Industry Professional Offers Career Advice

By: Richard Serby
(Apr 01, 2004

I thought that Brian Soliday deserved to have his response to our College and University program question published this week. Thanks Brian!

Be active in professional societies - Attend meetings/social functions, Volunteer to support events, network with members, help organize a student chapter, participate on the regional board of directors. Every professional society has regional chapters, which makes it very easy to get involved.
Go to trade shows/conferences - Don't go to each booth and ask about job openings. Find out about the company and the people and pick up business cards. Follow up after the conference. If the particular company doesn't have an opening, ask them if they know of other like companies that might be interested. Whatever you do, don't hand out your resume on the show floor, as it will most likely never make it back to an office. Follow up with you resume both in hardcopy and email form. An email copy makes it much easier for someone to send your resume on to other potential employers in their network.
Make whatever sacrifices necessary to get a job in your chosen field. I accepted a 50% pay cut to take my first job as a part time digitizer/database developer. It was a painful 6-9 months, but I soon was able to move to another position.
Don't be tied to a specific geographic location. Be willing to spend some time in one of your less desirable locations to get ahead in your career.
Network - The geospatial industry is still relatively small. Outside of my first professional GIS position in 1986, every other position was obtained through networking with friends/colleagues. Here in Denver we have a networking group called The Rogues. We get together about every 6 weeks or so and have drinks/food at a local restaurant. It is a social gathering focused on sharing information regarding the industry, business opportunities, and of course, career opportunities.

Regards,
Brian
Brian L. Soliday
Vice President, Geospatial Sales, Americas
LizardTech, a Celartem Company
bsoliday@lizardtech.com
www.lizardtech.com

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