Lab 7

Professional development

In this lab, you will submit several documents as outlined below.

Part 1: Resume

Submit an updated version of your resume. If you do not have one, you can use this document as a template.

  • An updated resume

Part 2: Job advertisements

Upload three job advertisements for positions that you are interested in, and export each as an individual .pdf. Ideally these should have a geospatial component, but if you are not remotely interested in geospatial jobs, that’s ok! I’d rather this exercise be useful to you than simply pertain to the course content in vain.

In looking for positions, consider the following sources:

In your search, I would strongly encourage you to think outside of the box in terms of position titles. Instead of simply typing “GIS Analyst” or “GIS Technician” in the search bar, consider other searches such as:

  • “Geospatial consultant”
  • “Data analyst geospatial”
  • “Geospatial developer”

Additionally, consider searches of specific tools along with the term “geospatial” or “GIS”. E.g.:

  • “Python GIS”
  • “R geospatial”
  • “Survey123”
  • “Geospatial SQL”

While there may not be jobs under the specific title that you search, those searches may lead you to interesting jobs that you may not have found otherwise (e.g., in some quick searches I found jobs titled “Catastrophe Research Analyst”, “Tree auditor”, and “GIS & Data Librarian”). Further, don’t restrict yourself to jobs in this region; look all over the country (or world)!

I would also encourage you to pick a job which you may not yet be qualified for but looks highly attractive. Even if you are not graduating soon, it’s still a good practice to survey the job market and tailor your skills to jobs available.

Part 3: Mock interview

Here you will practice interviewing using a large language model (LLM) such as ChatGPT. The point of this exercise is not to answer the questions perfectly but to gain experience in answering GIS interview questions on the fly and then reflect on the process.

First, supply an LLM with the following (you should copy/paste this text):

You will conduct a mock GIS interview with me. Give me three GIS-related questions, but supply them one-at-a-time. After each question, I will verbally dictate an answer. After all three questions have been answered, you will provided me constructive feedback.

Answer each question in turn with your microphone. After the mock interview is complete, copy/paste the entire chat into a word processing document. Then, reflect on the process: how did the LLM do in supplying you questions? How did you do in answering them? Was this effective in getting you to think about GIS interview questions? Why or why not?

Rubric

  • Resume (10 points total)
    • Completeness (5 pts.)
    • Aesthetics (5 pts.)
  • Job advertisements (1 points each)
  • Mock interview (7 points)

Total: 20 points