How many of you have fallen into a GIS career without a degree?

[EH_Alaska]

Hello everyone! I thought it would be fun to talk about how you ended up in a GIS career when it's not something you went to school for.

I personally worked a low-level job in an office where engineering/geology things were happening. Over time, I was asked to learn how to use ArcMap to accomodate various use-cases within the office. I was doing GIS work before I even knew what GIS was! That was close to a decade ago now and I just got to go to my first Esri UC in San Diego last month. I am also now in a GIS-specific role within my organization.

With all of these things on my mind, I wanted to hear from the rest of you as far as how you ended up here. I don't think many high schoolers have geospatial anything on their minds when heading to college, so... How did we become such a large community?

[jcarlson]

I got a GIS minor in school, but to be frank, nothing from my undergrad experience has actually been useful to me in my professional life since. I "fell into" GIS simply by taking an interest in the technology and reaching out to others to see if I could help them use GIS in their work. And also by not shying away from a bit of Python!

I landed my current job because of some familiarity with legal descriptions and plats, things not really taught in typical GIS courses anymore, but which I was exposed to by initiating a project with my university's archives. Since then, my position has continued to morph into more "developer" stuff, again, mostly because of taking initiative in the things I find interesting.

[OscarGaleas]

My degree is in Business Administration but somehow stumbled upon a GIS position. I enjoy data analysis and how it can be used to answer questions and create proactive solutions to everyday problems. 

[KarenCarr]

I have a BS in English/Journalism about as far from GIS as you can get. Graduated college and went into graphic design. Somewhere along the way I got a job doing data analysis for sewer systems so I had a basic idea of how sewer systems worked. Went back into graphics design, learned HTML and how to create web pages using notepad (the horror!). Heard about a job in 1999 for a "desktop specialist" at a water/sewer utility. Applied thinking it was something to do with maps, sewer and graphic design. Technically it is. I am now a GIS Analyst and moved our department from paper maps to Portal and ArcGIS online. Always striving to learn new things!

[JesseCloutier]

Be sure to check our our newest Esri Community Member Spotlight featuring Ellie Hakari, which in many ways was born out of this inspiring conversation a number of you contributed to!

[EH_Alaska]

Thank you @JesseCloutier  and @BriannaEttley! You both did an incredible job capturing my GIS journey and getting it out there. My hope is that people can connect with my story in the same way so many people have connected here on this post. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading everyone's responses and look forward to future discussions!

[RonaldHaug]

Hi Ellie,

Thank you for sharing your work bio and for the wonderful member spotlight you got. I am envious you got to attend the 2023 Users Conference this year. I am grateful esri was kind enough to let me watch all the recorded video workshops, though.

I got into GIS because I went back to college after my children were out of college to get a forestry degree. I was required to take two GIS classes, basic and remote sensing. One thing led to another and I took three more semester long classes after graduating to get a GIS Certificate. The last class I took, Cartography, was probably the most important because it provided me with fundamental mapmaking design principles. It's important because it's independent of the software program one uses.

Most of the resource specialists I work with had about the same level of GIS experience I did before I pursued the GIS certificate. We all made mediocre maps.

Asking people about GIS experience in job interviews is about where the question about Excel experience was a decade before. Interviewers are like "Do you have GIS experience?" and you say "Yes!" But come on! GIS is a huge field, and it's constantly evolving. It's like playing music.  If you want to be any good, you have to do it all the time. I like doing it because it helps keep my mind sharp, and believe you me, I need all the help I can get in that department.

Our group now has a Teams chat so if anyone has a GIS conundrum, they can send up a flare for help. We also meet once a week in the conference room to discuss each others maps and collaborate. It's nice and I recommend it to other practitioners of the craft. I also recommend people take the training esri offers to learn more and keep your saws sharp. https://www.esri.com/training/arcgis-online-training/ 

[EH_Alaska]

Hey Ronald,

Love everything about your comment! Especially the part about GIS experience being like Excel experience in the past. There are so many different facets of GIS that you can have an interest or specialize in. I think this causes a lot of confusion when it comes to non-GIS management. They may have ideas about what GIS is, but those ideas can completely conflict with what it actually is to you. Also makes communicating ideas difficult haha.

The Teams chat is awesome! We have something similar here in AKDOT&PF, although it was created by all out AutoCAD folks. They just sort of pulled us in (no complaints!). Most of the meetings and discussions are CAD-focused, but once a month they host a GIS meeting to answer questions and demonstrate new GIS projects that are going on. I love that people are beginning to build a community within our organization. When I first started, and even up until recently, GIS employees were incredibly siloed and had no one to talk with about their work.

I'm glad you've found GIS as it sounds like it's something you're passionate about! Looking forward to seeing you around Esri Community. 🙂