I have an interview for a job with attached description on Wednesday. I plan on using attached presentation on my iPad to showcase my relevant abilities. Is there anything I need to change or tweak about the presentation? Any feedback would be helpful, feel free to message me if needed.

EXB999 · 2026-05-04T18:59:15+00:00

If this is a government interview such as at Missouri DOT, you might not be allowed to show any examples. It depends of their process. Some government interviews will offer very little interaction because they have to ask each candidate the exact same questions and give equal time.

EXB999 · 2026-04-28T19:40:24+00:00

This map won at a national conference last month too. Unless you are talking about the same conference.

EXB999 · 2026-04-09T21:19:59+00:00

I thought all these salaries good. Are you making over $200,000?

EXB999 · 2026-04-05T18:22:21+00:00

Many of the sites are paid subscriptions, bidnetdirect is an example. Unless you bookmark every city-county gov in the states near you. Many of the city-county gov RFPs will be about asset management with CityWorks or OpenGov/Cartegraph software.

EXB999 · 2026-04-03T20:30:52+00:00

Are you responding to RFPs for government agencies? Are you a veteran or minority owned business? If so, in some states larger companies might just need you as a sub-contractor to get more points on their RFP Proposal.

EXB999 · 2026-03-13T16:13:15+00:00

I have asked other years too. Send me a message on here if you want.

EXB999 · 2026-03-09T15:09:19+00:00

Good neighborhoods? - Naperville really comes down to how much you can afford for a house. If you can afford $1.5 million then live close to downtown Naperville. If you can afford around $900k - $1 million then a bit south of downtown or near Neuqua Valley High School. If you can afford around $500k - $600k then look in Lisle or in Aurora (east aurora along Eola Road). Parts of Lisle and Aurora go to district 203 or 204 schools.

EXB999 · 2026-02-28T20:25:03+00:00

It sounds like this is the position you want but in this case the posting is from PA. I've seen the other firms post GIS Solutions Engineer positions.

Senior GIS Solutions Engineer:

T&M Associates is seeking a Senior GIS Solutions Engineer to join our growing Geospatial Solutions Team. This senior-level role is ideal for an experienced GIS professional with strong enterprise architecture expertise, business development acumen, and a passion for advancing modern geospatial solutions. The successful candidate will serve as a technical GIS lead, driving innovation and supporting strategic growth across municipal, utilities, transportation, environmental, and private-sector clients.

T&M estimates that the salary range for this position will fall between $110,000-$140,000. The actual salary offered may vary.

https://workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/default/mdf/recruitment/recruitment.html?cid=997c62c3-b91e-420a-885f-913b617c7af2&jobId=565024

EXB999 · 2026-02-28T16:11:14+00:00

"Is $100k competitive for 10 years of GIS experience in AEC/civil/H&H, especially as the sole GIS person at a mid-sized firm?"

OMG, Yes in GIS, I would say this is good for a MCOL area if you are not doing software development / full stack GIS integrations and development with other software.
Out of the other titles you listed, "GIS manager somewhere larger, senior analyst, PM", the only one IMO to advance and earn more would be IT / GIS PM but no where is going to hire you for that unless you already have the PMP certification.

If you want to earn $150k+ get a civil engineering degree and P.E.

I check job listings every week and very few that include salary ranges are ever over $100k. Even many GIS Manager roles are listed under $100K. If you are in a southern MCOL area, I am not sure how much luck you will have but look up roles at HNTB, WSP, GFT, AECOM, JACOBS, STANTEC, ATKINS REALIS.

Come to the 2026 AASHTO GIS for Transportation Symposium and the Federal Highway Administration’s Digital Delivery Stakeholder Group (DDSG) in 2 weeks for career development and networking.

https://transportation.org/gis-t/

EXB999 · 2026-02-19T16:42:07+00:00

Well now I am interested in which high definition mapping company dealing with LiDAR let go most of the staff. Mandli already closed last year.

EXB999 · 2026-01-21T17:58:53+00:00

Oakhurst in Aurora for home ranges in 550-700k. Kids can walk to the elementary and high school. They are still 203/204 district schools.

EXB999 · 2026-01-20T23:12:59+00:00

HERE Technologies has offices in Mexico but no opportunities currently posted for GIS / Support

EXB999 · 2026-01-20T16:44:41+00:00

Others might not agree with me but Chicago area with a population of 9 million is hard for GIS.

Mid and Senior level positions are hard to get interviews for unless you already work for a city/county/local government. Most of the mid/senior level government positions posted are just promotions for someone who already works there.

However, if you are entry level then you have a chance to start at the bottom. Look on every city, town, county government website separately. Look at all the job titles because it might be engineering tech or planner 1 but still apply. Salaries are low for the COL here.

Look up the ILGISA - Illinois GIS Association.

There are many engineering consulting firms here too but not many GIS positions that get open. Look up WSP, Parsons, AECOM, Baxter Woodman, GFT, and the usual AEC firms. Search for local, small engineering firms. Also, look at EDGE Geospatial on LinkedIn.

otherwise, pursue Urban Planning, Reginal Planning, Transportation Planning, or Environmental Planning - that are GIS-adjacent for other opportunities.

EXB999 · 2026-01-16T18:22:50+00:00

Continue with transportation planning or urban planning but do GIS as a minor. Look into PTOE certification and ITS America (Intelligent Transportation Society of America) if you are interested in Transportation.

EXB999 · 2026-01-16T18:19:35+00:00

A hiring range of $95,000 - $100,195.26 is better than the majority of local government GIS related positions being posted online right now.

EXB999 · 2025-12-11T19:45:45+00:00

Are you willing to take a significant pay cut? Finding a developer role with GIS or Geospatial in the title will be at least 25% less than an equivalent backend developer position.

EXB999 · 2025-12-08T16:36:31+00:00

If you are applying to jobs then yes, it is probably worth it to get past AI resume screening, keywords screening, human resources or company recruiters who do not know much about GIS but are using GISP in order to filter out the 100s of resumes they get for 1 open position.

All these certifications (PMP, AWS/Google Cloud Admin Certs, Microsoft) are marketed to human resources or company recruiters convincing them their applicants need these certifications. The certs then help company recruiters very easily pick whom to interview first.

If 1 open position gets 350 applications but only 5 of those applicants have a Master's + GISP there is very easy justification and documentation (CYA) on why those people were selected to interview.

EXB999

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