I am very keen to pursue a career in GIS and am keen to have a chat about the best way to go about it. I have done a degree in Geography and Environmental Science and am now looking at doing an ESRI course to get back up to speed and perhaps an internship if I can to gain the experience. Anyone

…don't just limit yourself to ESRI, there are other software packages out there and ESRI is not the market leader at the moment.
If you can get a good grasp of the principles of GIS then the package you use doesn't matter. Where you can get extra brownie points is being able to program GIS or if you have advanced skills; such as ESRI Spatial Analyst or MapInfo Vertical Mapper.
edit: The ability to automate tasks is also very useful as is an appreciation of the software add-ins
Which industry do you want to go into?

Would you recommend that I look else where for a course and if so who is the current market leader. My intension is to gain a few years experience and then head back to South Africa. I would like to get into the soil/air contamination side of things.

GIS people at my work sit behind me. They all needed an MSc to get their jobs and none earns more than 20k.
Sorry but GIS has got so user frendily that 'experts' are no longer so sought after.

Depends what you want to do, but unless you want to be a pure analyst, you need a rounded IT base.

You need to have a good understanding of ESRI and MapInfo products, but you should also be aware of things like GRASS on the desktop.

From a development point of view, you will need database skills (SQL Server / Oracle / Oracle Spatial / Postgres) and all the bits that glue them together.

On the dev side, ESRI ArcServer and MapServer.

You should also know basic Google Maps / Bing / OS OpenSpace programming.

I've been off the tools for a few years now, but most of the above is still relevant.

Oh yeah and Java / C sharp / Python / VBA would also be useful.

HTH

Sorry but GIS has got so user frendily that 'experts' are no longer so sought after.

+1

From the analyst side, it's gone the way of secretaries and word processing – any monkey can do it.

It was a general comment. Its the not the software that is important, you are the asset, not the software. Software changes, the core skills and understanding the principles don't. Being able to understand the mechanics of how it all works is essential regardless of which software you use.

The following industries use GIS extensively:
– utility companies
– environment agency
– insurance companies
– consultants to these industries
– government depts. particularly for demographic modelling
– any company/university that wants to interrogate spatial datasets
I'm goona be direct and say that if you want a career in GIS then have a look at what sort of skills requirements GIS positions have in these sectors. That should give you a good indication of what the key skills/requirements are to obtain gainful employment.
Just my opinion…

Have a look on LinkedIn for geospatial groups, this may also help you

So it seems that the Technician/Programmer is the best way forward. I will continue to do further digging on the subject.

So it seems that the Technician/Programmer is the best way forward. I will continue to do further digging on the subject.

He also has an MSc and only earns 25k

Im really not trying to put you off- i want you to think about it before you do any more training etc.

I did spend this afternoon adding scheduled monuments to the Peak District National Park layer- it is good fun (and that is really what matters in a job IMHO)

one way forward is to work out which industry you want to work in
soil contamination usually falls into EA (low pay but interesting and worthy) or engineering consultancy (higher pay than EA).

As with any tool, GIS is only useful if the people who want help with their decision making ask intelligent questions. Let's make a coloured map of burglarly locations in the city is dull. Let's produce a flood model of London is more interesting…..

At the moment I am recruiting Finance people £70K+ and although the money is good £50k+ its not hard and I am keen to get back to something that is rewarding and gets me out the office on the odd occasion to take samples or present to clients. It’s a career change that I want.

you'll be hard pushed to make 50k in GIS unless you are Mr ESRI !!

Warren you anywhere near Swindon?

Guido I am in Windsor and long story short was headhunted to join a new firm and because of a restricted clause can only start the new job in Sep so have time to kill and happy to travel if need be. I have been off since May and all this time has given me the chance to think about things and hence the career change decision.

If you offering a chat then I would be very happy to travel to you.

I will see if you can sit with the GIS team for an afternoon/day- see what English Heritage use GIS for etc. I will email you from work tomorrow- if interested?

None of the GIS people at work have MSc, weird.

Very interested

I used to work for an environemtnal consultancy who had a small GIS team. The GIS guys generally came from either a database (SQL, etc) background or from web design. Some of the younger members of the team had qualifications specifically related to GIS but most just had a very thorough background in programming.

I am interested that you say you want to get into soil and air contamination work, and that you would be interested in getting out of the office sometimes. I would note that, in my experience, a pure GIS job involves sitting in front of a PC. If you want to get out and get experience in contaminated land investigation, then you might be better making an informal enquiry with some of the larger consultancies with environmental groups (Atkins, Peter Brett Associates, Black&Veatch, URS, Enviros, etc.) about a junior position in EIA and contaminated land investigation with the possibility of working on GIS.

So you know, I started (with an MSc) on about £17,250 and after five years was at project management level doing technical modelling, earning around £30k. There wasn't much of a London weighting as far as I can remember. I think the most I would have earned without going into people management would have been about £40k. The EA will pay less than a consultancy, but you get significantly better T&Cs including flexi and way mor holidays, which more than makes up for the difference in pay. However, from my recollection, most of the GIS work (at least for the NW) was contracted out, rather than done in-house by the EA.

You could also look at digital mapping providers like Landmark and BlueSky.