Career in map making / GIS

Woofer

OK, here is my story in brief. Studied business in college, and have worked with a leading IT/management consultancy firm for the past 5 years since graduation (where I have done reasonably well and gotten good experience - mainly in IT project management).

However, it was never my ambition to work in this industry and lately I have been looking to "steer" my career towards the things I like.

To simplify it - I have always loved geography, specifically maps, so I am now looing into going back to college to earn some form of qualification that would lead to a career in map making/design etc. My dream job would be working for ESRI, building maps using GIS. But I know nothing about the industry etc !

So I am wondering does anyone have any advice on how I could get into this area? There are numerous post grads on offer in various colleges in Ireland that would touch on or use GIS (such as the planning post grad in UCD or the Geography one in TCD).

Is this the only way to approach this? Has anyone got any info on this? I would greatly appreciate any advice from someone who studied similar discipline in college or works in the industry.

Thanks!

Mimojo

You may want to check out this course at NUI Maynooth, from all account it is very good http://geography.nuim.ie/postgraduates/mscingisremotesensing

"The aim of the course is to produce marketable graduates who will make significant contributions to Geographical Information Systems, Remote Sensing, and other disciplines within industry, government and academia. Graduates can expect to find careers in information technology based companies, Ordnance Survey, academia and in state bodies"

It runs from Jan to Dec every year, and the closing date for application is July.

The basic entry requirement is a degree with a minimum of Second Class Honours or
equivalent in any of the following subjects: Geography, Planning; Physics; Computer Science; Environmental Science; Geology; Mathematics; Engineering; Public Administration; Public Health or a cognate discipline.

This course is part-financed by the National Development Plan (EU) fee for eligible EU citizens is expected to be €2000 (approximately). Details about cost of the course may be obtained from the Admission’s Office.

The course itself includes a work placement as part of its requirement which would be very handy, esp the way things are now

Hope this helps!

Woofer

Thanks this helps a lot - I had been looking at this course (and a similar one in UCC. Would this be very technical? Does it assume a good basis in sciences/maths etc. My concern is that I have a business background, and the pre-reqs for acceptance specify a course in a complimentary discipline (geogrpahy engineering etc - no business). What are my chances of realistically getting accepted for something like this?

boozelerooze

boozelerooze wrote: »

Public Administration; Public Health or a cognate discipline.[/FONT]

I reckon you would have a good chance, nothing particularly technical about public administration courses I reckon

If you work in IT project management you're obviously technical enough.

Mimojo

I contacted the college about this course a while back and their reply was "The course is very popular, but we can only offer about 20 places". I would say that they do get a lot of applicants, but as another post notes I dont think that it would be overly technical, and Im sure that you would have no problem with it coming from IT.

If you are interested you could make contact with Dr Paul Gibson, Director of the MSc in GIS and Remote Sensing, I am sure that he can offer you specific advice regarding your particular background

ash_18x

Hi, I only saw this now!

I did this course in NUIM and graduated in 2004. It is an excellent course and it is extremely popular. I went straight on from my degree (geography and maths) into it as most people did. It is supposedly alot better than the one UCC offer. Alot of the graduates go to work in OSi and the likes. With google maps setting up in Dublin soon it would be good to have this course if that is the area you want to get into.

It is technical enough to be honest, alot of maths too. I had a degree in maths and I still found bits of it tough. There is a lot of work in it too. It is a year for the H Dip in it and a select number of students get to stay on to do the MSc if they so wish. That is a further 6 months. I didn't stay on to do this as I was after getting a job.

good luck!

DLz

Hi Folks,

any of you know any good online gis tutorials? I've no problem paying fees if they're worth it. Any help appreciated!