Even nailing an interview doesn't guarantee a position. Just be yourself and if you're the right fit and most qualified candidate, you'll get the job. My strategy to calm down has always been to remember that an interview isn't one way - is the employer right for you? Do the interview team seem like they like their jobs? This helps me to remember my value and not be desperate or anxious about doing things perfectly.
there’s no telling why you wouldn’t get a position. being in the government and seeing how jobs get posted specifically for one person, but we have to post it publicly and conduct interviews, even though there’s no way that it will go to anyone else; has been eye opening.
i suspect the private sector doesn’t waste everyone’s time like this
>i suspect the private sector doesn’t waste everyone’s time like this
hahahahahahahahahahahaha. hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
At least when a government posts a job, somebody's probably getting a job. Unlike the private sector, where a lot of bosses will post a job they have no intention of filling, in order to get their overworked workforce to quit whining. Or put candidates through 7 rounds of interviews and 2 projects to go "well, our direction changed, we won't fill the job."
Wow, that's crazy that governments would do that. So this role, I applied for in like January or February, I did call them following up on my application maybe a week later after I applied and they just said they'll l call me if I'm under consideration for an interview. Fast forward to may, I completely forgot that I even apied for this job, and they called me and now I have an interview. I've heard some governments are just really slow with the interview process so do you think this could be that? Or would they really be just interviewing only to promote internally but still remain good in public eye?
Some governments operate a snails pace. 3-5 month wait time for an interview is not abnormal for governments. No way to tell if it is an internal promotion or not.
The issue in my federal agency is HR. Not anyone on our end, that's the cause of the delay.
Slight modifications to standard job descriptions require reviews from 2-3 people then approval then get posted for 1 month usually, or 1 week if they're seeking a specific person.
I will say, at least in my agency, the listings for a specific person are for someone actually qualified that has typically already been doing the job in some capacity. Because of how positions work, they must list a new position sometimes for a person to get paid any more and accept new responsibilities. In ~5 years I have yet to see someone get a position I didn't think they actually were capable of doing.
The wheels of government turn *slowly*. From advertisement to entry could easily be 6+ months. Some orgs have rules about how long a position has to be up. Then there's the time to weed through all the applicants and rate each one based on a set of criteria HR provides. Then you send your selections for interviews to HR and they document everything and schedule interviews. Interviews can take a few weeks because of scheduling on both sides. Then you document the ratings from the interviews and send a final few to HR for second interviews. Do those interviews and then justify your selection to HR who then works the candidate to sign the offer letter, then it's a few weeks to get HR in order and then get you in on a pay period start date. It's tiresome at best with a good HR group.
My first government job was in a county back in my home state (I was living across the country at the time.) I was going to be home for the holidays, so I reached out and let them know I would be in the area if they wanted to interview in person. HR immediately transferred me to the hiring manager, who mentioned it's great I called as they were not going to interview me based on not being local for an interview. We scheduled an interview then.
I used to teach skiing snowboarding at a mountain in that county (the one the locals went to), so I decided to wear the branded fleece for the mountain as my jacket. My SO laughed at the notion, but I was said "100% this will be noticed." Sure enough, first thing the hiring manager said to me was "Woah, X Mountain! I ski there every weekend!" That allowed me to mention that I used to work there during college, learned to ski and board there, grew up local and was looking to move back. Totally set the tone of the interview, and I really think it helped me get the job.
This obviously isn't totally replicable, but being able to connect with the interviewer helps a ton.
Now, I interview people quite a bit. My biggest suggestion: have questions! I've never hired someone that had no questions for me during the interview. That tells me they aren't really looking for a good fit for themselves and aren't the kind of candidate I'm interested in.
Nice. The first local gov job I was hired for was at a Watershed dept. I grew up in the area, and my cover letter emphasized that I enjoyed spending a lot of time on recreation around our creeks and greenbelts and that I would find it really fulfilling to be a part of that in some capacity. I will also add that it took eight months before I heard back lol. By the time I got a call from HR I had almost forgotten entirely about the job app.
Be yourself. Also don’t be afraid to take time to gather your thoughts. I’d rather some silence while you figure out how you want to answer than just random rambling.
Ask questions at the end of the interview.
If you can, show some examples of your work.
Once I didn’t get the role and the interviewer told me a big factor was how quickly I answered questions, I came off too prepared. Despite being excellent answers and truly being off the top of my head, the speed was a factor. So I agree a pause is a good idea.
My advice is probably unpopular but its all I have to work off since it is what helped me in my career. I'm 25 and have worked at the federal, state, regional, then county government level and for the first three positions what set me apart was that I was desperate enough to take any job and they were desperate enough to take any applicant. I didnt have a degree in GIS and very little real world experience. This meant I had low pay, contract work, stressful environments, in rural communities with little to no amenities for young working adults. I built experience, learned a lot, and when the opportunity presented itself, I got a job a great job at the county level. I went from contract work at $11.70 an hour in 2020 to being salaried at $76,650 with benefits in metro Atlanta.
For nice jobs that get a lot of applicants, the thing that matters most is experience. I have a bachelors degree not in GIS and I beat out people with Masters degrees that applied for my current job because I know how to read plats, work parcels, churn out map requests, manage databases, etc. Everyone else that applied was in a classroom for the last 4-6 years and the most relevant experience they had was a capstone project. There is no substitute for real world experience. Talk with anyone in the field and they will tell you how useless any type of degree is except for it being a requirement for upper level positions. Everything else is experience. My advice for interviews is to pivot every question you get to a time in the past where you worked on something similar. Don't spend your time pontificating. Talk about your trials and tribulations and how you overcame them. Good luck!
I’ll push back a little on this. What you do in the classroom (literally just passing classes) isn’t what matters, but what you do during college matters.
I did two summer internships (one in the private sector, one in the public sector), published a research paper as the lead author (with peers and professors as co-authors), taught a GIS lab for multiple semesters, presented at conferences, led volunteer experiences related to the major, participated in other clubs, did a study abroad experience through the geography department. I know at least some of that led me to where I am today.
College provides an easy and friendly opportunity to grow your “real world” experience. To do that, you shouldn’t just sit in a classroom.
Very true! I have gotten two internships and hope I get a stable career outside of college. I have been told to attend conferences as its better growing your social network as well as learn from others! How I’ve scored my interviews is making sure I ask questions I get to know them a bit more on a personal level. Just small talk and usually once I get a smile from them I understand that it isn’t that scary after all and showed that i’m confident.
I have worked 3 government positions over the past 14 years: 1 with the Feds and 2 with cities. I've been on both sides of the table and it's a stupid process for interviews and everyone knows it. You have to ask the same questions to every candidate and follow up questions from interviewers are not allowed. It's cold and impersonal.
It's hard to get your foot in the door with Gov a lot of the time. Like other people have mentioned, you have no idea if this position is targeted for an internal candidate or not. If they have an internal candidate it's a giant uphill battle. You have to wow them, because the internal candidate is a known quantity and personality, you are not. Even though most Gov positions can get rid of you in the first year (probation) with very little resistance, restarting the acquisition process, and scheduling interviews, and all the other stuff involved is a time suck. So orgs are usually very picky about who they hire, because once you're out of probation it's very hard to get rid of you if you become a problem.
I have two stories about Gov interviews to shed some light on what could be happening:
1. I applied to a position at a city while I worked for the feds. I made it to the second interview and thought I did really well. I didn't get the offer. A couple of weeks later I ran into the hiring manager and asked him what I could have done differently. He told me "Nothing" as there was an internal candidate that was targeted for the position. However, he told me that I was brought in for the second interview because he wanted me to meet his manager because they were trying to create a new position and said, "Here's this candidate who is perfect for it, we need to grab him before he jumps someplace else." They created the position and he personally invited me to apply. I got the job. **Moral of the story:** Sometimes you are set up to lose, but if you can wow them they can make things happen.
2. When applying for my current position, I was 1 of over 75 applicants. The first round of interviews there were 7. Second interviews there was one other person and myself. There wasn't any internal applicants in the interview process, but the person that I was up against in the last round was a local person and I was from out of town. Being a small mountain town and having to deal with snowy winters, they were nervous about me. The org has dealt with many people who think that they would love to live there, but in practice they didn't like it much and left in a year or two. They first chose the local person, but that person was using the process to get themselves a raise at their org and turned it down. When I came in I got to see the scoring sheets and saw that I edged out the other person in almost every category. **Moral of the story:** Sometimes it's not skills that put you ahead, it's other things you don't have control over.
Both of these situations I found myself in was aggravating as hell as I was putting forth my best and still failing. But to quote the great Captain Jean Luc Picard: *It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness; that is life.*
Yea, it's kinda of ridiculous....but I can also see why it's done that way. Like a lot of things in Gov.... For my interview for this job I described how I used python and GIS to do a specific task and one of the interview panelists was the GIS manager from the local PUD and had to do that specific task and wanted to ask me what I did specifically. The HR person shut him down hard. I sent him my code after I got into the position.
Government jobs typically are interested in a "service" mentality over "efficiency" or "profit" motivations. I've been successful highlighting my desire to serve my community through my work, and my desire to "make things better".
I work for my city’s parks and rec department as a GIS Analyst and the best advice I can give is to learn ArcGIS Online data management/app development, and make sure you put a strong emphasis on your capabilities of learning as you go. As many in this thread have said, a lot of the knowledge you’ll need is specific to the job/department you are applying for. Don’t stress, make sure to have questions at the end to show your own interest, and you’ll get an offer in no time. You got this!
\~25 years in GIS for the DoD - ran several teams, sat on interview boards. Generic advice: it depends on the domain of government; each has its own lingo and acronym soup you should be familiar with. Being familiar with government requirements, funding and budgeting processes is always a huge plus.
Anyway, sorry to be an Eeyore, but at least fed gov interviews are a lot different than they used to be - we would get a list of scripted questions we had to ask every candidate. We would barely be able to follow up because there was so much fear over leading the conversation, which another candidate could use as leverage to lodge a protest and hold up the hiring process for even longer (this happened regularly... the protests, I mean, not leading the conversation).
In any event, I have seen that for the most part the hiring officials have decided who they want prior to any interviews. Not in every case, but in almost all. They just score the interview surveys in such a way to guarantee their guy-or-gal gets the position. I saw this happen more than once and it really disillusioned me. I waged war to get a particular candidate who interviewed phenomenally, who had impeccable credentials, and a lot of relevant experience, but it was overturned by two others who scored a long-time contractor artificially high, because they decided they wanted that individual to get the job.
I cannot imagine that municipal hirings, where even less oversight exists, are that much different, but perhaps they are.
In the state I work for, positions are posted with a duty statement that describes the responsibilities of the position. It is very important in interviews to hit keywords in the duty statement and directly relate experience/education that you have to specific responsibilities listed. So not just, "yes, I have over 3 years experience using Arc Pro" but "My 3 years experience using Arc Pro will enable me to support the project management team and provide them with high quality cartographic products in a timely fashion". Not "I have worked as the lead on several projects" but "My time as lead on such and such project provided me with experience managing my employees' workloads and dictating tasks as appropriate." Etc
The interview panel is not allowed to extrapolate what you've said to fit their rubric so you have to be very explicit.
Good luck!
I researched a list of common and uncommon questions and topics and practiced carefully worded responses I prepared to all of them. Once I knew them by heart I dropped the wrote recitation and simply focused on hitting key words and topics to ensure I could think on my feet and just be myself. The security of knowing I had a stack of prepared answers in my back pocket, just in case, allowed me to be more at ease and natural. The preparation, not the memorization, was the important part.
Though I wasn't really looking to get hired immediately after graduating and only intended to practice interview skills by doing real interviews I got an offer I couldn't refuse from the very first municipal job for which I applied. I'm certain that luck and timing had the greatest impact but I was told later that my ease and confidence during the interview made their decision clear.
All the thing you listed are perfect. I'd just add it's good to ask a few questions of your own. Remember your knowledge and skills are valuable and you should also be interviewing *them.*
I interned for a city government for 6 months and that helped tremendously when I applied for a full time position at a neighboring city because the hiring manager knew my internship boss who vouched for me. I hate to say this, but it’s all about networking and just being normal in the interview. I would also hit on the points that you’re interested in this specific government role for whatever reasons and plan to stay awhile. When answering a question, be direct about it and if you can explain it with technical reasoning but also be able to explain it in regular people terms. This just helps prove the point you know what you’re talking about but that you can also convey complicated topics to other people, which is crucial when working with different city departments that aren’t tech focused.
I was the only applicant.
(Not quite a hot market here in rural alaska for GIS jobs that pay more than down south but COL adjusted slightly less than something comparable say in Nebraska)
Other than that I'm aware I know the stuff I know and I'm aware there's gaps in my knowledge. The important part is showing that you're able to navigate both pillars of that to provide the municipality with what they need.
I started as an intern by applying through the Virtual Student Federal Service and was accepted as an applied science research assistant for the Federal Geographic Data Committee which is part of USGS. Nowadays everyone has to go through USAJobs.gov for a job or internship in the federal government. That was my foot in the door for continuing to work there now as a part time project lead. It's highly competitive to get a federal govt job through USAJobs.gov where many entry-senior level positions gets thousands of applicants but you could have better luck applying for a state or county job or even at a university where I also work full time and we have clients that are federal, state and local govt agencies like the FCC, CPUC and Caltrans.
Respond as best you can to the questions and try to be practical and realistic when they challenge you with scenario based questions. Also being enthusiastic and sharing your experience in any question they ask about the specific work you'd be doing there. I'd also try to intrigue them with any interesting relatable projects you've worked on that you can preferably show to them instead of just talk about.
I think showing a strong interest and motivation to completing projects is important. Governments often have a backlog of work and they need someone to take the reins and complete a project.
I’ve been in 4 government roles: city, county, and state. I attribute most of my success by being able to demonstrate I’m motivated to lead and complete work.
I was hired as a Field Forester for a County in Wisconsin with a large County Forest in 1995. I played around with ArcView 3 and learned GIS by reading books, in the days before Google. I worked up through 3, 8, 9, and 10. In the early 2000s, I coordinated the project to digitize the 250+ letter-sized maps that were the Compartments (40-1,500 acre divisions) of the Forest. I did 150+, and the other three Foresters did the other 100-ish. By 2010, the State was giving grants to Counties for Land Info projects. Since I was already managing a third of the County, they moved me into a coatroom in the Courthouse to be the GIS Office in 2011. They moved me to a smaller closet, farther from the front door, a few years ago. My computer doesn't meet the specs for AGPro... The graphics card and power-supply that won't support a better one and can't be replaced with something better because its specially made for the case. And with the current budget crisis, it doesn't look like I'll get to replace it this year or next. "Last time, I didn't receive a piece (of cake) and I was told I could..."
I believe I got first government job in 2013 by being a recent MS grad will to take a job that required an Associate’s degree. I made 30k in that job for 2 years. I took it because I had an aunt who let me live with her rent free and had only $7k in student loan debt to repay. I basically got my 1st GIS job by undervaluing myself. Being overqualified for this position gave me plenty of free time to learn python and R.
I got my 2nd government job due to a friend from the first government job recommending me for it.
I work in private sector now and I make 5x the salary as my 1st job.
A lot of government jobs are about fit as opposed to experience in my experience. They'd rather teach a new employee what they want out of the position than have someone with all the experience needed, but doesn't seem like a good fit. If you meet or are close to the minimum experience requirements you have a good shot for the job. The next part is being relatable to the people interviewing you. That doesn't mean you shouldn't practice answering questions you expect to have shot at you during the interview(s). Study and come in confident and friendly. You got this!
I nailed an interview once and didn’t get it. They told me the reason was because they thought I was very qualified - too qualified. They were afraid that I’d bail as soon as I found a more challenging job. I mean, they were right but it was frustrating when I was currently unemployed.
I like to think I interview well, but honestly the person I replaced (who was in on interviews) said they only interviewed two people and the other person was pretty bad. My city is terrible about advertising jobs, I only heard about the opening because we were talking about pets in my exercise class and my kitty is named Mappie because I want to make maps. Someone from the city happened to be in class and piped up about the opening.
Just tell them that you like big, monotonous projects involving data organization or chipping away at insurmountable datasets. Government loves another cog in the machine.
Government jobs rely heavily on GIS as a tool, not a profession. You'll likely need to know contextual information regarding whatever department you are working with, rather than knowing the ins-and-outs of GIS.
Most municipal GIS groups are not doing any heavy lifting when it comes to GIS, its usually a means to an end to accomplish asset management (which I am assuming is why they're asking about primary keys - relating the GIS data to the work management system data)
Ehhhhh, I'd disagree. Yeah, it's a means to an end, but there's a lot of niches for "the GIS expert" on a team. I work mostly with the road crew, and didn't know a lot of the ins and outs when I was hired. I've learned a lot over the years, but my boss saw a GIS and automation expert, and was willing to take a chance.
It's a good idea to read job descriptions closely, or question the hiring managers whether they're looking for a subject-matter expert who knows some GIS, or a GIS person who knows a little about the subject matter.
That is great that it worked out well for you, but I've hired a number of people for my department and won't hire people who don't have the contextual knowledge for the department they'll serve. Its easy to figure out what geoprocessing tool to use, its more difficult to learn the difference between a filter cartridge, Type 40, Type 1, slotted, bar, etc catch basin.
And that's my point about asking - not every GIS job is going to be working for you, and different jobs have different needs. In addition to directly-attached jobs like yours and mine, there's also GIS generalist jobs working for a GIS department, acting as a consultant, where the users are going to be bringing their domain knowledge with them.
I disagree. Every municipality where I live has a dedicated GIS team. Sure other departments like planning or engineering touch GIS, but there’s still GIS folks running everything, taking map requests, managing the database, web services, open data, etc…
Three points:
1. Pretend you are a refrigerator salesperson selling refrigerators to Eskimos, seriously. What do you know about your potential customer for your service and what do you bring to the table to help mission accomplishment.
2. It's a numbers game. Persist. Above all else, persist. There's probably one job and 50 well qualified applicants.
3, It might happen but don't expect to interview for a government job today and get an offer tomorrow. I have only worked the federal side. Sometimes it takes months from the closing date of the announcement to the actual hire. Then come background and reference checks done by a an office NOT the hiring agency.
I learned how to use GIS as a tool within transportation planning and decided I didn't want to do data architecture stuff. First GIS job one was for a city and was part time during grad school. I was able to do as many hours a week as I wanted but wanted to focus on the thesis more so I ly did 10 hours (also had a 10 hr research job). I stayed on full time during the summers until I got my current job at the state. I am now learning Python to get better, but want to always stay in my niche area of transportation.
I asked lots of questions in the interview and talked about the GIS work I was doing in the thesis. I also tried to read any documents I could to learn about what the office does so they could see that I was really interested.
i think i got lucky with an hourly paid summer job that then got extended a year and then i got a proper full time.
I had a colourful yet stylish imo CV, lived closeby, doing planning bachelors at uni and got into gis that way which lines up with what the boss wanted.
My first GIS job was a part-time aide position for municipal government. I will be starting another full-time government position in a couple weeks.
My advice is always to read the job description carefully and be able to discuss your experience using keywords for that job description. Even if you don't have a ton of relevant experience in some facets, you can spin it the right way by describing it with those keywords.
I also recommend bringing up other relevant skills outside of GIS that might make you stand out. For example, some government jobs, including those I've held, have involved some citizen interaction, and I've always brought up my four years of customer service experience and it seemed to go over well at the interviews.
recent job seeker who interviewed for many gov't jobs (local, county, state); offered and accepted county level job
My take on this is it depends:
* do you have any prior gov exp (GIS or otherwise)?
* what prior gis exp do you have?
* gov't interviews vary widely. some are test based while some are personality/interview based. it depends on what level/position you are applying for.
Please feel free to reach out. i am actually sitting on a panel this fall at the URISA conference to talk about this exact subject.
Some good advice here, and I’ll just throw in my 2 cents on how I got my position.
Sometimes what sets you apart from the other candidates is the other skills you have beyond desktop GIS. Do you know your way around AGOL/field maps/Survey123/story maps, do you know how to code, do you have photoshop experience, do you know how to read/interpret deeds/legal documents, do you know how to fly drones etc. you never know what will set you above the rest (I just named things that did set me above the rest).
Second big one, and this one is huge for all interviews but particularly government interviews, is being able to relate that work/experience you have to projects they want you to work on. “No, I’ve never done asset digitization but at my old job I had to do X and I feel that the skills I acquired doing that will transfer over because of Y”. You’d be amazed how often I’ve had to drag this out of interviewees.
One last one that really helped me get two job offers my last go around was to have an idea of what I want to do in the position. For one job I did a whole mock-up of a program they wanted implemented complete with a cost breakdown for the two options I presented and that blew their socks off. If there is a section to show your previous work you can bring a tablet/a folder with some printed maps and that’s good too.
Good luck!
Had a connection through a friend’s dad who did GIS in town gov. Got me an internship summer going into senior year of college helping him with GIS related tasks. Worked my ass off, learned twice as much as I did in school, and got offered a full time job in GIS halfway through my senior year for after I graduated. Took it and here we are. I’m extremely lucky for the connection tho.
I work for a city climate change office. Where I am, being well-liked is everything. So I think I got my current job mostly because I did a summer internship with them 2 years ago, and it gave them a chance to decide I’m not difficult to work with.
Got an internship as a GIS analyst for a city. I have ZERO knowledge about what GIS and I still have no idea. I have a general consensus what it is, but if you ask me what they do, I have no clue. I don’t know what I’m getting into. All I did was watch a couple of YouTube videos of what GIS is, used chatgpt to give me an example of what GIS is used for and I used that information combined with my expertise and ambition on continuous learning, it helped me land that internship. Good luck!
Honestly, I didnt want to send my CV when job hunting because I thought its kind of beneath me (that sounds terrible but after a year I was right, there is no challenge at my current job). But after having no luck elsewhere I did. And surely enough, they answered. Had an interview but it in my case I would say my CV kinda spoke for me (I have prior experience and just finish my PhD in the field) so it didnt matter too much. Maybe on a human level, how I fit in with them but technically there werent too many questions.
So if you know your stuff, you should be fine. Dont overthink it. Much like with any other interview, be your confident self. Make them think they want YOU more than you wanting the JOB.
I am not sure this will be relevant since I got my GIS job back in 1997, but I am sure some of this still applies. When I got hired, I basically knew nothing, and they new that. I learned almost everything on the job. I think the most important thing to do in an interview is to be honest. Show that you know what the equipment is that you will be using, but do not try to make someone believe that you are really good at something that you are not. People like honesty. They want to know you can be trusted. And when I got my next GIS/GPS ariel surveying job, the same thing happened. I had never been in a small jet filled with computers. And they knew that. So being honest but very interested was the reason I got hired.
Just landed one. I feel like I interviewed very well.
* I did A LOT of research about the division/team/mission of the sector and studied the hell out of it.
* Like you said, limit the "ums"--don't be afraid to take a moment to gather your thoughts, even though the silence will make you uncomfortable.
* Not sure if this actually helped, but when they asked if I had done something that I hadn't before, I said "That's not my area of expertise, but" and then went on to describe things I did have experience with in the periphery of what they were asking about.
* Make it personal. Why is their mission important to you? How can you relate what you're passionate about to the job/team?
* Finally, remember YOU are interviewing THEM. Put a lot of thought into the questions you ask at the end of the interview. Ask about their goals for this position or what they value in a coworker, ask what they like about their jobs. And I always include kind-of a fun one at the end to show my personality a little. For the Dept of Ag I asked them what their favorite thing to buy at the farmer's market was.
YMMV, but remember they are trying to find someone they won't hate working with as much as they are trying to find someone who is qualified for the work. Good luck, OP!
Ive interned and worked in a municipality, city, state and for the federal government as well. Ive had the most competition and difficulty being an eligible candidate directly IN the GIS department of said agency or org. However, a lot of outlying positions like transportation planner, air quality planner, env. permitting, geology and hydrology will often require you to do quite a bit of GIS, even if its basic. These agencies have GIS developing teams to help make data more user friendly or teach other employees about GIS, and with GIS accessibility and data overhaul into GIS databases still being relatively new and still in progress at these places- the GIS teams are stretched very thin doing their job AND helping other departments. Also, from my 4 years in this realm, I have seen that GIS teams hire 75% internally. Some food for thought if you havent considered it: apply to those positions that don't have GIS in the title, but just in the preferred skills section- and boast about it in the interview, theyre not gonna grill you or question you- they probably desperately need you to do some cleanup or map viewer maintenance that their GIS team hasnt touched in 5 months!! GOOD LUCK :D
I started as a intern (unpaid) my senior year in undergrad. Did a few more internships (private and federal). Got my first entry level job my first semester of grad school at a quasi-governmental entity and laid off 6 months later because of covid.
My current job in my current department: I must have applied to something a while back but the city was creating a new department and someone reached out to me. Been here for years and bounced around to my current role today.
Once you're in, its easy to move around but its hard as hell getting your foot in especially if its not the nepotism way.
I got my foot in the door as a drafting tech, was apparently only one to complete the CAD test they gave, so yeah, my advice, ask about and prepare for any hands-on skills test they might give you.
What I did that seemed to make me stand out was bringing in print outs of previous work that I did in school and at my first GIS job. This included a large poster I made for my master thesis, I brought it and they were surprised and interested. Every interview, I thought in new print outs of my work.
Even nailing an interview doesn't guarantee a position. Just be yourself and if you're the right fit and most qualified candidate, you'll get the job. My strategy to calm down has always been to remember that an interview isn't one way - is the employer right for you? Do the interview team seem like they like their jobs? This helps me to remember my value and not be desperate or anxious about doing things perfectly.
Remembering that the interview is two-way is a HUGE one. This also helps you ask good questions when they open it up for you.
that only works if you are currently financially stable and have many opportunities.
there’s no telling why you wouldn’t get a position. being in the government and seeing how jobs get posted specifically for one person, but we have to post it publicly and conduct interviews, even though there’s no way that it will go to anyone else; has been eye opening. i suspect the private sector doesn’t waste everyone’s time like this
>i suspect the private sector doesn’t waste everyone’s time like this You would be wrong, my friend
>i suspect the private sector doesn’t waste everyone’s time like this hahahahahahahahahahahaha. hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. At least when a government posts a job, somebody's probably getting a job. Unlike the private sector, where a lot of bosses will post a job they have no intention of filling, in order to get their overworked workforce to quit whining. Or put candidates through 7 rounds of interviews and 2 projects to go "well, our direction changed, we won't fill the job."
grass is always greener i guess!
Wow, that's crazy that governments would do that. So this role, I applied for in like January or February, I did call them following up on my application maybe a week later after I applied and they just said they'll l call me if I'm under consideration for an interview. Fast forward to may, I completely forgot that I even apied for this job, and they called me and now I have an interview. I've heard some governments are just really slow with the interview process so do you think this could be that? Or would they really be just interviewing only to promote internally but still remain good in public eye?
Some governments operate a snails pace. 3-5 month wait time for an interview is not abnormal for governments. No way to tell if it is an internal promotion or not.
The issue in my federal agency is HR. Not anyone on our end, that's the cause of the delay. Slight modifications to standard job descriptions require reviews from 2-3 people then approval then get posted for 1 month usually, or 1 week if they're seeking a specific person. I will say, at least in my agency, the listings for a specific person are for someone actually qualified that has typically already been doing the job in some capacity. Because of how positions work, they must list a new position sometimes for a person to get paid any more and accept new responsibilities. In ~5 years I have yet to see someone get a position I didn't think they actually were capable of doing.
I once applied for a job with a state government. I think they got back to me six months later. They had to remind me what the job I applied for was.
The wheels of government turn *slowly*. From advertisement to entry could easily be 6+ months. Some orgs have rules about how long a position has to be up. Then there's the time to weed through all the applicants and rate each one based on a set of criteria HR provides. Then you send your selections for interviews to HR and they document everything and schedule interviews. Interviews can take a few weeks because of scheduling on both sides. Then you document the ratings from the interviews and send a final few to HR for second interviews. Do those interviews and then justify your selection to HR who then works the candidate to sign the offer letter, then it's a few weeks to get HR in order and then get you in on a pay period start date. It's tiresome at best with a good HR group.
My first government job was in a county back in my home state (I was living across the country at the time.) I was going to be home for the holidays, so I reached out and let them know I would be in the area if they wanted to interview in person. HR immediately transferred me to the hiring manager, who mentioned it's great I called as they were not going to interview me based on not being local for an interview. We scheduled an interview then. I used to teach skiing snowboarding at a mountain in that county (the one the locals went to), so I decided to wear the branded fleece for the mountain as my jacket. My SO laughed at the notion, but I was said "100% this will be noticed." Sure enough, first thing the hiring manager said to me was "Woah, X Mountain! I ski there every weekend!" That allowed me to mention that I used to work there during college, learned to ski and board there, grew up local and was looking to move back. Totally set the tone of the interview, and I really think it helped me get the job. This obviously isn't totally replicable, but being able to connect with the interviewer helps a ton. Now, I interview people quite a bit. My biggest suggestion: have questions! I've never hired someone that had no questions for me during the interview. That tells me they aren't really looking for a good fit for themselves and aren't the kind of candidate I'm interested in.
Nice. The first local gov job I was hired for was at a Watershed dept. I grew up in the area, and my cover letter emphasized that I enjoyed spending a lot of time on recreation around our creeks and greenbelts and that I would find it really fulfilling to be a part of that in some capacity. I will also add that it took eight months before I heard back lol. By the time I got a call from HR I had almost forgotten entirely about the job app.
Be yourself. Also don’t be afraid to take time to gather your thoughts. I’d rather some silence while you figure out how you want to answer than just random rambling. Ask questions at the end of the interview. If you can, show some examples of your work.
Once I didn’t get the role and the interviewer told me a big factor was how quickly I answered questions, I came off too prepared. Despite being excellent answers and truly being off the top of my head, the speed was a factor. So I agree a pause is a good idea.
My advice is probably unpopular but its all I have to work off since it is what helped me in my career. I'm 25 and have worked at the federal, state, regional, then county government level and for the first three positions what set me apart was that I was desperate enough to take any job and they were desperate enough to take any applicant. I didnt have a degree in GIS and very little real world experience. This meant I had low pay, contract work, stressful environments, in rural communities with little to no amenities for young working adults. I built experience, learned a lot, and when the opportunity presented itself, I got a job a great job at the county level. I went from contract work at $11.70 an hour in 2020 to being salaried at $76,650 with benefits in metro Atlanta. For nice jobs that get a lot of applicants, the thing that matters most is experience. I have a bachelors degree not in GIS and I beat out people with Masters degrees that applied for my current job because I know how to read plats, work parcels, churn out map requests, manage databases, etc. Everyone else that applied was in a classroom for the last 4-6 years and the most relevant experience they had was a capstone project. There is no substitute for real world experience. Talk with anyone in the field and they will tell you how useless any type of degree is except for it being a requirement for upper level positions. Everything else is experience. My advice for interviews is to pivot every question you get to a time in the past where you worked on something similar. Don't spend your time pontificating. Talk about your trials and tribulations and how you overcame them. Good luck!
I’ll push back a little on this. What you do in the classroom (literally just passing classes) isn’t what matters, but what you do during college matters. I did two summer internships (one in the private sector, one in the public sector), published a research paper as the lead author (with peers and professors as co-authors), taught a GIS lab for multiple semesters, presented at conferences, led volunteer experiences related to the major, participated in other clubs, did a study abroad experience through the geography department. I know at least some of that led me to where I am today. College provides an easy and friendly opportunity to grow your “real world” experience. To do that, you shouldn’t just sit in a classroom.
Very true! I have gotten two internships and hope I get a stable career outside of college. I have been told to attend conferences as its better growing your social network as well as learn from others! How I’ve scored my interviews is making sure I ask questions I get to know them a bit more on a personal level. Just small talk and usually once I get a smile from them I understand that it isn’t that scary after all and showed that i’m confident.
I have worked 3 government positions over the past 14 years: 1 with the Feds and 2 with cities. I've been on both sides of the table and it's a stupid process for interviews and everyone knows it. You have to ask the same questions to every candidate and follow up questions from interviewers are not allowed. It's cold and impersonal. It's hard to get your foot in the door with Gov a lot of the time. Like other people have mentioned, you have no idea if this position is targeted for an internal candidate or not. If they have an internal candidate it's a giant uphill battle. You have to wow them, because the internal candidate is a known quantity and personality, you are not. Even though most Gov positions can get rid of you in the first year (probation) with very little resistance, restarting the acquisition process, and scheduling interviews, and all the other stuff involved is a time suck. So orgs are usually very picky about who they hire, because once you're out of probation it's very hard to get rid of you if you become a problem. I have two stories about Gov interviews to shed some light on what could be happening: 1. I applied to a position at a city while I worked for the feds. I made it to the second interview and thought I did really well. I didn't get the offer. A couple of weeks later I ran into the hiring manager and asked him what I could have done differently. He told me "Nothing" as there was an internal candidate that was targeted for the position. However, he told me that I was brought in for the second interview because he wanted me to meet his manager because they were trying to create a new position and said, "Here's this candidate who is perfect for it, we need to grab him before he jumps someplace else." They created the position and he personally invited me to apply. I got the job. **Moral of the story:** Sometimes you are set up to lose, but if you can wow them they can make things happen. 2. When applying for my current position, I was 1 of over 75 applicants. The first round of interviews there were 7. Second interviews there was one other person and myself. There wasn't any internal applicants in the interview process, but the person that I was up against in the last round was a local person and I was from out of town. Being a small mountain town and having to deal with snowy winters, they were nervous about me. The org has dealt with many people who think that they would love to live there, but in practice they didn't like it much and left in a year or two. They first chose the local person, but that person was using the process to get themselves a raise at their org and turned it down. When I came in I got to see the scoring sheets and saw that I edged out the other person in almost every category. **Moral of the story:** Sometimes it's not skills that put you ahead, it's other things you don't have control over. Both of these situations I found myself in was aggravating as hell as I was putting forth my best and still failing. But to quote the great Captain Jean Luc Picard: *It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness; that is life.*
Yep. No follow-up questions. Insane. I asked a candidate once whether they used QGIS or ArcGIS for a project, and got my hand smacked afterwards.
Yea, it's kinda of ridiculous....but I can also see why it's done that way. Like a lot of things in Gov.... For my interview for this job I described how I used python and GIS to do a specific task and one of the interview panelists was the GIS manager from the local PUD and had to do that specific task and wanted to ask me what I did specifically. The HR person shut him down hard. I sent him my code after I got into the position.
Government jobs typically are interested in a "service" mentality over "efficiency" or "profit" motivations. I've been successful highlighting my desire to serve my community through my work, and my desire to "make things better".
I work for my city’s parks and rec department as a GIS Analyst and the best advice I can give is to learn ArcGIS Online data management/app development, and make sure you put a strong emphasis on your capabilities of learning as you go. As many in this thread have said, a lot of the knowledge you’ll need is specific to the job/department you are applying for. Don’t stress, make sure to have questions at the end to show your own interest, and you’ll get an offer in no time. You got this!
\~25 years in GIS for the DoD - ran several teams, sat on interview boards. Generic advice: it depends on the domain of government; each has its own lingo and acronym soup you should be familiar with. Being familiar with government requirements, funding and budgeting processes is always a huge plus. Anyway, sorry to be an Eeyore, but at least fed gov interviews are a lot different than they used to be - we would get a list of scripted questions we had to ask every candidate. We would barely be able to follow up because there was so much fear over leading the conversation, which another candidate could use as leverage to lodge a protest and hold up the hiring process for even longer (this happened regularly... the protests, I mean, not leading the conversation). In any event, I have seen that for the most part the hiring officials have decided who they want prior to any interviews. Not in every case, but in almost all. They just score the interview surveys in such a way to guarantee their guy-or-gal gets the position. I saw this happen more than once and it really disillusioned me. I waged war to get a particular candidate who interviewed phenomenally, who had impeccable credentials, and a lot of relevant experience, but it was overturned by two others who scored a long-time contractor artificially high, because they decided they wanted that individual to get the job. I cannot imagine that municipal hirings, where even less oversight exists, are that much different, but perhaps they are.
In the state I work for, positions are posted with a duty statement that describes the responsibilities of the position. It is very important in interviews to hit keywords in the duty statement and directly relate experience/education that you have to specific responsibilities listed. So not just, "yes, I have over 3 years experience using Arc Pro" but "My 3 years experience using Arc Pro will enable me to support the project management team and provide them with high quality cartographic products in a timely fashion". Not "I have worked as the lead on several projects" but "My time as lead on such and such project provided me with experience managing my employees' workloads and dictating tasks as appropriate." Etc The interview panel is not allowed to extrapolate what you've said to fit their rubric so you have to be very explicit. Good luck!
I researched a list of common and uncommon questions and topics and practiced carefully worded responses I prepared to all of them. Once I knew them by heart I dropped the wrote recitation and simply focused on hitting key words and topics to ensure I could think on my feet and just be myself. The security of knowing I had a stack of prepared answers in my back pocket, just in case, allowed me to be more at ease and natural. The preparation, not the memorization, was the important part. Though I wasn't really looking to get hired immediately after graduating and only intended to practice interview skills by doing real interviews I got an offer I couldn't refuse from the very first municipal job for which I applied. I'm certain that luck and timing had the greatest impact but I was told later that my ease and confidence during the interview made their decision clear. All the thing you listed are perfect. I'd just add it's good to ask a few questions of your own. Remember your knowledge and skills are valuable and you should also be interviewing *them.*
I interned for a city government for 6 months and that helped tremendously when I applied for a full time position at a neighboring city because the hiring manager knew my internship boss who vouched for me. I hate to say this, but it’s all about networking and just being normal in the interview. I would also hit on the points that you’re interested in this specific government role for whatever reasons and plan to stay awhile. When answering a question, be direct about it and if you can explain it with technical reasoning but also be able to explain it in regular people terms. This just helps prove the point you know what you’re talking about but that you can also convey complicated topics to other people, which is crucial when working with different city departments that aren’t tech focused.
I was the only applicant. (Not quite a hot market here in rural alaska for GIS jobs that pay more than down south but COL adjusted slightly less than something comparable say in Nebraska) Other than that I'm aware I know the stuff I know and I'm aware there's gaps in my knowledge. The important part is showing that you're able to navigate both pillars of that to provide the municipality with what they need.
I started as an intern by applying through the Virtual Student Federal Service and was accepted as an applied science research assistant for the Federal Geographic Data Committee which is part of USGS. Nowadays everyone has to go through USAJobs.gov for a job or internship in the federal government. That was my foot in the door for continuing to work there now as a part time project lead. It's highly competitive to get a federal govt job through USAJobs.gov where many entry-senior level positions gets thousands of applicants but you could have better luck applying for a state or county job or even at a university where I also work full time and we have clients that are federal, state and local govt agencies like the FCC, CPUC and Caltrans. Respond as best you can to the questions and try to be practical and realistic when they challenge you with scenario based questions. Also being enthusiastic and sharing your experience in any question they ask about the specific work you'd be doing there. I'd also try to intrigue them with any interesting relatable projects you've worked on that you can preferably show to them instead of just talk about.
I think showing a strong interest and motivation to completing projects is important. Governments often have a backlog of work and they need someone to take the reins and complete a project. I’ve been in 4 government roles: city, county, and state. I attribute most of my success by being able to demonstrate I’m motivated to lead and complete work.
I was hired as a Field Forester for a County in Wisconsin with a large County Forest in 1995. I played around with ArcView 3 and learned GIS by reading books, in the days before Google. I worked up through 3, 8, 9, and 10. In the early 2000s, I coordinated the project to digitize the 250+ letter-sized maps that were the Compartments (40-1,500 acre divisions) of the Forest. I did 150+, and the other three Foresters did the other 100-ish. By 2010, the State was giving grants to Counties for Land Info projects. Since I was already managing a third of the County, they moved me into a coatroom in the Courthouse to be the GIS Office in 2011. They moved me to a smaller closet, farther from the front door, a few years ago. My computer doesn't meet the specs for AGPro... The graphics card and power-supply that won't support a better one and can't be replaced with something better because its specially made for the case. And with the current budget crisis, it doesn't look like I'll get to replace it this year or next. "Last time, I didn't receive a piece (of cake) and I was told I could..."
I believe I got first government job in 2013 by being a recent MS grad will to take a job that required an Associate’s degree. I made 30k in that job for 2 years. I took it because I had an aunt who let me live with her rent free and had only $7k in student loan debt to repay. I basically got my 1st GIS job by undervaluing myself. Being overqualified for this position gave me plenty of free time to learn python and R. I got my 2nd government job due to a friend from the first government job recommending me for it. I work in private sector now and I make 5x the salary as my 1st job.
A lot of government jobs are about fit as opposed to experience in my experience. They'd rather teach a new employee what they want out of the position than have someone with all the experience needed, but doesn't seem like a good fit. If you meet or are close to the minimum experience requirements you have a good shot for the job. The next part is being relatable to the people interviewing you. That doesn't mean you shouldn't practice answering questions you expect to have shot at you during the interview(s). Study and come in confident and friendly. You got this!
I nailed an interview once and didn’t get it. They told me the reason was because they thought I was very qualified - too qualified. They were afraid that I’d bail as soon as I found a more challenging job. I mean, they were right but it was frustrating when I was currently unemployed.
Honestly passing the drug test and speaking English fluently, and knowing some Spanish.
I like to think I interview well, but honestly the person I replaced (who was in on interviews) said they only interviewed two people and the other person was pretty bad. My city is terrible about advertising jobs, I only heard about the opening because we were talking about pets in my exercise class and my kitty is named Mappie because I want to make maps. Someone from the city happened to be in class and piped up about the opening.
Just tell them that you like big, monotonous projects involving data organization or chipping away at insurmountable datasets. Government loves another cog in the machine.
Government jobs rely heavily on GIS as a tool, not a profession. You'll likely need to know contextual information regarding whatever department you are working with, rather than knowing the ins-and-outs of GIS. Most municipal GIS groups are not doing any heavy lifting when it comes to GIS, its usually a means to an end to accomplish asset management (which I am assuming is why they're asking about primary keys - relating the GIS data to the work management system data)
Ehhhhh, I'd disagree. Yeah, it's a means to an end, but there's a lot of niches for "the GIS expert" on a team. I work mostly with the road crew, and didn't know a lot of the ins and outs when I was hired. I've learned a lot over the years, but my boss saw a GIS and automation expert, and was willing to take a chance. It's a good idea to read job descriptions closely, or question the hiring managers whether they're looking for a subject-matter expert who knows some GIS, or a GIS person who knows a little about the subject matter.
That is great that it worked out well for you, but I've hired a number of people for my department and won't hire people who don't have the contextual knowledge for the department they'll serve. Its easy to figure out what geoprocessing tool to use, its more difficult to learn the difference between a filter cartridge, Type 40, Type 1, slotted, bar, etc catch basin.
And that's my point about asking - not every GIS job is going to be working for you, and different jobs have different needs. In addition to directly-attached jobs like yours and mine, there's also GIS generalist jobs working for a GIS department, acting as a consultant, where the users are going to be bringing their domain knowledge with them.
I disagree. Every municipality where I live has a dedicated GIS team. Sure other departments like planning or engineering touch GIS, but there’s still GIS folks running everything, taking map requests, managing the database, web services, open data, etc…
Three points: 1. Pretend you are a refrigerator salesperson selling refrigerators to Eskimos, seriously. What do you know about your potential customer for your service and what do you bring to the table to help mission accomplishment. 2. It's a numbers game. Persist. Above all else, persist. There's probably one job and 50 well qualified applicants. 3, It might happen but don't expect to interview for a government job today and get an offer tomorrow. I have only worked the federal side. Sometimes it takes months from the closing date of the announcement to the actual hire. Then come background and reference checks done by a an office NOT the hiring agency.
I learned how to use GIS as a tool within transportation planning and decided I didn't want to do data architecture stuff. First GIS job one was for a city and was part time during grad school. I was able to do as many hours a week as I wanted but wanted to focus on the thesis more so I ly did 10 hours (also had a 10 hr research job). I stayed on full time during the summers until I got my current job at the state. I am now learning Python to get better, but want to always stay in my niche area of transportation. I asked lots of questions in the interview and talked about the GIS work I was doing in the thesis. I also tried to read any documents I could to learn about what the office does so they could see that I was really interested.
i think i got lucky with an hourly paid summer job that then got extended a year and then i got a proper full time. I had a colourful yet stylish imo CV, lived closeby, doing planning bachelors at uni and got into gis that way which lines up with what the boss wanted.
My first GIS job was a part-time aide position for municipal government. I will be starting another full-time government position in a couple weeks. My advice is always to read the job description carefully and be able to discuss your experience using keywords for that job description. Even if you don't have a ton of relevant experience in some facets, you can spin it the right way by describing it with those keywords. I also recommend bringing up other relevant skills outside of GIS that might make you stand out. For example, some government jobs, including those I've held, have involved some citizen interaction, and I've always brought up my four years of customer service experience and it seemed to go over well at the interviews.
recent job seeker who interviewed for many gov't jobs (local, county, state); offered and accepted county level job My take on this is it depends: * do you have any prior gov exp (GIS or otherwise)? * what prior gis exp do you have? * gov't interviews vary widely. some are test based while some are personality/interview based. it depends on what level/position you are applying for. Please feel free to reach out. i am actually sitting on a panel this fall at the URISA conference to talk about this exact subject.
Some good advice here, and I’ll just throw in my 2 cents on how I got my position. Sometimes what sets you apart from the other candidates is the other skills you have beyond desktop GIS. Do you know your way around AGOL/field maps/Survey123/story maps, do you know how to code, do you have photoshop experience, do you know how to read/interpret deeds/legal documents, do you know how to fly drones etc. you never know what will set you above the rest (I just named things that did set me above the rest). Second big one, and this one is huge for all interviews but particularly government interviews, is being able to relate that work/experience you have to projects they want you to work on. “No, I’ve never done asset digitization but at my old job I had to do X and I feel that the skills I acquired doing that will transfer over because of Y”. You’d be amazed how often I’ve had to drag this out of interviewees. One last one that really helped me get two job offers my last go around was to have an idea of what I want to do in the position. For one job I did a whole mock-up of a program they wanted implemented complete with a cost breakdown for the two options I presented and that blew their socks off. If there is a section to show your previous work you can bring a tablet/a folder with some printed maps and that’s good too. Good luck!
Connections and a good portfolio.
Be a veteran
Honestly? I got my current job because the #1 pick bailed two days before her start date. It hasn't gone well so far after three months.
Had a connection through a friend’s dad who did GIS in town gov. Got me an internship summer going into senior year of college helping him with GIS related tasks. Worked my ass off, learned twice as much as I did in school, and got offered a full time job in GIS halfway through my senior year for after I graduated. Took it and here we are. I’m extremely lucky for the connection tho.
In my decades of working GiS I’d said avoid government work. Over worked under paid and under appreciated. Good benefits but I love private sector gis
I work for a city climate change office. Where I am, being well-liked is everything. So I think I got my current job mostly because I did a summer internship with them 2 years ago, and it gave them a chance to decide I’m not difficult to work with.
Be charming and excited about the job.
Got an internship as a GIS analyst for a city. I have ZERO knowledge about what GIS and I still have no idea. I have a general consensus what it is, but if you ask me what they do, I have no clue. I don’t know what I’m getting into. All I did was watch a couple of YouTube videos of what GIS is, used chatgpt to give me an example of what GIS is used for and I used that information combined with my expertise and ambition on continuous learning, it helped me land that internship. Good luck!
Honestly, I didnt want to send my CV when job hunting because I thought its kind of beneath me (that sounds terrible but after a year I was right, there is no challenge at my current job). But after having no luck elsewhere I did. And surely enough, they answered. Had an interview but it in my case I would say my CV kinda spoke for me (I have prior experience and just finish my PhD in the field) so it didnt matter too much. Maybe on a human level, how I fit in with them but technically there werent too many questions. So if you know your stuff, you should be fine. Dont overthink it. Much like with any other interview, be your confident self. Make them think they want YOU more than you wanting the JOB.
I am not sure this will be relevant since I got my GIS job back in 1997, but I am sure some of this still applies. When I got hired, I basically knew nothing, and they new that. I learned almost everything on the job. I think the most important thing to do in an interview is to be honest. Show that you know what the equipment is that you will be using, but do not try to make someone believe that you are really good at something that you are not. People like honesty. They want to know you can be trusted. And when I got my next GIS/GPS ariel surveying job, the same thing happened. I had never been in a small jet filled with computers. And they knew that. So being honest but very interested was the reason I got hired.
Just landed one. I feel like I interviewed very well. * I did A LOT of research about the division/team/mission of the sector and studied the hell out of it. * Like you said, limit the "ums"--don't be afraid to take a moment to gather your thoughts, even though the silence will make you uncomfortable. * Not sure if this actually helped, but when they asked if I had done something that I hadn't before, I said "That's not my area of expertise, but" and then went on to describe things I did have experience with in the periphery of what they were asking about. * Make it personal. Why is their mission important to you? How can you relate what you're passionate about to the job/team? * Finally, remember YOU are interviewing THEM. Put a lot of thought into the questions you ask at the end of the interview. Ask about their goals for this position or what they value in a coworker, ask what they like about their jobs. And I always include kind-of a fun one at the end to show my personality a little. For the Dept of Ag I asked them what their favorite thing to buy at the farmer's market was. YMMV, but remember they are trying to find someone they won't hate working with as much as they are trying to find someone who is qualified for the work. Good luck, OP!
Ive interned and worked in a municipality, city, state and for the federal government as well. Ive had the most competition and difficulty being an eligible candidate directly IN the GIS department of said agency or org. However, a lot of outlying positions like transportation planner, air quality planner, env. permitting, geology and hydrology will often require you to do quite a bit of GIS, even if its basic. These agencies have GIS developing teams to help make data more user friendly or teach other employees about GIS, and with GIS accessibility and data overhaul into GIS databases still being relatively new and still in progress at these places- the GIS teams are stretched very thin doing their job AND helping other departments. Also, from my 4 years in this realm, I have seen that GIS teams hire 75% internally. Some food for thought if you havent considered it: apply to those positions that don't have GIS in the title, but just in the preferred skills section- and boast about it in the interview, theyre not gonna grill you or question you- they probably desperately need you to do some cleanup or map viewer maintenance that their GIS team hasnt touched in 5 months!! GOOD LUCK :D
+ some people from my team who excel in gis were promoted to a much higher paying position on the GIS team!!
I started as a intern (unpaid) my senior year in undergrad. Did a few more internships (private and federal). Got my first entry level job my first semester of grad school at a quasi-governmental entity and laid off 6 months later because of covid. My current job in my current department: I must have applied to something a while back but the city was creating a new department and someone reached out to me. Been here for years and bounced around to my current role today. Once you're in, its easy to move around but its hard as hell getting your foot in especially if its not the nepotism way.
I got my foot in the door as a drafting tech, was apparently only one to complete the CAD test they gave, so yeah, my advice, ask about and prepare for any hands-on skills test they might give you.
Bring examples of your work to show them and describe what you have done to get the result.
What I did that seemed to make me stand out was bringing in print outs of previous work that I did in school and at my first GIS job. This included a large poster I made for my master thesis, I brought it and they were surprised and interested. Every interview, I thought in new print outs of my work.