CAREERS IN GIS

As you search around for jobs related to GIS analysis and especially GIS development, you may run across the terms “neogeographer”, “neogeography”, or “neogeo”.  Do not be afraid of these terms.  These terms grew out of the need to describe how people acquire knowledge or how they do their jobs relating to new ways of collecting, distributing, and viewing spatial data.

For those of you wondering what these terms mean or even if they apply to you, the best place to start is by first defining Neogeography.  Wikipedia is a simple first stop to get a decent definition.  In addition, O’Reilly Media actually published an entire textbook a few years back named Introduction to Neogeography.  Some other prominent GIS bloggers like Peter Batty and James Fee have also framed this subject.

So is a neogeographer a good thing to be?  This is usually a self-applied label with no real certificate or degree program associated with it yet.  Therefore, I would probably say that if you like the label, then go with it.  Or I can even do one better.  Go to the Ogle Earth NeoGeo jobs board and see if you are qualified for any of the jobs listed.  If you are, go ahead and proclaim yourself as a neogeographer.  However, you can just as easily label yourself a GIS Developer or GIS software engineer or GIS database guru and people will still likely understand what your speciality is.

Personally, I like to identify with a term coined by Don Meltz on his blog…“geoagnostic”.  Therefore, before you get nervous about whether or not you need to add one more description or label to your resume, I will encourage you to calm your fears.  Neogeographer is a cool, flashy title to associate with but only time will tell if it is here to stay.  My question with this type of label is what the next generation of neogeographers will call themselves…superneogeographers, perhaps?

Anyhow, if you deal with GIS or geography on a regular basis, you should already know that there are all types of applications and users out there.  There are GIS applications that are geared towards such things as criminology, archeology, real estate, or mining.  In the same vein, there are cartographers, biogeographers, cultural geographers, economic geographers, and medical geographers.  There are also software designers, media specialists, and database admins that deal with spatial applications.  The list goes on and on but in the end, we all love maps/space and how they relate to our particular interests, no matter what we call each other.

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