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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

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

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

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.

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.





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 IntelligenceBusiness 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.”

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?”

Sergeant Scott Fierro

1 Murphy, Chris; InformationWeek; Dec. 16, 2011; http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/8621 /it-business-strategy/research-outlook-2012.html





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

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

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

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 OpportunitiesInterest 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

The GIS industry in North America is predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11 percent through 2015.

2 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

3 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



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

The following industries in particular are seeing increased demand for professionals with GIS skills and knowledge:

governmentGovernments 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.

HealtH careThe 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

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.

gabriel ScHmidbauer

5 Ibid.6 Ibid.





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.

tecHnologyAs 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.

environmentalEnvironmental 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.

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.

utilitieSThe 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



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.

energySimilar 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

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 GISWith 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:

• 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

GIS has become a career path for many, there are a number of ways to participate in the industry.



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.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau 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

7 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; “Occupational Outlook Handbook: Computer Programmers”; http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-andinformation-technology/computer-programmers.htm

8 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/lifephysical-and-social-science/geographers.htm



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.

SummaryPeople who have an interest in geography and mapping and who are looking for a good career should consider the GIS

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.



About the Authorsdr. devon a. cancillaDr. 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.

dr. StepHen a. mcelroyDr. 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 real-world 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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