Archive for March, 2012
Spatial Career Guide – How to Become a Geospatial Analyst
In my last post I proposed 5 skills to develop during college that should help you become a successful GIS Software Developer as part of my series of blog posts on Spatial Careers. In this post I’m writing about the Geospatial Analyst career track. This one is more challenging because the path isn’t well defined. The [...]
Spatial Career Guide – 5 Key Skills for Future GIS Software Developers
Many, many folks in the GIS community find themselves in the software development universe and for good reason. Software development makes for an interesting career, blending problem solving and creativity, and most software development jobs pay fairly well with opportunities for entrepreneurial adventures. This is the path I took after finishing part of grad school and I [...]
Spatial Career Guide for Undergrads Currently Studying GIS – Curriculum Suggestions for 6 Geospatial Career Paths
In a recent post I argued that Spatial is Indeed Special but that GIS software skills will soon be obsolete. Recent graduates trying to establish “GIS careers” (perhaps we should start calling them Geospatial Careers?) have begun complaining because the opportunities they were promised haven’t materialized. I recently tried to provide some guidance for those attempting [...]
Blog Update – New Host, New Look and Feel
Dear Blog Readers, Thank you for following my blog! The last couple months have been a lot of fun and I’ve decided to upgrade my blog from WordPress.com to a hosted WordPress.org site with a new theme. I hope you like the new look and feel but please let me know in the comments section [...]
Schools are Teaching our Children to be Sedentary and Obese
I recently read an interesting article in the New York Times entitled “Is Sitting a Lethal Activity“? While I was reading the article it occurred to me that most schools are rewarding the most sedentary children and punishing children whose bodies are doing everything they can to get the exercise they need. My son is [...]
How I Deal with my Fear of Public Speaking – 10 Steps that Help me Stay Cool During Presentations
In college I was terrified of being called on during class discussions. In grad school, I would be a nervous wreck before presentations, even in small seminars. It didn’t get much better until I figured out a preparation process and an approach to presentations that worked for me. Probably the biggest thing is just doing [...]
The Academic Peer Review Process in a Nutshell
The peer review process is an integral part of academics. Professors are told to “publish or perish” and they must do so in highly regarded peer review journals to demonstrate the importance of their work. In order to get published in one of these prestigious journals they must make their way through a grueling gauntlet [...]
Banks are Destroying America’s Neighborhoods Part 2 – Response to Comments
Wow – I never expected that my post about Banks Killing America’s Neighborhoods would attract so many readers. I want to thank Daniel Roth for highlighting my thoughts on LinkedIn. I also really appreciate all the comments that were left here on my blog and on the LinkedIn Residential Real Estate discussion board. I’ll try [...]
Time to Clean House at Claremont McKenna College
I graduated in 1990 with a BA from Claremont McKenna College, known to those at the Claremont Colleges as CMC. Yes, that’s the college that was recently caught cheating. CMC reported inflated SAT scores to US News & World Report and other publications who were ranking and profiling liberal arts colleges. I guess I’m far [...]
Spatial is Indeed Special…but GIS Software Skills will Soon be Obsolete
I’m fairly new to the blogosphere and Twitter and most of the other forms of social media so I hope you’ll forgive me for arriving late to the party and digging up relatively old posts. I read a recent post by James Fee on his Spatially Adjusted blog that referred back to a 2009 blog post [...]
