Discussion: O-related occupations

I was curious about types of occupations were available for people with orienteering/map interests. I have a ME degree and have been working in the profession since 2001, but am curious about possibly studying GIS or something similar. I have pretty good 3D solid modeling skills, so I don't think it would be too hard for me to pick up on GIS software. Any thoughts, suggestions, etc.

I studied geography and worked as GIS Software Developper. The point is, that as a GIS guy, you are more about programming, calculating and data handling and quite little about mapping the data or visualizing the data. If you are in to GIS be sure to have a good base in software development. If you re into mapping, do mapping/kartography instead.

I'm also a GIS software developer, and couch is dead on the money - you spend very little time looking at maps and a lot of time working on graphical interfaces so that other people can look at maps. :)

It's important to make the distinction between a GIS developer and a GIS analyst though. An analyst role is much more about using the GIS to extract data/relationships (so you can analyse it, funnily enough), whereas developers work on the systems that enable the analysts to do that. Whether you become solely a developer, an analyst or both tends to depend on how large an organisation you're working for.

Cartography is definitely a good option to consider if you're interested in mapping per se.

so what types of organisations hire cartographers and what needs to be on the CV to get a job

Methinks that even if we knew the answer, there wouldn't be enough spots for all the applicants on AP...

If you make your passion your work, you make your passion a drag.

Log - depends how much you enjoy your work. :)

Puke - cartographers explicitly? Or GIS analyst-types? The mining (exploration) sector used to be a good place to find mapping geeks, but the recent downturn has put a sock in that one for now.

Other than that, government is the only sector that comes to mind - planning, infrastructure...I know one guy who had a job drawing maps for bus timetables for a fair while.

Wildfire management..... that takes lots of mapping.

At the risk of getting flamed off this thread like I was the last time I mentioned it, you could always go into mapping/race directing/school O-programs programs full-time. You really can make enough to live off of (but not much more), especially if you do Adventure Races and Rogaines in addition to orienteering events.

That's funny....make a living off of producing adventure races. Not meant as a flame.

What's funny about it? I personally know a couple people doing just that and then of course there's Mark Burnett who made a small fortune off it.

Speaking from personal experience, you make a lot more money developing software than you do planning events! I still organize races, but only "big" races now . . . and do it in conjunction with computer nerdery. The opportunity cost of planning events full time is just way too high.

The race planning is fun, but computer skills pay the bills.

The military? Not sure if our cartographers are uniformed or civilian, but we sure need a lot of maps!

Quite a few Geologists out there - no Mining Engineers that i know of.
A couple of bean counters locally but none of them appear to be very good at Orienteering.

How about land surveyor.

Corporate Team Building - there are a few of us out there doing this in combination with other related projects. In North America, Eric Bone, Chris Cassone, Jackie Slavenova, Nina Wallace (Waddington) & Ed Hicks come to mind. Customers often ask for certain things, which aren't exactly always orienteering as we know it.

See my website for examples.

What about the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency?

"The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a Department of Defense combat support agency and a member of the national Intelligence Community. NGA develops imagery and map-based intelligence solutions for U.S. national defense, homeland security and safety of navigation. ... NGA provides support to civilian and military leaders and contributes to the state of readiness of U.S. military forces. NGA also contributes to humanitarian efforts, such as tracking floods and disaster support, and to peacekeeping."

And, hey! they're hiring! https://www1.nga.mil/Newsroom/TopStoryArchive/Page...

I live in the PNW and I was curious about undersea mapping. Perhaps NOAA? Does anyone have any experience and/or suggestions for this field?? Types of studies and/or degrees to pursue? Thanks,

My Dad's job has a lot to do with mapping/ cartography. Way back in the day before I came along he made a lot of orienteering maps. Now he has his own small business making road maps of cities and towns. These go into economic development guides that he publishes for those towns- which include the maps, blurbs about that town, and advertisements from local companies, etc. Its not a huge money maker, but our family get by just fine on it.

event timing is definitely a way to go, certainly in the UK orienteering tends to be organised by volunteers but there is a huge market out there for other events. Sportident uk (who I work for some weekends) cover cycling, adventure racing, corporate/fundraiser type events and even have a service for logging attendance at universities.
There's generally some form of software development required to keep up with the times too so it's not only events.

Simply become a Critic - the field doesn't matter, but by the sport's nature a lot of people seem inherently gifted in identifying minutiae and belabouring it!

I just started my grad studies in GIS / Remote Sensing (a geography dep't masters degree) recently and its a blast. I also did mapping work in the military as well. And I can vouch that NGA is a great place for map geeks if you get the right job. I've loved both the mil / gov't work as well as the academic world, and both of those tracks can provide a good income. You might also consider emergency managment, city / urban planning, or natural resources fieldwork as well.