New Jersey GIS Positions – Supply and Demand
In the last few days I saw several New Jersey-based GIS positions announcements through some of the mailing lists I subscribe to. These in addition to the open GIS positions listed on NJGIN – 21 at the time of this writing. One can easily come to the conclusion that GIS analysts and technicians are in short supply here and now.
On the other hand, as someone who runs a small GIS consultancy in New Brunswick, I can tell you that hardly a day goes by without me fielding a GIS job opening inquiry (sorry, we are not hiring at this time).
I am trying to find an explanation to what looks like a paradox, and am coming up short. Are the GIS job offerings unattractive? Are the job applicants less than qualified? Is poor communication the culprit?
You are welcome to share your experiences, anonymously if you wish.
Posted by Atanas Entchev at 6/14/2007 5:16 PM 
Categories: Jobs, New Jersey, GIS, General, NJ
Tags: Jobs New Jersey GIS General NJ
Categories: Jobs, New Jersey, GIS, General, NJ
Tags: Jobs New Jersey GIS General NJ
Antanas,
Happy Fathers Day. What do you mean by poor communication?
Ron
Ron:
I mean the possibility that the two parties don't talk to each other, for whatever reason. I should have said "lack of communication" probably.
You said: "Are the GIS job offerings unattractive? Are the job applicants less than qualified? Is poor communication the culprit?".
In my experience, a lot of job listings that should realistically be entry-level, ask for two to three years experience as a requirement. There really aren't many entry-level GIS jobs that are actually advertised as such. That might help explain why you might perceive that many job applicants are "less than qualified", since there is "poor communication" in the way job postings are written. BTW, entry level people should most definitely apply for jobs that call for "two to three years experience". Employers of course will take what they can get.
I also think that there are "local market hotspots" that have extremely high demand for GIS professionals that outstrip local supply. The Washington, DC area is one such spot, maybe NJ is another?
I have spoken with a number of "entry-level" GIS job candidates, who can only offer excitement. They expect to acquire skills on the job while getting paid. There seems to exist double-speak on both sides.
Living in Minnesota, entry-level GIS jobs are scarce. I just graduated with a bachelor GIS degree, with extra coursework in city systems, from the University of Minnesota. I interviewed for one of 5 positions doing temporary digitizing work and found myself interviewing against masters and phds.
I'm beginning to consider looking outside the Twin Cities (maybe either coast), but my wife is highly against it. I'm guessing it is a regional thing. I noticed that Orange County seemed to be a hot spot of GIS jobs.
Also a lot of times recruiters and HR don't always know what constitutes a GIS professional.
You might be a GIS Techniciam, GIS Analyst, GIS Developer, GIS Enterprise Architect, GIS Director/Manager and then start adding domain expertise like transportation, environmental, water resources, business etc.
Its a relatively new field and there still is a dearth of well rounded GIS professionals.
I am a GIS Specialist in NJ, I have a total of 3 years experience plus my college education in GIS. When looking at job postings in NJ I feel I am hesitant due to the high level of requirements. I feel my lack of training in SDE or IMS and programing pushes me to the back of the resume pile.
I think a big problem is that the field is so new that their is no fixed definition to go with the many different titles. If you look at various job boards that post GIS related jobs there are bound to be several identical jobs based on requirements but that all will use different titles. What differentiates a Technician from a Specialist, from an Analyst. And to complicate things it salaries are all over the place as well so when job hunting or posting you really need to pay attention to the job description rather then title. A perfect example of this is the State of New Jersey who classify all GIS users as Specialists of some level, no technician or analyst job descriptions exist. I hope over time some defacto descriptions will arise. I know URISA has done some work on model job descriptions but you have to pay to get them.
Another resoure for posting and searching for GIS jobs in New Jersey is NJGIS.com a user based gis information website for new jersey users.
I just graduated with a bachelor GIS degree, with extra coursework in city systems, from the University of Minnesota. I interviewed for one of 5 positions doing temporary digitizing work and found myself interviewing against masters and phds.