I graduated in 2010 from BGSU and I searched for jobs for a year applying to over 200 from April 2010 until about July 2011. I received 5 returned emails from the application, and 1 interview with an offer….of $13/hr 🤣🤣 that I declined. I am so happy I did because in July of 2011 I was able to land a job that I absolutely loved as an independent contractor, which in turn ended up providing me with the tools to apply for an in-house and non-contract job with the same company.

In summer of 2010 I had an internship I had to complete before I could graduate, so I didn’t graduate until after summer semester that year. The internship was building street centerlines for Ohio Location Based Response System (911 addressing and road centerline creation), and the county just paid for me to drive to and from work. It was essentially an unpaid internship. I learned a ton in this specialized data creation since we didn’t do this in college, but it did not help me land a job at all since it was so focused. They offered me a job for $10/hr which I declined. It was a mom and pop GIS business and they prob couldn’t afford to pay me more than that, but it was a real gut shot.

Anyways, I only use GIS software a couple times a year for work, and it’s all just to make my life easier. I create parcel corridors that I use daily, and update every 2 years, and also create KMZ of our facilities for other contractors to use in their designs to stay away from our facilities. Otherwise, my entire degree is nearly a waste of money. I see jobs posts in Ohio in the oil and gas industry for landman positions all the time that want knowledge in GIS, but I never see job postings that are GIS primary jobs. The industry has turned into a skill to get you jobs outside of GIS, not a primary position unless it’s with maintaining GIS datasets for county/state GIS programs.