Students who are approaching completion of their undergraduate-level education in GIS and geospatial technology, whether as a part of the UCLA Department of Geography's GIS&T minor or Geospatial @ UCLA's professional GIS certificate program, often have many questions about the GIS job market, including:
- How do I find and apply for available GIS jobs and internships?
- For which positions am I qualified with my educational background?
- How is COVID-19 affecting GIS employment?
How do I find and apply for available GIS jobs and internships?
Many GIS jobs are advertised overtly as GIS positions, while others may have GIS listed as a desired qualification or domain of expertise. Those jobs that are openly advertised as GIS positions are undoubtedly easier to find as the job titles themselves facilitate the search, but searching for terms such as GIS, cartography, remote sensing / image analysis, photogrammetry, and GIS programming within job descriptions can also help to reveal positions for which GIS skill and experience is a desired qualification.
In addition to being posted on job listing aggregators such as Indeed, Monster, and ZipRecruiter, several GIS-focused job portals offer a more targeted approach to the job search:
- The GIS Jobs Clearinghouse (gjc.org) is one of the oldest and most popular portals for GIS-specific job listings, and most experienced GIS professionals are familiar with GJC and will post openings here. GJC primarily lists jobs available within North America, and positions of all skill levels are included -- though fewer entry-level positions are listed here than on more regionally-specific job boars.
- SoCalGIS (the Southern California government GIS working group) regularly posts job and internship announcements on its website. SoCalGIS offers by far the most comprehensive inventory of GIS-focused job opportunities covering Southern California, and for any graduating students looking to work in greater Southern California, it is recommended that you make this website the first stop in your job search.
- In Northern California, BayGeo offers a job listing board, though it is updated less frequently than SoCalGIS's job listings.
- URISA, which is the de facto professional organization for government GIS professionals in the United States, offers job listings on its website -- and its many chapters (which include SoCal URISA, BayGeo, and NorCal URISA), offer their own websites with job posting boards as well. Especially if you plan to work outside of California, it is recommended that you identify the corresponding URISA chapter and inquire about the best sources of local GIS jobs.
For which kinds of positions am I qualified with my educational background?
Many entry-level professional GIS positions are advertised with titles such as GIS Technician and GIS Analyst. These positions typically require completion of a Bachelor's (four-year) college/university degree, and in most cases it is assumed and expected that substantive GIS coursework was completed either in the process of earning the degree or in a distinct GIS-specific program, such as an undergraduate-level certificate. Directions Magazine points to a general up-scaling of educational requirements in the geospatial technology industry, noting that more positions are expecting job-seekers to hold graduate degrees and/or background in GIS, cartography, computer science, engineering rather than geography or the social sciences. Despite that trend, entry-level positions seldom require educational experience beyond a four-year degree plus domain-specific education in GIS and geospatial technology. Entry-level positions of this nature with the aforementioned titles are most often found in the public sector (i.e., GIS departments or related units within government agencies), as well as in related fields that often provide support for public-sector work, including GIS-specific and environmental consulting firms.
How is COVID-19 affecting GIS employment?
Given the pivotal role that GIS plays in the operation of many public sector agencies in particular, the fortunes of the GIS job market are often very closely linked with the stability of public sector budgets and employment more broadly. Public sector agencies throughout the United States are facing a period of fiscal uncertainty considering the COVID-19 crisis, and job-seekers are advised to be mindful of this reality in the short term but not be discouraged by these immediate challenges in the long term. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, analysts have pointed to compounded annual growth of the GIS industry exceeding 10%, and given the potential for performing GIS work remotely, it is reasonable to expect that the GIS industry will be resilient enough to weather any coming economic storms.