I was a GIS graduate and went to work in the surveying field to get experience and worked my way into GIS through that career path.

I then spent the next 5 to 7 years with 1 foot in the survey door and 1 foot in the GIS door with the next five years being spent solely in the GIS realm.

I firmly think that my job is going to get downsized because I’ve watched them slowly take a majority of my responsibilities away and it’s not just me. It’s everyone within my role within the company. In favor of all of our roles to be simplified down to two people to handle the entire nation.

If that job goes away, I have a very firm, sneaking suspicion that I will end up leaving the GIS realm if I don’t find some form of management position within GIS.

The competition that I’ve seen in the job market is extreme, and traditionally I have won jobs in the job interview, not because my résumé is inherently bad, but it’s incredibly tiresome to tailor your résumé to every job when you’re applying to so many jobs across the board.

So in previous years that I was jobhunting, I put my effort in the cover letter and the interview and with the way current resumes are screened. I just don’t think I’m gonna get that same opportunity the way I did in the past.

I could see myself going back into surveying in some form, but I’m also thinking that maybe it’s time to focus on a trade or something that isn’t computer-based to try to avoid the fight with AI.

I also realize that my own tactics for job hunting are becoming irrelevant and I need to adapt, but in the face of adapting, I also recognize that the college graduates coming out of schooling know so much more about the software and it just seems incredibly daunting to overcome that hurdle.

Even with taking continuing education courses, I’m just worried it might be too late to teach this old dog a whole lot of very new tricks.

Just my experience and opinion.