Career Change into GIS
Hi,
So I’m currently thinking about changing careers. I’m from the U.K. and have a degree in Sociology and a masters in Town Planning. I did a GIS module in my masters and enjoyed it.
I graduated right in the middle of the financial crash when seasoned professionals were on the job market again due to redundancies and as a result wasn’t able to get a job in planning, and fell into marketing (I needed to pay the bills!). I’ve worked in marketing since, and graduated from my masters around a decade ago, so quite a while now and I’ve obviously lost touch with the profession.
I’m in the process of evaluating what I do with my career. One of the options I was thinking about was web development, but then I stumbled across a GIS course and it got me thinking. I love maps (I have a map of Cerdá’s Barcelona masterplan hanging on my wall!) but I’m also logical and would enjoy the statistical analytics side, and also some dev work that comes with more senior GIS positions (so I’ve read). It also relates to my town planning masters. And on top of that the desire to put my work into something useful for the world (e.g. the environment). One of the reasons I chose urban planning. So I thought GIS might be a good choice for a career change.
I found some courses online, do you think they would be enough to get an entry level role?
https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/introducing-mapping-spatial-data-and-gis-online?code=O19P349BIV
https://www.coursera.org/learn/spatial-analysis
Or is the industry focused on masters level education in GIS? Would my masters in town planning account for anything? My university offers a masters programme which could be done part time, but this is A.) expensive, and B.) would require a whole lifestyle shift (part time job, lack of money, etc.). I’m 32 now with rent, car payments, partner, etc.
And as an added question, does anyone have knowledge of the job market in the U.K.? Is it looking bright? Is there an increasing demand for GIS skills? I don’t mind doing the online courses as I’d find them interesting regardless, but don’t want to pay lots for a masters if that it necessary if there’s realistically a lack of opportunities anyway.
Any advice, to any part, would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance! :)