From what I have come to understand GIS knowledge is invaluable regardless of whether you want to do fulltime GIS work or become a planner... I have a few courses in GIS under my belt and would love to get more in depth training if it will be worth while... anyone have any say on the GIS field and where it is going in the next couple of years?
GIS is invaluable skill to have, my supervisors at my summer internship with the department of city planning were very impressed with my GIS background and I only completed the 18 credit minor in my bachelors- i will be continuing with GIS at the masters level because the urban planning field is growing in competitiveness and any combination fo hands on know how with technical background gives you an edge- there are tons of internships with planning and GIS at least in NYC.
I like to think of GIS in urban planning as MS Office for people in business, im sure when MS Office came out on the scene it gave those with knowledge in it a leg up on the competition, but quickly and surely it became a pre-requisite for any level of success- GIS in 5 plus years will be that way in my opinion for urban planning- based on talking to professionals in the NYC department of urban planning
what masters program are you going for? geography masters with a specialization in GIS? cause thats what I am looking at also... I dont know if a masters in urban planning is the route I want to go down because my undergrad is in environmental planning, and since i have a minor in geography I wanted to get a specialization in GIS... anyone have any comments about this field? growth potential? marketability?
GIS is a tool, it's your decision if you want to keep using it as a tool or to make a career out of it. But honestly I'm not quite sure what the purpose of pursuing a Masters in GIS is unless you're really interested in developing the software side of it. A GIS certificate should provide you with all the GIS skills you'd really need; a Masters is frankly overkill and unnecessary. Just being able to demonstrate you're competent and capable to learn with GIS should be enough for most jobs.
There will always be a demand for GIS people for the simple reason that people are needed to keep the data up to date or to digitize old data. But the question is, do you want to just be the one to input and maintain the data or do you want to actually use the data?
You may as well stick with planning if you're interested in GIS since I assume from your posts that the computer science and engineering side aren't as much up your alley. Many planning programs offer a GIS specialization and just because you have an undergrad planning degree, it wouldn't lessen the value of a Masters (especially if the undergrad is unaccredited).
My undergrad program had a VERY rudimentary GIS class. Fortunately, it was only an elective. I took it twice, dropped out of it twice, and taught myself GIS on the computers in the lab. After a lot of work, I earned a few GIS-based planning internships in town (over the upper level graduate students who took a few GIS courses). Most employers want familiarity with the program, such as how to create a map, modify data, and import data. A GIS certificate might be enough. A GIS degree suggests you are more on the IT/network support side rather than the planning side.
"This is great, honey. What's the crunchy stuff?"
"M&Ms. I ran out of paprika."
Family Guy
I understand GIS is a tool, and I understand Planners are utilizing this tool more and more... I also know that there are entire departments dedicated to GIS specialists and specific positions such as GIS coordinators/directors/programmers etc. These people seem to be on the more technical side of the GIS spectrum instead of just simply using it as a "tool." With that being said I feel that a specialization in GIS coupled with computer knowledge and advanced IT knowledge would put me at a better position than a planner simply using GIS as a tool. I like GIS and I like manipulating maps and creating different layers and seeing how datasets can be used to build up these layers. I feel GIS has alot more potential than just a "tool". I want to get more into the field of informations technology and the technical aspects of GIS and programming. I also like GIS so I feel it would be a good fit.
The question would then become is a Geography masters the best avenue to pursue that or would you be better served with something like a computer science or an engineering degree. From my experience as a geography undergrad, there's not a lot of actual IT related material offered by the geography or planning departments. They emphasize the understanding and the usage of the software, but that's about the extent of it. The IT related GIS stuff is done through the engineering school.
Standard "make a map" GIS knowledge is rapidly being replaced by online systems such as Google and more specialized systems like iMap. Things that were difficult to do ten years ago and required special knowledge are now relatively easy. So, if you are truly interested in GIS as a career path you had better understand the inner workings of the software to make yourself a valuable commodity to employers.
Knowing how to do network analysis, build dynamic spatial models, integrate 3D graphics from CAD or Sketch-Up, program in Visual Basic and create and maintain complex databases (including knowing SQL) are all skills that will keep you in demand. I've seen many people have good careers with good pay through GIS work, but they've all had higher skills than you can get through a couple of GIS courses at planning school.
Thanks for the advice guys...
Jim, I just graduated with my undergrad in environmental planning... I was originally planning on heading to grad school for urban planning were I thought I was going to be getting more GIS knowledge than I already have now but I have decided to defer for a year. I plan on utilizing next year and have decided to actually take courses at the local community college near me... the courses I have been thinking of taking are:
Webpage development
Intro to AutoCAD
Database Design/MS Access
Computer Programming, JAVA
Intro to Visual Basic
Systems Analysis and Design
Database/Oracle
Web Programming/Javascript
and maybe if I can Web programming PHP/MySQL
After I completed these courses I was banking on getting my Masters of Geography with a specialization in GIS and hopefully all of this technical knowledge would put me at more of an advantage... from what you had written I think these courses will match up well... do you think I should omit any of the classes I have chosen and try to look for other classes to fill there spots? Which computer languages might be more advantageous to focus my attention on and which ones might just be a waste of time?
So whatever happened to that urban design/run the world thingie?
"This is great, honey. What's the crunchy stuff?"
"M&Ms. I ran out of paprika."
Family Guy
Evidently he/she is a fly by night operation?
Seriously, take some time out for yourself and truly figure out what you want to do. Your like a kid in the planning candy store, sort of.
Brotip #2418 - know when it's time to switch from being "the little engine that could" to the "little engine that said, 'f*ck it'"
Technical knowledge is an advantage... but remember, the real deciders and movers and shakers in the planning world don't "do" any of the "work"... mostly entry-level people process data.Originally posted by Robbins
It reminds of a saying the purportedly circulates among Dominican and Puerto Rican baseball players "you can't walk off the island" - that is, the ability to take a walk (a valuable baseball skill) is completely irrelevant to making it in MLB - scouts want to see guys who can swing the bat. All this technical stuff is taking a walk. The public forums, the interpreting of data, that's swinging the bat.
I think a few short courses on GIS and CAD are attractable to any potential employer and wouldn't hurt to get past the fundamentals. Would you consider becoming a GIS analyst? I think they earn (on average) about the same as planners do. Personally, I would rather diversify my workload rather than staring at a computer screen all day.
It looks like you would like to become a jack of all trades.
Making websites are easy anyone can, (html, css) you just need to work on that yourself. I think Java/script is the way of the future. C++ is the easiest to understand. MySQL, I gave up on that after 3hrs. To complex for me.
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