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The Complete Guide to Becoming A Geographic Information Systems Technologist and Technician
What you'll really do, what you'll really earn, and how to know if GIS is the right fit before you spend a dime on a degree.
by Alumigogo Books
Chapter 1: What Does a Geographic Information Systems Technologist and Technician Actually Do?
What You'll Do on a Tuesday (No, Really)
Imagine you're sitting down at your desk on a Tuesday morning. You're a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Technologist or Technician—someone who spends their working hours creating, organizing, analyzing, and visualizing data that has a location attached to it. That location could be anything: a streetlight pole in a city, a plot of farmland, a river that just flooded, a delivery truck moving across a state, or the exact spot where crime rates spike on Friday nights.
If you've never seen the job up close, let's strip away the jargon. "Geographic Information Systems" is simply the technology used to work with maps and the data behind them. As a GIS professional, you are the person who makes the map, but more importantly, you are the person who makes the map correct. You are the one who makes sure that the city's road lines line up with satellite imagery, that the property boundaries are in the right place, and that when someone clicks on a location, they get the right information about it. You are the translator between raw numbers spreadsheets and visual maps that decision-makers can actually use.
Your core responsibilities can be grouped into three big buckets: data creation and maintenance, analysis and problem-solving, and communication and delivery. Let's walk through each one with the kind of concrete detail you'd see on an actual workday.