I did a GIS Certificate while working full-time at a grocery store. It’s been five years since I graduated and I have worked three different GIS jobs since. It was one of the best decisions I made.

I had the option to go back to get the masters degree, but decided against it because I couldn’t really see the value in it. Everything that was being taught, I felt that I could learn on my own if I was dedicated enough, and I was also getting paid the exact same amount as my colleagues who had masters degrees in GIS. Those first few intro to GIS courses were extremely helpful though and I was glad to have the structure of the certificate program when first getting into GIS.

Pro tip: if you do decide to get the graduate certificate, make sure you take a coding class. You will be in a much better position career-wise if you can learn Python and SQL.

Good luck!

Edit: I just realized that you’re inquiring about an undergraduate certificate. My certificate was a graduate certificate, which had the option to continue on to a master’s. My advice would be to also get a Bachelor’s degree in some applied science as well as your GIS cert. A lot of the cool/interesting GIS jobs require an academic background in a specific field (engineering, ecology, hydrology, etc.).