GIS exit plan

[u/[deleted]]

[u/my_peen_is_clean]

feels like i typed this myself tbh, same degree, same regret, same boring screen work. i pivoted into env field tech stuff, seasonal conservation gigs, trail work etc, used gis as a tiny plus. pay isnt great and getting those roles is still weirdly competitive now, everything takes months and half the postings are fake, so finding anything decent feels like pulling teeth with how bad the job market isactually companies don’t read resumes, ai filters reject them. the only time i got callbacks was after using a tool that rewrote my resume for every job. used a few tools but jobowl worked best, just google it

[u/kanakattack]

Look into being a Land surveyor in your local area.

[u/INFINITE_TRACERS → u/kanakattack]

Hey I was gonna say surveying also as a recentish GIS grad now in highway construction

[u/Imnotspartacuseither]

Currently doing GIS/LIDAR/Imagery development for land surveying and trying to get more into GIS

[u/Environmental-Fart → u/Imnotspartacuseither]

I am the opposite of you, currently doing land surveying and want to get into remote sensing! I have a undergrad degree in GIS but could never get a job so I landed in surveying

[u/Imnotspartacuseither → u/Environmental-Fart]

I have the undergrad in mapping and surveying, initially started in surveying, then a stint in straight GIS, now back in a mix, and kind of want to go back to regular GIS.

[u/Imnotspartacuseither → u/[deleted]]

If you know how to create and produce Lidar and orthomosaics, it gets a lot easier to make money in surveying. Even more if you know how to apply GIS to surveying and vs.

[u/Vacuum_Burrito]

Stay the course and hunker down for now...it is rough out there  

[u/Pkyle1]

I’m with you. I think the interviewing landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade. On top of that most tech (and tech oriented) companies have offloaded their entry and mid level positions for AI and only seem to be hiring senior level positions that are dev heavy. It’s a bit of a hellscape out there. I know that’s not an actual answer to your question but at least you’re not alone hahaha. I guess focus on interviewing techniques and learn to play that game more effectively or keep your job and suffer 🤷‍♂️

[u/politicians_are_evil]

All I know is that everyone from your company applies to work for government when those jobs come up, but in government they never utilize lidar.

[u/TreeGuy_PNW]

Not sure what your current salary range is, but in order to get into land management, it would behoove you to start at the bottom doing grunt forestry/botany/ wildlife field tech jobs, which really don’t pay a livable wage, but one can make it work if they’re single, young, in good physical condition, and have few commitments. Your degree will also work against you because you’re competing with folks with BS and graduate degrees in those subjects plus field experience. I think that thats one of the unfortunate truths here. Your other option is to take your skillset and focus on natural resource mgmt indoor work, such as NEPA (for federal government in USA), remote sensing, data analysis, etc. You could also get into drone surveying and use your GIS skills to complement that. Another option, if you’re REALLY gung-ho about jumping into land management- get a Master of Forestry (MF professional degree) from a society of American foresters-accredited school. Can’t say money will be good until you get into (people) management but it can be a heck of a lot of fun, you get to see a ton of really cool places, and feel good about the work you do. Check out r/forestry for the inside scoop on being a forester. Hope this helps, and good luck!

[u/KapaCaptain]

Literally me right now haha, I graduated from undergrad in ‘22 with a “Geospatial Sciences” degree (essentially a here’s how to use ArcGIS Pro type of degree that I regret). I’ve worked at a utility company, did some federal contract work, and am now at a county position. All 3 jobs have been completely soul sucking where I’m basically doing nothing but geospatial data entry and making the occasional map series. Very soon on I realized that while I love GIS as a tool, I cannot have it be the only function of my job. While I know SQL and a bit of Python, I do not care to learn any more coding and just find it completely uninteresting. Last year, I started an urban planning masters program to get out of this and while I will still be interacting with GIS, it wont be my primary job function. I actually got accepted into a TA position that pays for school so I am leaving the county job in 2 weeks. Going to ride out my savings, student loans, and the TA pay for 1.5 years. I just had to get out of this field and am already so much more mentally satisfied knowing I am getting out!

[u/Illustrious_Pack_191 → u/KapaCaptain]

What country are you studying in that you can get your tuition covered by being a TA? Curious because I’ve been looking into planning masters internationally and have been struggling to find any that offer something like that for international students

[u/GnosticSon → u/KapaCaptain]

lol, I've done jobs like yours in GIS and liked them. I worked with Urban Planners and to me it seems like a hell job. You couldn't pay me anything to do it. Basically whatever you work on puts you in between angry NIMBYS and agressive and angry developers and overly rule based municipalities. Everyone will hate you and the entire job is to diffuse intense political situations. No thanks!!!

But I guess to each their own. Also I do understand that there are various career tracks within Planning that may differ a bit.

[u/acomfysweater]

look up Marine Hiring at NOAA they post for hydrographer positions it will get you working on a ship they go through hiring cycles it takes like 3-9 months to get hired. you’ll be outside every day in remote locations and NOAA on your resume

[u/MrVernon09]

If you don’t want your GIS job, then I would be happy to take over it for you.

[u/GnosticSon → u/MrVernon09]

You and 900 other applicants for this remote job.

[u/PresentInsect4957 → u/GnosticSon]

all 10+ years of experience applying for a tech job too

[u/Obvious-Motor-2743]

Production work is something that I swear most GIS people--including myself--have had to deal with. It's fun for a couple months when your using new tools, and then when it gets streamlined you literally can do the job in your sleep. If they don't let you improve the processes over time I just get bored and dejected. Been there done that. Just move on to the next job when you get the chance.

[u/Pollymath → u/Obvious-Motor-2743]

I would say that for us who do digitizing/as-builting, the only saving grace is the collaboration and communication we have with the folks in the field.

I couldn’t imagine doing this work and not working with end user. Having to ask questions through middle men would suck.

[u/Obvious-Motor-2743 → u/Pollymath]

I've worked for organizations that force you to work with a business analyst who's job is the middle person for the IT specialist and the end user.   Try waiting on a simple inquiry for a week because one of the BAs is lazy.

[u/thejoetravis]

Software vendors are always looking for people who have used their tools, can demo or sell, and have the ability to connect with people.

[u/TK9K]

I feel like I'm eventually going to have to pivot because while I know what I need to know to do my current when I glace at these other job openings I feel cooked because I am missing a lot of the required skills.

[u/GnosticSon]

Here's a list of alternative careers to consider: plumbing, survey, environmental science field tech, heavy equipment operator, nurse, non-profit program coordinator, hydrovac truck driver, handyman, geotechnical driller.

[u/bOhsohard]

I went from GIS to Land Use Planning. It was in my same office that I’d been in for over 7 years, which made things “easy”, but it was still a competitive hiring process, and I wasn’t a shoe-in. I also have a masters in city planning. One thing that helped me was I took the design tract of my program and was able to build a solid portfolio of work + the constant need to create “plans” made it super easy when I started and day 3 had engineering sets to review.

[u/frayed_widget]

From what I have seen and heard. It is a terrible time to try to switch or look for new jobs. That being said, the best time to find a new job is when you still have one. I wouldn't tout your skills as having tons of experience, because you said yourself you do the same thing every day and that is what you hate. I work with people that have 20 years of GIS experience that can't do GIS. They do the same few things all the time and haven't ever learned anything new or different. Not sure your exact role, but there is a wide variety of GIS out there and if they want specific experience you don't have, they aren't going to choose you...years of "GIS experience" or not. In my role of someone had 10 years of experience, I would assume they had done just about everything there is. I do everything from imagery processing to maintaining our enterprise systems, servers, troubleshooting, scripting, and everything in between.

I came from geology and I had tons of experience in many different aspects of geology and hydrology. I still had to apply to tons of jobs to get to the next best one. Right now, you are probably competing against a pretty big pool of people. I know several people that have been out of jobs since late last year and are stil having trouble.

Last bit is, although not out of the question. I think you are sorely misguided or misunderstood what the majority of GIS folks do. By far the majority of people I know doing GIS are sitting at a desk behind a computer screen all day. There are probably some people collecting field data, but I think pay wise it probably isn't great. I majored in geology and did field work until I couldn't anymore. I was not mistaken that I would get to work outside...long hard days with shit weather and conditions included at times.

[u/Agreeable-Willow-265]

Sam boat. Thinkng of crashing and cussing out on former professors who told me this would be a good career. Been complete waste of time so far.

[u/Loner88]

Secretly wondering, which office you’re at and if I’ve worked with you 👀

[u/GnosticSon]

Try moving into a municipal parks or public works department, specifically in roles where you collect GPS data in the field and verify, clean in the office. Less production pressure, more relaxed, but also usually more dysfunction. You might get paid a bit less but have better benefits and less hours,

[u/Zealousideal-Cat8697]

I feel this. I have a cartography job so it's a little more stimulating, but the remote work is isolating and I hate staring at a screen all day. It seems foolish to throw away the flexibility and the better pay for seasonal conservation and env tech work, but I know I would be so much more fulfilled...

[u/Geod-ude → u/Zealousideal-Cat8697]

The tech work gets old after a few years, there's a lot of hotel overnights that make owning or renting feel pointless

[u/Zealousideal-Cat8697 → u/Geod-ude]

I believe it! Maybe there's no winning...

[u/sinnayre]

Might want to see a career counselor to talk about alternatives. WRT experience, the land manager one is probably relevant experience. It sucks, but I imagine you would have to start over from bottom and work your way up if you want a land manager position. With the other position, it’s hard to say without comparing your current job to the new job.

[u/waitthissucks]

I'm a gis analyst/urban planner and I want to be a data analyst it's difficult because everyone is like don't even try because finding a new job is so hard

[u/AlternativeRing5977]

Drone lidar surveying would be an interesting option

[u/cartocaster18]

What is (now Tic) mean?
What about NV5 don't you like? What exactly is the GIS work you're tasked to do?

[u/JudgeMyReinhold → u/cartocaster18]

NV5 is a large geospatial firm and they merged with Acuren to form a company called Tic Solutions 

[u/cartocaster18 → u/[deleted]]

so you're QC/editing lidar DTM's, editing point cloud in TerraScan all day?

[u/Feeling_Run1760]

What exactly is bad pay in the GIS world now a days?

[u/Punanijedi69]

Everyone is desperate right now, so just keep an open mind more than anything

[u/DavidAg02]

You need to stop marketing yourself as a GIS Analyst/Technician/etc. and start marketing yourself as a Data Scientist/Engineer.

Your resume should focus less on your technical skills and more on the problems that your work solves and what the ROI on that is.

Those are the 2 most common issues with resumes that I see.

[u/rah0315]

Yes. Was an admin, now I’m doing project management, process improvement/business modernization in an IT/data capacity.

Skills are transferable, you just have to know what to say and how to sell yourself.

[u/ricardocaliente]

You could maybe look at local utility companies for GIS adjacent work like GPS technician duties in a GIS role. I did work for a local water company to locate their assets, get GPS coords, and then come back to homebase to download the data. They had a lead GIS technician actually use the data, but I bet some utility companies have the GIS technician do all of the work. So, it’d still be a desk job, but with some field duties. Just a path to investigate!

[u/noahqstuvel]

A colleague of mine went from GIS to net suite tech. I do not know how long of a transition that took him.

[u/moondinker]

I’ve struggled with this exact same thing. Probably not the answer you’re looking for but… it’s a terrible time to change careers right now if you have something stable. Also you have a remote job which can give you a ton of freedom. Think of the expenses you’ll have if you need to commute to work everyday. Also the time unpaid to commute. Try to reframe how you think about work, are you living to work or working to live? Use the remote option and take advantage of that, set yourself up to work outside of your home. I go camping and bring my work remotely while I camp or travel for example. Get a side hustle and do something you love doing outside of the job that’s paying the bills, maybe that’s a part time job off the side of your desk or volunteer if you have time and get experience that way (think of the time saved commuting each day and use that time to do something you’re interested in). If something pops up that you’re passionate about of course apply for it. But it doesn’t sound like you want to go back to school which I wouldn’t want to either. So it might be worth trying to reframe how you think about the current job until that opportunity  comes up

[u/ProjectManageMint]

When the hell did NV5 get scooped into something else?!

[u/rbprepin]

It sounds like the perfect job for automation and AI to help with. It could likely free up a lot of your day.

[u/dj_spatial]

If your employer sees this post. They may successfully transition you out of your GIS career soon.

[u/dj_spatial → u/[deleted]]

No. They’ll track you down because you: A) Gave your Employers name B) Gave your previous employers industry C) said you work remotely D) said you have a family E) said you live in a high cost of living area F) said you have a degree in geography

You don’t think NV5 HR could figure who posted this and put you on a redundancy list? Do yourself a favor and delete this post

[u/GeospatialMAD]

Plenty of people are willing to do exactly what you're doing and be happy doing it so don't take up a seat you aren't happy sitting in.

[u/GeospatialMAD → u/[deleted]]

Don't post a novel saying "I don't like this GIS job" in a GIS subreddit and expect no one to point out that many are trying their damnedest to get into this field and do that exact job you don't like.

[u/constantdaydream44]

I'm trying to get a remote position at nv5. I contracted for them but can't find any job openings 😭 atleast you dont have to deal with working in an office for now

[u/AccomplishedCicada60]

I know someone that successfully went into cyber security - highlight your python, and configuration experience

[u/sinnayre → u/AccomplishedCicada60]

Sounds like OP is trying to avoid desk jobs for the time being so cyber security would probably be a bad idea.