

Ask HN: Are GIS skills in demand? - jawns

I'm being considered for a position that would largely involve developing data mapping applications using ArcGIS and related software.  I've done some mapping stuff before, but I'll probably be expected to take some classes to get where I need to be.  If I invest the time to do that, I'd like my new skill set to be portable ... so, HN, are GIS skills in demand?
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sbisker
At least in the United States, pretty much all geographic information - at the
local, state and federal levels - is now being remeasured and stored in GIS
formats. I can say first-hand that governments and government contractors are
constantly needing programmers that can talk to ArcGIS and properly visualize
that information. This is true for any agency that needs to deal with official
definitions of geography when calculating their statistics - I've seen law
enforcement agencies, transportation agencies and housing agencies all need
GIS applications developed, to name a few. And probably some sexier TLA
agencies in Washington, although my experience with GIS for transportation
didn't give me much exposure for those fields.

The nice thing about this sort of career is that you can do it in a wide
variety of cities and states. Your girlfriend is moving to Florida? You can
work for the state transportation department in Tallahassee. Oh, she's in
Miami you say? Miami's almost certainly a big enough city to be creating its
own municipal GIS data and needing programmers to work with it.

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benkant
Definitely. Down here in Australia, even before the mining industry boom,
there was always a shortage of GIS developers.

I did ArcGIS development for a few years, and some other ESRI development
before ArcGIS was a twinkle in MapObjects and ArcIMS's eye. I've never seen
anyone skilled in those technologies wanting for work.

Plenty of contracts to, which can be quite lucrative once you've got some
experience under your belt.

I could go on...

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gissolved
I'm from Europe (Belgium) so I can't really comment on the situation in the
USA. But we have here a continuous need for good GIS programmers for
government contract work but also for utility organisations and some larger
businesses. Also things like track-and-trace are booming. I never regretted
getting in this business although I must admit that I came from the opposite
direction (from a master in geography to fulltime programming).

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chad_oliver
Yeah, GIS skills are useful in many different fields. I work for a lines
company, and they use GIS extensively to manage their electrical distribution
network.

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stcredzero
Yes.

