[postgis-users] PostGIS Jobs - UK, Worldwide

[Brent Wood]

> Hi,
>
> As a GIS industry newcomer, I'm in process of prioritizing my research
> steps, selecting tools and technologies that would be mostly essential
> and relevant for future job search.
>
> Concerning client software it is quite simple - without ArcGIS you'll
> definitely would be out of range. But server mapping has several
> possibilities - whether to focus on spatial databases - mostly Oracle
> Spatial or PostGIS, or to look for server middleware like
> GeoServer\MapServer or Oracle MapViewwer. I'm from Oracle space, so
> their products are mostly familiar to me.
>
> I like PostGIS for its simplicity, free availability and great community
> support. I've already made some demo stands with uDig\qgis with PostGIS
> backend and tuned GeoServer to work with PostGIS layers. But the
> question is - are there serious business demand for OpenGIS profies?
> monster.co.uk, reed.co.uk and gis-jobs.co.uk return no (zero) jobs with
> postgis keyword.
>
> What whould you suggest?


In my experience, which is pretty fringe GIS, mostly supporting fisheries &
oceanographic research, ESRI dominates pretty much. Most GIS training is with
ESRI. However, this is changing, both in the training & workplace. 

I see GIS as GIS still focussed on ESRI, but where people are studying in other
areas, archaeology, anthropology, fisheries, economics, etc, the schools have
found that FOSS tools are effective & affordable, so GIS as a tool to support
other sciences is picking up on FOSS faster than corporate & government areas.

Provided there is no conflict with in-house standards, in most GIS arenas,
research, corporate & government, FOSS practitioners are implementing small
scale FOSS based solutions, and building on the success of these to increase
the role such software plays. 

If you look for advertised GIS jobs, I'd say 90% or more (at least in the US,
New Zealand & Australia) ask for ESRI skills for developers positions. 

See http://techjobscafe.giscafe.com/jobs_searchaction.php?site=GIS&mode=0
for GIS jobs...



Cheers,

  Brent Wood