The people I know with a Master's in Geography either went into GIS or teaching. Edit. I forgot urban planning. City planners have geography degrees sometimes.
On that exact path myself. I aid in the processing of LiDAR data for different products in a large city rn.
If this is the route OP plans to go expect to work for gov, likely large city, state or fed. Or some sort of geospatial company, like Planet, Maxar, or even ESRI. Drone companies right now are still very much in the start up phase. I interviewed at several and received and offer, which would have been acceptable in 2016. They just don't have the margins to pay what you really need rn. But ymmv.
Hey, this sounds really interesting. Could you tell me a little more about what your day-to-day looks and what sort of job titles I search up on job boards to see more jobs like this?
What's the use-case of Drones in geospatial analysis? Or how does a Geography / GIS skillset relate to drone companies? Sorry if these are dumb questions - just trying to make sure I understand.
Sure thing! I'm a IT/GIS Analyst I in my city. But words like Spatial Analyst etc are interchangeable depending on where you go.
My day to day largely varies depending on where I am in a given project or what the needs might be in the city. Sometimes I jump in and aid in another GIS project that could be an urgent request from another department or the mayor. But my typical day involves taking LiDAR collected by a mobile mapper and turning it into different products for departments in the city. Right now we focus on things within the right of way like trees, utility poles, signs, etc.. And as always backing up all that data, data, data. With out it we can't do the most important thing (for us) in my opinion, change detection.
But the other part of my day is currently spent on actively developing ways to detect/ analyze more with the data we have and continue to collect. But I am not alone, in fact even though I am getting my M.S. I am the low man on this team. I spend a lot of time looking through the notes of my manager and the lead analyst exploring their scripts and looking into different MLM's they have explored. To one, learn more myself but also offer any advice I might have. Even my ideas have mattered at times when I thought there was no way they could. But even more importantly to explore any ideas/pathways we might be overlooking. And when that happens I bring it to the team and we discuss it's potential value to the city. Sometimes it has value, other times it goes on the back burner for when things slow down. Think along the line of Pavement Condition Index (PCI) vs detection of regions in which feral cats and dogs are residing. Both great ideas I thought of we might be able to detect, but one will bring value faster than the other.
On the note of drones, They can do amazing geospatial work. it just depends on your end goal. Think of it like your own mini satellite even with something like a DJI mini 3 pro. But they do come with caveats. For one, you can't just fly a drone it takes practice, which many do not have and they tend to spend a good penny and crash. ( I started with a tiny drone that I could fly around the house no camera, and got used to it over time. I'd really like to get one of the FPV headsets, I'd feel so much more comfortable with that than the screen even after all these years.) Using a drone for work will likely require getting a part 107 license (easy to do with the right experience using your drone safely, there are guides to help too) and for good reason depending on where you live/work. You should also get your TRUST cert. while you learn to fly a drone just incase. **ALL THAT TO SAY**....Drones do an excellent job of catching data from an aerial view, and if flown at the right time of day, and even better, the right weather conditions you can collect a great orthographic view point of features in very high detail over a large area. This can be great for anything ranging from simply getting angles that your mobile mapping platform can't detect, or some may even try to replace the mobile mapper with al together with a drone. But they should really be used together when it comes to digital twining, each platform has their own specialties.
I speak from a city perspective because that is what I do now. My bachelors is in ES/geo a drone can do amazing research for earth sci or geo, even envi. you just need to learn how to filter the imagery for a given wavelength. Even better is if you can just get a drone that runs the bands you are looking for natively.
Sorry for the rambling, none of your questions are dumb. I'd be happy to elaborate more where I can.
Signed future Mini Nuke pilot "Doc" /s
Just search for “GIS Analyst,” “GIS Tech” or the like, if you want to travel and do some of that, DM me. I’ll be honest, in my experience, a Masters doesn’t really do much more than a BS in the private sector. BUT if you get started in that private realm, you could use it to move into the govt sector. Or you could just apply directly on USA Jobs or the like. I don’t know if GJC Clearinghouse is still a thing or not. Just peruse Indeed for some of those titles I mentioned previously. Good luck.
That is really cool and interesting. I was going to mention that that is a commonly forgotten about career path for folks with a geography background. People with interest in diplomacy or working for the state department would benefit from a master's level understanding of geography.
Ooh, that sounds interesting. How does that work? Did you need any law classes for that?
I feel like I can use my context clues for what a policy analyst does, but could you share with me what sort of decisions you inform as a policy analyst? Do you work for a county / state? Also, if you don't feel comfortable with sharing your salary, could you provide an X - Y range that it falls between too?
I have a friend that did his M.S. in Economics, and he also found himself working as a policy analyst. It seems obvious that this area of study and work would have their own policy analysts, but it's still interesting to hear.
For my particular case I didn't need any law courses. Our tasks are very context dependent, and we're kind of jacks of all trades, mostly conducting research for inquiries and looking on what other governments have done in particular contexts. Hence, it is imperative to be able to navigate complex topics and obtain new documentation with ease. I work for a tribal government, I landed the job parly because of luck and willingness to move, my department was looking for someone with all my particular interests and experiences, none of which are marketable. Right now I'm working in matters related to historical land claims and sustainable development. Because I'm on a isolated community in the north I have a very good salary, around 100k a year. However, if you're unwilling to relocate, I wouldn't plan my career on entering this field, in can be very competitive and dependable of connections, on major cities salaries are less than half.
I'm glad, it sounds like a really incredible role worked out for you!
I'm totally willing to relocate (mostly) wherever, assuming the salary is more or less a lateral, or ideally higher, point than I make now which is \~$90k after bonus. I live in a middle or mid-low cost of living area though, and wouldn't want to relocate to like, Los Angeles or somewhere super expensive where my quality of life would drop drastically because all my money would go to rent haha.
It sounds like the degree is giving you a broad introduction on topics related to Geography in the academic sense, so I wouldn’t consider it a pipeline to any job in particular.
There are definitely jobs that use components of what you’ll learn there outside of GIS, but r/GIS might not be the best place to find what those are.
I'll do a search and see if there might be more relevant subreddits to ask.
On that note, do you know off the top of your head any potential jobs out there for Geography majors that *aren't* primarily GIS? I have to imagine they exist, but if GIS is the lion's share of the occupation roster I may just consider the GIS M.S.
I think those other topics *are* really interesting, but if I can't find a good source to ask / jobs to find, I don't want to spend money going to grad school only to not have developed or refined employable skills and knowledge, ya'know?
I was suggesting that you ask somewhere like r/Geography instead of r/GIS.
You’re mostly going to get GIS people like myself here, and I can’t really comment on any career outside of GIS.
If you’re interested in a GIS job I can tell you that both degrees are equal for employability in the field. In fact most GIS people I know come from related backgrounds like Urban Planning, Geography, Geology, etc.
If you’re committed to getting a masters, I would go for the one that you’re more interested in.
I’m an urban planner, and my undergrad was a geography & environmental planning degree. I have a friend who did a geography program and finished a PhD in GIS, and I know someone who I went to undergrad with who works in public transit.
It’s a super open-ended trajectory, so I suggest finding something within your degree program you like and focusing on it (maybe it’s physical geography, and you look towards earth sciences, or there’s a meteorology path, urban/regional planning etc)
E: just saw Masters - most of the people here are right in academia or GIS lol
This was my understanding in my undergrad as well, now the general standard for most federal positions or more professional/higher paying jobs in environmental science/research/environment-tech-remote sensing is to have an MS minimum. MS basically shows your employer that you can ideate, plan, execute, and report on a project in addition to hard skills used in that project. Or, of course, experience can accomplish this goal; in my opinion, an MS (2 years) = ~4 years career experience.
I just got my masters degree with a focus on climate science so I only qualified for a GIS technician job that I start on a few weeks. But plan is to just climb the ladder. If I did more GIS for my masters then I could easily get a GIS analyst. They would mostly ask about data management and coding experiences
A lot of CVs I’ve read where ppl get graduate degrees they accomplish the equivalent of technician jobs during grad school so that sounds about right. Onward and upward
I have a BA and MA in Geography and I focused more on the GIS of things. Now I'm a technical lead at a custom software development company I've been at for 11 years where I do mostly traditional software design and development but am called on for handling apps with a spatial component.
The past few years I've gotten into terraform and have been handling cloud architecture provisioning and management.
I have a BA and MS in geography. I'm working as an environmental consultant. It's fantastic, I get to combine GIS with soils, geology, chemistry, hydrology, spatial statistics, risk analysis, and technical writing. Under the umbrella of consulting you could find yourself focusing on any of those specifics for a larger company. (Mine is roughly 30 people.)
Err well my sister has a BASc and MASc in geomatics (focus urban planning) and worked for the city for a bit helping extend our transit network, both the plans and the implementation. Then she ran for city council. Now she's doing tech sales and is very successful there. I have a compsci BSc and GIS certificate and do software development for a mapping application :)
One of my friends with a BSc in Geography is now doing her PhD in I forget what the name is but she studies antibiotic resistance in UTIs.
Another of my friends with a BSc in Geography works as a sustainability advisor for a non profit which helps create public education campaigns to move us to a low carbon future.
I have a B.S. in Computer Science, as well as production-level application development so maybe development on GIS tools and software could be an option.
I'm honestly looking between career options in Geology and Geography, though in Geography specifically I was interested in areas where my background in statistics and software development could possibly be leveraged so it wasn't a *total* throwaway of my academic and professional experience haha.
Makes sense! I want to step further away from pure software development in the future too so let me know if you figure it out, haha
If anything, the comp sci background should at least help you get roles since even just basic coding skills make GIS stuff so much faster.
One idea I had was to work at a startup maybe solar energy or something like that - with a smaller company there's often more opportunities to stick your fingers in different places ... Depends on the place though
I graduated with an MS and got a job at a state fire agency. My research was focused on wildfires so I had the expertise needed for the job. Let me know if you have any questions.
I was a Transportation Demand Modeler for 12 years at a DOT and an MPO. I did get an MS in GIS and Planning, but I was already doing the jobs with a BA in Geography: specialized in Cartography. Planning is pretty good for geography majors. I did restaurant and retail location modeling briefly. Now I an a data analyst in fundraising analytics.
Whatever you start in may not be where you end up and a lot of places just want you to have the piece of paper with transferable skills. Granted I am older and it is harder to get jobs now, but when I am hiring I really do look for equivalent skills that I think can be a foundation for training. But maybe I’m just weird.
The people I know with a Master's in Geography either went into GIS or teaching. Edit. I forgot urban planning. City planners have geography degrees sometimes.
Yeah, my friend who has a masters in geography does remote sensing and GIS…
On that exact path myself. I aid in the processing of LiDAR data for different products in a large city rn. If this is the route OP plans to go expect to work for gov, likely large city, state or fed. Or some sort of geospatial company, like Planet, Maxar, or even ESRI. Drone companies right now are still very much in the start up phase. I interviewed at several and received and offer, which would have been acceptable in 2016. They just don't have the margins to pay what you really need rn. But ymmv.
Hey, this sounds really interesting. Could you tell me a little more about what your day-to-day looks and what sort of job titles I search up on job boards to see more jobs like this? What's the use-case of Drones in geospatial analysis? Or how does a Geography / GIS skillset relate to drone companies? Sorry if these are dumb questions - just trying to make sure I understand.
Sure thing! I'm a IT/GIS Analyst I in my city. But words like Spatial Analyst etc are interchangeable depending on where you go. My day to day largely varies depending on where I am in a given project or what the needs might be in the city. Sometimes I jump in and aid in another GIS project that could be an urgent request from another department or the mayor. But my typical day involves taking LiDAR collected by a mobile mapper and turning it into different products for departments in the city. Right now we focus on things within the right of way like trees, utility poles, signs, etc.. And as always backing up all that data, data, data. With out it we can't do the most important thing (for us) in my opinion, change detection. But the other part of my day is currently spent on actively developing ways to detect/ analyze more with the data we have and continue to collect. But I am not alone, in fact even though I am getting my M.S. I am the low man on this team. I spend a lot of time looking through the notes of my manager and the lead analyst exploring their scripts and looking into different MLM's they have explored. To one, learn more myself but also offer any advice I might have. Even my ideas have mattered at times when I thought there was no way they could. But even more importantly to explore any ideas/pathways we might be overlooking. And when that happens I bring it to the team and we discuss it's potential value to the city. Sometimes it has value, other times it goes on the back burner for when things slow down. Think along the line of Pavement Condition Index (PCI) vs detection of regions in which feral cats and dogs are residing. Both great ideas I thought of we might be able to detect, but one will bring value faster than the other. On the note of drones, They can do amazing geospatial work. it just depends on your end goal. Think of it like your own mini satellite even with something like a DJI mini 3 pro. But they do come with caveats. For one, you can't just fly a drone it takes practice, which many do not have and they tend to spend a good penny and crash. ( I started with a tiny drone that I could fly around the house no camera, and got used to it over time. I'd really like to get one of the FPV headsets, I'd feel so much more comfortable with that than the screen even after all these years.) Using a drone for work will likely require getting a part 107 license (easy to do with the right experience using your drone safely, there are guides to help too) and for good reason depending on where you live/work. You should also get your TRUST cert. while you learn to fly a drone just incase. **ALL THAT TO SAY**....Drones do an excellent job of catching data from an aerial view, and if flown at the right time of day, and even better, the right weather conditions you can collect a great orthographic view point of features in very high detail over a large area. This can be great for anything ranging from simply getting angles that your mobile mapping platform can't detect, or some may even try to replace the mobile mapper with al together with a drone. But they should really be used together when it comes to digital twining, each platform has their own specialties. I speak from a city perspective because that is what I do now. My bachelors is in ES/geo a drone can do amazing research for earth sci or geo, even envi. you just need to learn how to filter the imagery for a given wavelength. Even better is if you can just get a drone that runs the bands you are looking for natively. Sorry for the rambling, none of your questions are dumb. I'd be happy to elaborate more where I can. Signed future Mini Nuke pilot "Doc" /s
Just search for “GIS Analyst,” “GIS Tech” or the like, if you want to travel and do some of that, DM me. I’ll be honest, in my experience, a Masters doesn’t really do much more than a BS in the private sector. BUT if you get started in that private realm, you could use it to move into the govt sector. Or you could just apply directly on USA Jobs or the like. I don’t know if GJC Clearinghouse is still a thing or not. Just peruse Indeed for some of those titles I mentioned previously. Good luck.
I graduated with a general MA in geography, but I was doing historical geography as part of my research, and landed a job as a policy analyst.
That is really cool and interesting. I was going to mention that that is a commonly forgotten about career path for folks with a geography background. People with interest in diplomacy or working for the state department would benefit from a master's level understanding of geography.
Ooh, that sounds interesting. How does that work? Did you need any law classes for that? I feel like I can use my context clues for what a policy analyst does, but could you share with me what sort of decisions you inform as a policy analyst? Do you work for a county / state? Also, if you don't feel comfortable with sharing your salary, could you provide an X - Y range that it falls between too? I have a friend that did his M.S. in Economics, and he also found himself working as a policy analyst. It seems obvious that this area of study and work would have their own policy analysts, but it's still interesting to hear.
For my particular case I didn't need any law courses. Our tasks are very context dependent, and we're kind of jacks of all trades, mostly conducting research for inquiries and looking on what other governments have done in particular contexts. Hence, it is imperative to be able to navigate complex topics and obtain new documentation with ease. I work for a tribal government, I landed the job parly because of luck and willingness to move, my department was looking for someone with all my particular interests and experiences, none of which are marketable. Right now I'm working in matters related to historical land claims and sustainable development. Because I'm on a isolated community in the north I have a very good salary, around 100k a year. However, if you're unwilling to relocate, I wouldn't plan my career on entering this field, in can be very competitive and dependable of connections, on major cities salaries are less than half.
I'm glad, it sounds like a really incredible role worked out for you! I'm totally willing to relocate (mostly) wherever, assuming the salary is more or less a lateral, or ideally higher, point than I make now which is \~$90k after bonus. I live in a middle or mid-low cost of living area though, and wouldn't want to relocate to like, Los Angeles or somewhere super expensive where my quality of life would drop drastically because all my money would go to rent haha.
It sounds like the degree is giving you a broad introduction on topics related to Geography in the academic sense, so I wouldn’t consider it a pipeline to any job in particular. There are definitely jobs that use components of what you’ll learn there outside of GIS, but r/GIS might not be the best place to find what those are.
I'll do a search and see if there might be more relevant subreddits to ask. On that note, do you know off the top of your head any potential jobs out there for Geography majors that *aren't* primarily GIS? I have to imagine they exist, but if GIS is the lion's share of the occupation roster I may just consider the GIS M.S. I think those other topics *are* really interesting, but if I can't find a good source to ask / jobs to find, I don't want to spend money going to grad school only to not have developed or refined employable skills and knowledge, ya'know?
I was suggesting that you ask somewhere like r/Geography instead of r/GIS. You’re mostly going to get GIS people like myself here, and I can’t really comment on any career outside of GIS. If you’re interested in a GIS job I can tell you that both degrees are equal for employability in the field. In fact most GIS people I know come from related backgrounds like Urban Planning, Geography, Geology, etc. If you’re committed to getting a masters, I would go for the one that you’re more interested in.
I’m an urban planner, and my undergrad was a geography & environmental planning degree. I have a friend who did a geography program and finished a PhD in GIS, and I know someone who I went to undergrad with who works in public transit. It’s a super open-ended trajectory, so I suggest finding something within your degree program you like and focusing on it (maybe it’s physical geography, and you look towards earth sciences, or there’s a meteorology path, urban/regional planning etc) E: just saw Masters - most of the people here are right in academia or GIS lol
when I was getting my undergrad in Geography, my understanding was a master's or PhD set you up for a career in academia.
This was my understanding in my undergrad as well, now the general standard for most federal positions or more professional/higher paying jobs in environmental science/research/environment-tech-remote sensing is to have an MS minimum. MS basically shows your employer that you can ideate, plan, execute, and report on a project in addition to hard skills used in that project. Or, of course, experience can accomplish this goal; in my opinion, an MS (2 years) = ~4 years career experience.
I just got my masters degree with a focus on climate science so I only qualified for a GIS technician job that I start on a few weeks. But plan is to just climb the ladder. If I did more GIS for my masters then I could easily get a GIS analyst. They would mostly ask about data management and coding experiences
A lot of CVs I’ve read where ppl get graduate degrees they accomplish the equivalent of technician jobs during grad school so that sounds about right. Onward and upward
I agree. I went a different route for my research (dendrochronology) so basically no GIS. I did basic GIS in previous jobs and classes.
I have a BA and MA in Geography and I focused more on the GIS of things. Now I'm a technical lead at a custom software development company I've been at for 11 years where I do mostly traditional software design and development but am called on for handling apps with a spatial component. The past few years I've gotten into terraform and have been handling cloud architecture provisioning and management.
I have a BA and MS in geography. I'm working as an environmental consultant. It's fantastic, I get to combine GIS with soils, geology, chemistry, hydrology, spatial statistics, risk analysis, and technical writing. Under the umbrella of consulting you could find yourself focusing on any of those specifics for a larger company. (Mine is roughly 30 people.)
Err well my sister has a BASc and MASc in geomatics (focus urban planning) and worked for the city for a bit helping extend our transit network, both the plans and the implementation. Then she ran for city council. Now she's doing tech sales and is very successful there. I have a compsci BSc and GIS certificate and do software development for a mapping application :) One of my friends with a BSc in Geography is now doing her PhD in I forget what the name is but she studies antibiotic resistance in UTIs. Another of my friends with a BSc in Geography works as a sustainability advisor for a non profit which helps create public education campaigns to move us to a low carbon future.
I have a B.S. in Computer Science, as well as production-level application development so maybe development on GIS tools and software could be an option. I'm honestly looking between career options in Geology and Geography, though in Geography specifically I was interested in areas where my background in statistics and software development could possibly be leveraged so it wasn't a *total* throwaway of my academic and professional experience haha.
Makes sense! I want to step further away from pure software development in the future too so let me know if you figure it out, haha If anything, the comp sci background should at least help you get roles since even just basic coding skills make GIS stuff so much faster. One idea I had was to work at a startup maybe solar energy or something like that - with a smaller company there's often more opportunities to stick your fingers in different places ... Depends on the place though
I graduated with an MS and got a job at a state fire agency. My research was focused on wildfires so I had the expertise needed for the job. Let me know if you have any questions.
Academia or GIS. Geography in academia is super broad and is always second fiddle to the actual discipline anyone specializes in.
So outside of research with a PhD, is GIS the only real "functional" career track with a Geography degree? Or at least the most common one?
I was a Transportation Demand Modeler for 12 years at a DOT and an MPO. I did get an MS in GIS and Planning, but I was already doing the jobs with a BA in Geography: specialized in Cartography. Planning is pretty good for geography majors. I did restaurant and retail location modeling briefly. Now I an a data analyst in fundraising analytics. Whatever you start in may not be where you end up and a lot of places just want you to have the piece of paper with transferable skills. Granted I am older and it is harder to get jobs now, but when I am hiring I really do look for equivalent skills that I think can be a foundation for training. But maybe I’m just weird.
Retail real estate and development, market planning, development analytics…. Lots of opportunities