UC Central Live: Tips for Navigating Your GIS Career
During a UC Central Live segment, Dena Cross, Senior Consultant with Esri’s Professional Services, talked with other Esri staff about their pathways to GIS careers. Here are their tips from the segment for starting or growing your career.
Tips on Navigating Your Career
Yolanda Richards, Account Manager - Local Government, shared how Hurricane Katrina inspired her career path in GIS. Witnessing the devastation from the hurricane inspired curiosity about our built environments and how a natural disaster impacts people. Throughout her career experience, she always discovered how “location is critical.”
Yolanda’s Tips:
- “There’s a space for everyone in GIS.” Apply your passion and the essence of who you are to your career. Find a challenge or topic you’re passionate about and know how to apply the technology to speak to the issue from a location perspective.
- Be the source for seeing how GIS can be a solution. “Change the narrative about traditional models of how people can use GIS.”
Ashley Du, Product Engineer for the ArcGIS StoryMaps team, studied Journalism and Film as a primary major, with a second major in GIS. After college, she became an intern with National Geographic and a travel blogger. She credits building relationships with people as an influence in her career journey.
Ashley’s Tip:
- Meet people, build relationships, and listen to people’s stories to understand their journeys to enrich your knowledge and network.
Hussein Nassar, Principal Engineer on the Geodatabase team, was always interested in computers from a young age. His early career centered on the intersection of GIS and utilities. As he looked to grow his career, he was encouraged to attract interest to his expertise by writing blogs about his specific knowledge. His blog generated interest from a publisher in the UK who approached him about writing books on his subject matter, which then led to his role as an engineer with Esri.
Hussein’s Tip:
- Consider non-traditional ways to grow your career. Expand your influence and attract people to your skills and expertise.
Find An Opportunity
Looking for a career in GIS? Browse our GIS Jobs Board for available opportunities.
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