plan to earn certification. In the interview ask the company if they allow charging to overhead for training programs to make up for the “in-office” sharing. Lastly, screen share if your friend! When I began working from home I was concerned my python skills would suffer not being able to lean over to ask developers quick questions. I found screen share is an easy and efficient solution, has better technical visuals, and has the ability to record a session you can reference in the future.
Training:
Esri Certification Training: https://www.esri.com/training/certification-find-exam/
Udemy GIS Courses: https://www.esri.com/training/certification-find-exam/
Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/courses?query=gis
Make sure your computer is set up for cloud-based GIS processing:
Setup:https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/149899e131d142dca150bb090f6aa176
It can be more isolating and feel less exciting
Starting a new GIS position is a big deal and should be an exciting period of your life. Your first-day outfit, seeing the workspace, and meeting colleagues with your same passions. Doing it virtually from your living room… not so much.
Try to find the excitement in the small things; Ask questions about projects, mission, and vision of the company. Posting an article you find interesting in your company’s general social chats and asking what others' opinions are on the piece. Be present. Make it a mission to keep your camera on during meetings! This helps you stay off of your phone and internet browsing to give your full attention.
Write down notes on what you have learned, what you enjoyed doing, and what you want to improve on. Keeping these will help you see how far you have come in your career and in your company.
Join local, state, or national geospatial organizations. Keep up to date with their events, webinars, and conferences.
Ask your supervisor about their protocol for sending employees to geospatial conferences. Now more than ever conferences are an important event to keep up with the GIS community, network, and connect with teams, partners, and clients. With my team dispersed across the United States, conferences are now the only times I will see my co-workers face-to-face. This an amazing way to connect with your geospatial community, keep up to date with technology, and motivate you to submit an abstract highlighting your geospatial work for the year.
GIS Organization and Conferences:
https://www.esri.com/en-us/about/events/index/overview
https://conferences.asprs.org/
https://www.agu.org/Plan-for-a-Meeting/AGUMeetings
https://www.agu.org/Plan-for-a-Meeting/AGUMeetings
https://usgif.org/geoint-symposium/
GIS Conferences and Events - GIS Lounge
Overall, while there are challenges to working from home as a Geospatial Analyst, many of these can be overcome with the right tools, communication strategies, and time management techniques. It's important to be proactive and communicate regularly with your colleagues to ensure that you're able to do your job effectively. Utilize the articles in the blog to set you up for success!