GIS: A World of Career Opportunities

GIS: A World of
Career Opportunities
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Location is a vital aspect to how people
interact with the world: where they live,
shop, or work and how companies or
governments plan to deliver products or
services. Understanding how to incorporate
location in analysis and decision making
has become a vital skill in both the public
and private sectors. An education in the
theory and practice of GIS has become a
doorway into a new and rapidly growing
career sector.
What Is GIS?
A geographic information system (GIS) is
a system that captures, manages, analyzes
and displays geographically referenced
information and allows users to understand
and visualize data in a variety of ways.
GIS has become the new strategic
planning and analysis tool for the
intelligent corporation. It combines the
concept of physical or conceptual location
with data analysis. Sectors including
government, health care, technology,
environmental, energy, and utilities
took place with paper maps, overlays and
aerial photos before GIS was ever around.”
As computers and software have developed
through the years, so has location-based
technology. Location is another type of
data that can be stored and manipulated
GIS [as a concept] is not a new thing, spatial analysis took place with
paper maps, overlays and aerial photos before GIS was ever around.
have embraced GIS for its ability to offer
insight into strategic and operational issues
that are impossible to gain in any other way.
“GIS [as a concept] is not a new thing,”
says Dr. Joseph Kerski, education manager
at Environmental Systems Research
Institute, Inc. (Esri), a leading vendor
of GIS software applications, consulting,
training, and services. “Spatial analysis
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with computers. Starting in the 1960s,
governments and universities created
systems to solve specific problems, whether
digital mapping for population census,
forestry tracking systems or academic
approaches to urban planning. In the 1970s,
companies began to develop true GIS systems
that offer more analytic power without tying
it to one particular use. By the early 1980s,
they were offering commercial GIS tools.
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Most major vertical industries and economic
sectors have adopted GIS. Whether planning
pipelines for an energy company, finding
optimum locations for new branches of
a retail chain or controlling logistics for
overseas outsourced manufacturing, GIS
experts are increasingly a part of the most
important decision processes in organizations.
GIS: The Next Wave of
Business Intelligence
Business intelligence (BI), the use of analytic
applications to turn data into knowledge
and insight, has become an important trend
in corporations and other organizations.
Software allows managers to implement
advanced data analysis techniques, identify
relationships, trends and exceptions, and
uncover other important information.
Simply put, business intelligence helps people
make smarter decisions faster. According to
InformationWeek Analytics, 71 percent of the
more than 600 business technology decision
makers it surveyed in late 2011 expected
to use BI to improve overall efficiency.1
GIS is the latest form of BI tool. Its
advantage over competing technologies
is the inclusion of location, which becomes
a nexus for understanding. One way to find
issues that slow a business project is to look
at where problems occur. The location of
consumers, customers, clients, or patients
give organizations valuable insight that
can lead to effective practical action.
“When you look at the drivers of BI, location
is one of the essential attributes,” says Simon
Thompson, director of commercial solutions
at Esri. “But people tended to treat location as
an aggregate. How many customers do I have
in this [region], how many meters do I have to
read in this location? Historically, there had
been no use of maps to drive analytics.”
1
urphy, Chris; InformationWeek; Dec. 16, 2011;
M
http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/8621
/it-business-strategy/research-outlook-2012.html
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Sergeant Scott Fierro
Scott Fierro became interested in maps
as a child and decided to specialize in
GIS technology when he joined the
Army. “The Army’s initial schooling
is where I really fell in love with it,”
he says. The experience was intense, covering in a
week much of the geographic information groundwork
as that a graduate level course would, according to
representatives of a major university that spoke
with his class.
Today, Fierro’s typical day involves interacting with
400 government scientists at the Army’s research
division. Fierro gives them feedback on their use of
GIS capabilities and works with researchers on how
to improve software systems to better integrate GIS.
Fierro came to American Sentinel University
to earn his B.S. Geographic Information Systems.
“I grew up always interested in maps,” Fierro says.
“I was interested in the military from high school
and saw that the Army and the Marines had this
field that dealt with maps and geography type stuff.
Once I got in and got hands on GIS systems in the
Army, I really fell in love with it.”
He knew he wanted to go into GIS, and so looked
into further education. Because of his Army duties,
a traditional degree program was not possible. Then
someone in his office found the online GIS degree
course at American Sentinel. Fierro found that the
general information systems and business courses
from American Sentinel gave him the insight and
grounding he needs to become a manager.
The broad-based education has also served his career
aspirations well. Over the last few years, Fierro has had
more than 20 job offers from defense contractors and
GIS software companies. Fierro says that he is constantly
thinking ahead. “Where is technology going to take
us in five years?” he says. “Where will the community
take us? What will customers expect us to deliver?”
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Location is vital because virtually every
human action, interaction and decision
happens in relation to place. People buy
products in one place and use them in another.
Consumer trends happen in geographic areas.
Locations can have different characteristics
at different times of day and, as a result
might encourage different behavior. Knowing
born where people live and work. For example,
correlating consumer purchasing and
corporate hiring patterns is difficult unless
you look at the places they intersect. Location
is the one factor that otherwise disparate
types of data have in common.
The boundaries of GIS will expand even
further because of the technology trend called
The GIS industry in North America is predicted to grow at a compound
annual growth rate of 11 percent through 2015.
the characteristics of people in one area can
help an organization find similar people in
other places. “If I can use location and the
ability to attach location to all data, I can
start to understand what’s happening
anywhere in the world,” Thompson says.
Indeed, location can inform just about
any organization about consumer trends
so that they can intelligently plan future
operations. Environmental concerns depend
on where natural resources exist. Utility
companies distribute services through physical
networks of pipelines, underground cables
or wires running from one pole to another.
A jump in purchases of office equipment in
a particular region of a city might indicate
a positive economic event as businesses
either locate or expand there. Companies
and governments manage physical
infrastructures to deliver goods or services.
Furthermore, location is associated with
the interaction of forces. Economies are
big data. Organizations pull together massive
amounts of data —, including past sales,
data from industrial controllers in factory
automation systems, detailed manufacturing
records, census data, airline on-time records
and many more types generated both
internally and externally—and analyze
them for deep insight into their activities.
According to Deloitte, one of the world’s
largest consulting firms, the “potential of
big data is immense.”2 To be useful, something
will need to correlate relationships to enable
any insights to be mined. GIS can use location
to pull together many types of data.
GIS Locates Job Opportunities
Interest in GIS is driving significant growth
for the industry. According to market analyst
firm Technavio, the GIS industry in North
America is predicted to grow at a compound
annual growth rate of 11 percent through
2015.3 According to the U.S. Department of
Labor, geospatial technology, of which GIS
is a part, is experiencing high growth.4
Deloitte Development; “Tech Trends 2012: Elevate IT for digital business”; 2012; http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/
Local%20Assets/Documents/us_cons_techtrends2012_013112.pdf
TechNavio; “Large Geographical Information Systems Market in North America 2011-2015”; July 2012;
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/nxrtd5/large_geographical
4
U.S. Department of Labor Employment & Training Administration; High Growth Industry Profile - Geospatial Technology;
March 8, 2010; http://www.doleta.gov/brg/indprof/geospatial_profile.cfm
2
3
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The market is growing at 35 percent a
year while the private sector is experiencing
100 percent annual growth, according
to the Geospatial Information and
Technology Association.
The industry’s growth has resulted in a
demand for trained and knowledgeable
employees, though supply has yet to meet
the increase. According to the Department of
Labor, the “public is not aware of the necessary
skill sets and competencies needed to prepare
for the diverse career opportunities available
within the geospatial technology industry.”5
Healt h C are
The use of geographic analysis in health care
goes back to 1854, when English physician
John Snow mapped cases in a cholera breakout
on paper and used it to identify the water
source causing the problems. With GIS,
health care professionals can analyze public
health, conduct epidemiological studies and
streamline delivery planning.
For example, epidemiologists can track
immunization patterns as well as batch
numbers of vaccines and compare them
to outbreaks of childhood diseases. Such
The following industries in particular are
seeing increased demand for professionals
with GIS skills and knowledge:
Government
Governments have embraced GIS, with
geospatial revenue from the public sector
representing upwards of one third of the
industry’s total.6 At the local, state, national
and regional level, governments provide
services to their citizens, which may be
temporary in nature—disaster relief—
or ongoing projects, such as economic
development or infrastructure management.
GIS is commonly used in natural disaster
planning and emergency management—
personnel analyze potential or urgent
needs in relation to population distribution,
condition of supply routes, most affected
areas, power and water availability and
real-time location of emergency workers.
GIS is also important in strategic planning
and understanding population changes,
service delivery mechanisms, and how
projected needs interact. The technology
can also help officials to analyze the impact
of regulations and permitting processes.
5
6
Ibid.
Ibid.
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Gabriel Sc hmidbauer
Gabriel Schmidbauer is an adjunct professor at
American Sentinel University, where he teaches GIS
technology. He has worked in GIS since 1998. After
working for the U.S National Oceanographic and
Atmospheric Administration, Schmidbauer became
director of geographic information systems at a small
company near his hometown of Buffalo, New York.
“It’s an incredible field,” Schmidbauer says. “It’s one
of those fields that not a lot of people know about, but
once they learn about it, they get excited. If you name
a subject or field, GIS applies. It’s not just a business
tool or an environmental tool.”
Students pursuing GIS should have at least an
introductory knowledge of PC technology, according
to Schmidbauer, though he says it is not necessary
to be a “computer whiz.” However, GIS is an analytic
field, he stresses. Someone who wants to major in GIS
should have an interest in science.
The two biggest misconceptions about GIS that
Schmidbauer has seen are regarding its IT nature and
focus on maps. GIS is not just for programmers and it
is not completely centered on maps. “Obviously maps
are a major output of GIS, but I’ve put out all sorts of
spreadsheets and research papers,” Schmidbauer says.
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information could give insight into whether
there are problems with vaccines themselves
or the ways in which they are administered.
Private health care companies can correlate
demographics, patient records, types of
facilities and locations to determine whether
resources are efficiently deployed and to
look for new markets.
T e chn o l o g y
As one might expect, the technology
industries—including computers, Internet,
biotech, robotics, and other variants—were
early to use technology to solve business
problems. GIS has given them the ability to
address significant needs they share with
many other types of business. Improved
planning and control of logistics and supply
chains, which affect the total flow of materials
and goods from suppliers to customers, can
cut overall costs and improve responsiveness
to changing business conditions.
GIS helps companies drill down into the
specifics of their operations and optimize
overall results. It also helps them in such
areas as capacity planning, production and
shipping. Another powerful use of GIS is to
analyze consumer behavior across regions,
demographics, socio-economic data and
affinity for different products.
En v i r o n m e n ta l
Environmental companies and communities
interact with the world, preserve and
cultivate natural resources, and help
companies comply with government
regulations. GIS can aid in such complicated
tasks as documenting operations, construction
and other activities that can have an effect
on local environments, easing the process
of generating required reports.
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Analytical tools highlight impending breaches
of regulations before they actually occur and
speed up mitigation efforts, while regulators
use the same types of tools and analysis
to more effectively carry out their duties.
By examining many interacting elements
by location, organizations can also better
understand how their activities have an impact
on local environments. Once the mechanisms
are visible, they can better direct their actions
to avoid future damage.
Utilitie s
The location-dependent operation of utilities—
whether providing electricity, water, gas,
sewage, telephone or cable—is a natural fit for
GIS technology. Whether run by a community,
a local company or a conglomerate, the
same strategic and operational needs exist.
Organizations undertake capacity planning
to know how to best allocate resources to
serve the community in an efficient and
economic way. Such planning can help predict
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where expansions or contractions of service
will be necessary to accommodate changing
population patterns.
Operational managers can employ GIS to
ensure better service. Monitoring conditions
and areas covered by utility poles, access
panels, transformers, shut-off valves and
underground pipes and cables can help
personnel quickly address the safety of
digging plans and help technicians identify
problem areas. GIS is also vital to efficient
dispatching systems that know where
crews are and more effectively send them
to address customer complaints and complete
new service orders.
effective route and control construction
for a pipeline. Additional trucking is easier
to implement, but still requires clearing
routes for safety regulation compliance,
dispatching and tracking vehicles, and
maintaining fleets. Software can also
monitor far-flung equipment for
operating condition.
Careers in GIS
With the growth of the overall geospatial
technology segment of the economy and
the benefit to the public and private sectors,
GIS has become a career path for many.
There are a number of ways to participate
in the industry:
GIS has become a career path for many, there are a number of ways to
participate in the industry.
En e r g y
Similar in some ways to the utilities
industry, energy companies oversee physical
infrastructures, whether in the form of
pipes, cables or truck fleets. They deliver
and distribute energy as electricity, gas, oil
and coal. Expanding distribution is generally
an expensive, elaborate undertaking. A
pipeline can run 1,000 miles or more and
require complex trade-offs in easements,
environmental concerns and construction
considerations that combine to have an
impact on cost and in-service timing.
Electrical cabling expansion means
digging trenches or installing new utility
poles. GIS software can help find the most
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•Developer – Software architects,
programmers, human interface designers
and testers help develop GIS software.
Employers include software vendors such
as Esri that create commercial GIS packages
as well as government agencies or private
corporations that need custom applications
or want to integrate commercial software
into a larger system.
•Analyst – A key position for any public or
private organization using GIS, analysts
use GIS software and are involved in
deciding what data should be included, how
analysis happens and what results mean.
•Technician – Technicians collect data and
prepare software for the analysts. They also
might act as administrators and support
personnel or perform tasks such
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as generating maps for users inside
the organization.
•Consultant – GIS consultants advise
organizations on how to employ GIS
technology. In some cases, they may act
as an outsourced GIS department.
he U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau
T
of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides job
outlook and pay data for thousands of
occupations. GIS is included in a number
of career categories:
•GIS developers are grouped under
computer programmers7 that have
a bachelor’s degree for entry-level
employment, about fast-as-average
ten-year growth of 12 percent, and
2010 median pay of $71,380 a year.
•Geographic information analysts
are grouped under cartographers
and photogrammetrists8 that have a
minimum of a bachelor’s degree. With
faster-than-average projected growth
of 22 percent, median pay was $54,510
per year. This position could also fall
under management analysts9, with
22 percent growth and median pay
of $78,160 a year.
•GIS technicians are listed under
surveying and mapping technicians.10
Minimum education background is
a high school diploma or equivalent.
Projected growth is 16 percent, or
about as fast as average, with median
pay of $37,900 a year. It is worth
noting that GIS technicians will need
a more specialized background and
subject-specific training.
•GIS specialists are grouped under
geographers11 with a minimum of a
bachelor’s degree. The projected 10-year
job outlook is 35 percent growth, or
much faster than average. Median pay
in 2010 was $72,800 a year.
A person’s chosen career path would
determine his or her required education
and training. A software developer
.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; “Occupational Outlook Handbook: Computer Programmers”;
U
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-andinformation-technology/computer-programmers.htm
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; “Occupational Outlook Handbook: Cartographers and Photogrammetrists”;
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/cartographers-and-photogrammetrists.htm
9
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; “Occupational Outlook Handbook: Management Analysts”; http://www.bls.gov/ooh/
business-and-financial/management-analysts.htm
10
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; “Occupational Outlook Handbook: Surveying and Mapping Technicians”;
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/surveying-and-mapping-technicians.htm
11
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; “Occupational Outlook Handbook: Geographers”; http://www.bls.gov/ooh/lifephysicaland-social-science/geographers.htm
7
8
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might learn Javascript and Flex for
Web programming or C# and Python to
create new tools while an analyst would
likely need more background in business
administration and possibly statistical
analysis. Regardless, all GIS professionals
will gain hands-on experience with the
software and learn cartographic theory,
database management and map projections.
A typical GIS course of study could
occur in a traditional classroom or through
an online certificate or degree program.
It will include information about
cartography such as data sources,
mapping data, and mapping techniques
and technology. A background in business
marketing, operations, and finance is
valuable. Analysis courses generally cover
classification methods, statistics and
data techniques. Information technology
curriculum will cover databases, decision
systems and possibly programming tools.
Then there are GIS-specific tools with
specialized software such as ArcGIS.
From a practical view, getting a
degree, whether an associates, bachelor’s,
or master’s in GIS is similar to getting a
degree in another subject and will take
roughly as long. For people who want to
pursue a degree but cannot walk away
from their lives, commitments, and
responsibilities, online degree programs
let them study part-time without traveling
to a campus.
Summary
People who have an interest in geography
and mapping and who are looking for
a good career should consider the GIS
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industry. Used around the world by
governments and such private sectors
as health care, technology, environmental,
utilities and energy, GIS helps uncover
meaning in masses of data by relating
them to the concept of location. GIS can
help improve marketing, operations,
maintenance and strategic planning.
The outlook for those who have GIS skills
is very bright, with strong industry and
career growth and well-paying jobs.
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About the Authors
D r . D e v o n A . C a n c i lla
Dr. Cancilla is the dean, business
and technology, for American
Sentinel University. Previously,
he served as director of Scientific
Technical Services at Western
Washington University and
was an associate professor in the department of
environmental science. He has authored numerous
research papers, books and academic reports,
and his work has appeared in journals such as
Environmental Science and Technology, The
American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and
The Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks.
Dr. Cancilla is also the 2012 Sloan-C award winner
for outstanding achievements in online education.
D r . S t e phe n A . Mc E lroy
Dr. McElroy has been in the GIS
field since 1999, working as a
GIS technician for the USDA-ARS;
a senior research specialist for the
Udall Center for Studies in Public
Policy and the Department of Soil,
Water, and Environmental Sciences at the University
of Arizona; and as a geospatial technologies manager
for Statistical Research, Inc. Dr. McElroy holds a
Ph.D. in geography from the joint doctoral program
at San Diego State University and the University of
California, Santa Barbara, a master’s degree in Latin
American studies from the University of Arizona
and a bachelor’s degree in international affairs
from the University of Cincinnati. He also holds
a GIS professional certification from the GIS
Certification Institute.
About American
Sentinel University
American Sentinel University delivers the
competitive advantages of accredited associate,
bachelor’s and master’s online degree programs
focused on the needs of high-growth sectors,
including information technology, computer
science, GIS, computer information systems and
business intelligence degrees. The university is
accredited by the Distance Education and Training
Council (DETC), which is listed by the U.S.
Department of Education as a nationally recognized
accrediting agency and is a recognized member of
the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
American Sentinel University offers
four GIS programs:
•Associate of Science Geographic
Information Systems
•Bachelor of Science Geographic
Information Systems
•Geospatial Information Systems
Graduate Certificate
• Master of Geospatial Information Systems
American Sentinel is one of the few higher
education institutions to offer an accredited,
online Bachelor of Science Geographic Information
Systems degree. The bachelor’s program prepares
students to analyze, interpret and effectively
communicate geospatial data and concepts as
they pertain to problem solving or modeling.
The associate degree program offers students a
strong foundation in cartography, GIS software
and GIS concepts and techniques.
The Master of Geospatial Information Systems is
an online 36-credit hour program that teaches
professionals to apply geospatial technologies and
visualization strategies to real-world systems for
modern-day problem solving. We offer students two
tracks to choose from: A course track and a project
track. The course track provides a more traditional
academic format. The project track is unique
because it supports a student in identifying and
addressing a self-defined enterprise GIS challenge.
Students will earn their GIS Graduate Certificate
upon completion of the first five courses of the
MGIS, regardless of the track they choose.
The Geospatial Information Systems Graduate
Certificate is an online 15-credit hour program
that offers a foundational education on the realworld use of geospatial information across
disparate industries. Students learn to use tools
that enable the integration of visual, spatial,
temporal, social and contextual information into
the working environment to more effectively
solve complex issues.
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