As part of our internship course and forum we searched for GIS positions that are currently open, and reflected on them in the context of our own experience and areas for growth.
I used the Conservation Job Board to conduct my search, it is a board I'm familiar with, and I typically use it as much to keep an eye on the listings and pay scale in my field of marine biology as much as I do to look out for new opportunities for myself. I was pleased to find GIS positions right away on the Conservation Job Board. Land and resource management is one of the primary fields that utilizes GIS, so this makes sense. Something that struck me however was how there were openings for geospatial information system work at nearly every level of experience. I feel like marine biology lately has become a little stratified in that there are a wealth of far-end entry level positions - postings that are unpaid or pay very little, asking for a dive certification or a bachelor's without prior experience. On the other hand there are also openings for Deans and Chairs of foundations and university programs that require a postdoc and over ten years of experience, but nothing for mid-level, experienced entry, or career climbing positions. This is what I have come to expect from the marine biology job market as of late.
For GIS on the other hand, I noticed that there were experienced entry jobs (no far-end entry) and mid level positions, openings that looked to be 1-2 year contracts as well as government services and career positions in addition to the high level "Director of Geospatial Services" I had expected. I think this is a reflection of the newness of GIS as a career, and of the value that organizations are placing on the toolset, while there is still a relatively small pool of applicants with the skillset needed by the industry. One other thing I did notice while browsing GIS positions was the variability of value that different organizations seemed to have. In some cases a position that primarily did geodatabase management would be near-entry level, with an hourly pay, while another position with similar job description would be salaried, and titled as a Technician IV or GIS Manager. I can assume some of this is from the variability in workload, but it was interesting to see nonetheless, and is possibly another symptom of the newness of the field and the GIS job market as a whole.
