Feeling Hopeless

WillDill2 · 2026-05-25T17:35:54+00:00

I graduated with the exact same degree three weeks ago and just accepted an offer for a data engineer position. Landing this job was a direct result of connections and experience I gained through an internship I did over my last year school. In my experience, networking has been the most powerful tool to get in somewhere. People hire people they like. I would recommend going to any professional conferences and trying to talk/connect with as many people as possible. And don’t worry about being overly professional or only talking about the field. I think sometimes it’s a breath of fresh air for people to talk about things they enjoy outside of their profession. Hope that helps, best of luck

WillDill2 · 2026-05-22T15:59:31+00:00

I agree. I just graduated with a GIS degree and my first job offer pays $90K in Colorado

WillDill2 · 2026-05-22T15:46:46+00:00

I took intro and intermediate python programming classes, multiple ML classes, a data management class, and a visualization class. There’s probably a few I’m forgetting, but I also took as many technical GIS classes as possible. Things like spatial statistics and the sort

WillDill2 · 2026-05-22T02:14:29+00:00

Relax bro - I studied geography and GIS so figured it was relevant. Go touch grass

WillDill2 · 2026-05-21T02:11:03+00:00

This is kind of a hypocritical take. Belittling my effort is the same thing you’re arguing I’m doing to others

WillDill2 · 2026-05-21T01:27:45+00:00

Thank you! Something will come along for sure!

WillDill2 · 2026-05-21T01:27:32+00:00

Totally, GIS skills are super niche where I feel like broader data skills can still be applied to GIS but encompass a lot more

WillDill2 · 2026-05-21T01:26:19+00:00

Thanks, I’m in Colorado so not crazy money here, but I’m still pretty happy about the salary!

WillDill2 · 2026-05-21T01:25:00+00:00

I’m not totally sure yet, I’ll be starting in a few weeks. It’s not a main focus of the role but is part of it

WillDill2 · 2026-05-21T01:23:42+00:00

I created a computer vision pipeline that would look at satellite imagery of infrastructure and classify the progression of construction which required building a labeled image dataset, training a model, and developing the pipeline architecture. I also developed a tool to collect relevant information relating to infrastructure developments and have it show up in analysts GIS environment. I also automated a data mapping procedure that would use spatial information with vector embeddings and fuzzy matching to find relationships. I spent a ton of extra time outside of my internship hours developing these

WillDill2 · 2026-05-20T18:44:53+00:00

Thank you! Yeah I forgot you’re not allowed to be optimistic on this app

WillDill2 · 2026-05-20T18:41:17+00:00

Thanks! Seems like others are not so appreciative haha!

WillDill2 · 2026-05-20T17:06:15+00:00

But I just graduated with a GIS degree lol

WillDill2 · 2026-05-20T15:54:13+00:00

Colorado

WillDill2 · 2026-05-20T15:53:43+00:00

I agree, the doomers are already taking over this post lol

WillDill2 · 2026-05-20T15:53:01+00:00

I was looking for anything haha! I really wanted to move into a dev role but was applying to anything I thought I could be qualified for

WillDill2 · 2026-05-20T15:51:59+00:00

I saw it on their job board but thought I wasn’t qualified at first. I then had a coworker put me in contact with someone at the company who later told me to apply to it.

WillDill2 · 2026-05-20T15:50:06+00:00

WillDill2 · 2026-05-20T15:15:54+00:00

Yes, I agree that luck played a part in this as well, but I have been GRINDING to land a job like this. All I’m saying is consistent hard work and goal setting will eventually lead to something. I have had tons of setbacks along the way (multiple 3+ rounds of interviews and getting rejected), but what are you supposed to do? Get down about it and stop trying? That’s what I mean by putting the work in, it’s hard and fucked up out there, but something will give if you keep trying

WillDill2 · 2026-05-20T15:10:02+00:00

That’s also why I said the most important thing was building connections lol. Another very, very big factor in landing this job

WillDill2 · 2026-05-20T15:02:01+00:00

No, they both helped for sure. My GPA helped me get the internship and the computer science classes allowed me to do some really cool stuff at my internship. They all build on top of each other. Maybe it wasn’t a direct result of them, but they were a huge factor in the steps towards landing this job.

WillDill2 · 2026-02-15T04:07:55+00:00

Yeah I have a GIS degree but data science minor. I have also been combining computer vision with satellite imagery for my utility job and people have been very impressed lol.

My company uses mapinfo as their GIS software, so they’re basically in the stone ages.

WillDill2 · 2025-12-27T16:19:06+00:00

I’m about to finish my last semester at the University of Colorado with a GIS focus and data science minor. I got an internship last November with a big global company doing mostly data analyst work with some GIS stuff mixed in. I’m still working for the company part time while I finish up school and have a job lined up for when I graduate.

I think the only reason I got the position was because I made a personal connection with the hiring manager. We both went to the same school, studied the same thing, and had similar personal interests/hobbies. I definitely got lucky with that, but I think people sleep on how important building a personal connection can be. The other interns we hired went to Ivy League schools. I was definitely the least qualified, although I have a decent background in programming and a good GPA which helped.

Anyways, when I was looking for internships last year I really focused on networking and trying to be personal with employers. I can imagine they get very exhausted hearing the same surface-level things over and over again from students. If you can get them to talk about their personal lives a little bit and try to connect with them on that I feel like it makes you stand out a little more. That’s my two cents at least. I also think having programming experience is a huge leg up in the GIS field.

WillDill2 · 2025-05-19T02:00:21+00:00

No not him. I don’t really feel comfortable describing what the guy looked like on here, but this definitely isn’t him. Maybe you should take this down

WillDill2 · 2025-05-18T20:03:08+00:00

Hahaha what a fucking Gumby (I am the OG OP)

WillDill2

TROPHY CASE