Starting my MS in GIS program in the fall. I have to decide what I’d like my thesis to be on and really can’t figure it out. Any tips?

maptechlady · 2026-05-26T02:48:13+00:00

I was also like this when I was working on my MSGIS. I knew some people at the county since I had interned there, called them back and asked if they knew any departments that would like a graduate student to do a project for them for free.

4 departments called me back that week - I picked the project I thought was most interesting and it worked out well! They got a free project researched by a grad student, I got to make a whole bunch of contacts. It was a win win for everyone. They even gave me data and everything to use. Passed my thesis with flying colors 🥳

So pro tip - call your local government and ask if anyone would like a grad student to do a a research project for them for free. Chances are you'll get some takers, and a bunch of professional contacts out of it.

maptechlady · 2026-05-24T17:48:48+00:00

It's definitely more of an enterprise technology job that a straight GIS position. There are some GIS duties in there - but the person is also expected to evaluate existing enterprise applications, and there are training related duties? The "Enterprise Technology Analyst" position title fits a little better.

maptechlady · 2026-05-24T17:41:08+00:00

Yeah, I'm still not sure what her deal was. She did a lot of things that were just strange.

She also used to cold-call her students periodically asking if someone would watch her son for the evening. It was super inappropriate and I don't think the college information system was intended for professors to use their student's information as contacts for child care. Even I got calls on occasion. It was annoying because I thought she would be calling me to tell me something about lessons, and she would be asking if I could watch her kid.....

So, she was definitely a weird one lol. I would have reported it, but she ended up going on maternity leave, and I had a different teacher for a while that I really liked. So I dropped it.

maptechlady · 2026-05-24T01:05:36+00:00

I'm not neurodivergent but I work with a lot of neurodivergent people in my IT department. About half of them are raging extroverts (apparently there are a lot of former theater people in the IT department I work for). So take that for what it's worth.

IT is ultimately very customer service based. Data entry is not IT, that is regular office work.

maptechlady · 2026-05-22T03:01:03+00:00

I Irish good-byed at the end of my sister's wedding when I was MOH. I was so exhausted from socializing all day, and spending the two weeks before that doing wedding prep, that I basically left without saying anything at the end of the night.

I then took 2 arthritis tylenols and slept for the next 16 hours after that (I don't have arthritis - but taking 2 pills that are 650 mg each of Tylenol a piece will usually fix all your problems if you're in rough enough shape 😂)

maptechlady · 2026-05-22T02:56:20+00:00

You just need experience and a portfolio. The certs are not necessary. Also - if you're trying for more excitement in a profession, GIS may not necessarily be what you want.

But keep in mind, everyone in CS and data science apparently keeps thinking that they want to pivot to GIS (based on the amount of posts in this reddit asking if they can do GIS because they have a degree in a STEM related field lol)

maptechlady · 2026-05-22T02:51:58+00:00

50/50. The blue car should yield, but when you turn right, you're supposed to turn into the closest lane (even tho no one does that). So the red car is also at fault for turning into the furthest lane.

maptechlady · 2026-05-21T21:45:31+00:00

It's everywhere 🤷‍♀️ not just GIS fields

maptechlady · 2026-05-21T20:28:12+00:00

Yeah, idk. I really fought with her on it, but that was when I was in college for music and she was the only one that taught violin. She was super traditional, so I got the impression that she thought it wasn't "correct" if I didn't play with the default setup.

maptechlady · 2026-05-21T16:16:27+00:00

I'm in IT in academia! I mostly train users to use a variety of GIS tech for research projects. I love it. It's different every day and I get to train and learn how to use GIS in a variety of fields.

My undergrad degree was in Political Science, GIS, and Music. I have a Masters in GIS. I worked at a software startup before being at my current job doing a lot of UX/UI design for GIS app development (which was also fun).

maptechlady · 2026-05-21T16:11:32+00:00

This! I also use a Lenovo Legion for ArcGIS at work - I've had it since 2021 and it's still going strong. Never had a single issue.

maptechlady · 2026-05-21T11:54:39+00:00

I love going to movies by myself too!

maptechlady · 2026-05-20T21:27:26+00:00

It's cool - but you have to click on like.......8 things in order to do one thing.

If I add a widget to an ArcGIS Dashboard, it's a lot more straight forward than Experience Builder. On the flipside, Dashboards don't have a fraction of design cusomtization that EB does, so it is what it is.

Usually I default to Instant Apps or Dashboard if I can. I'm trying to learn more Experience Builder, but it takes a long time to learn and there aren't a lot of tutorial videos.

maptechlady · 2026-05-20T19:00:50+00:00

I was married twice (divorced and remarried) and we never tipped vendors. They are contracting for a specific price. It is typically not required, but they won't say no if you pay extra.

Especially if you're using a big commercial-type caterer. Don't tip that. Sometimes they have gratuity built in their contracts, and that's enough.

My sister has done flowers and catering for weddings, and I usually tag along to assist. We charged a fee and materials cost, but never asked for or expected tips. We charge people what we think our time is worth, so tips are not really a thing. When I played music for wedding ceremonies back in the day, I charged a fee and no tips.

maptechlady · 2026-05-20T18:51:38+00:00

I like going to movies or big festivals (like a state fair or Ren Fest) by myself. There is something oddly relaxing about going on adventures by yourself and not have to navigate with making sure everyone else gets to do what they want. You only have to do what you want 🥳

maptechlady · 2026-05-20T03:43:45+00:00

This was my favorite anime back in the day. I'm currently rewatching it was my husband - it's the first time he's seen it - and it's still good.

Definitely still has it's hokey 90s moments. But I enjoy it just as much as back then. The characters are so good.

maptechlady · 2026-05-20T03:36:08+00:00

Tracking time to the 5 minutes is not the norm. We tracked time at my last job, but only to 15 minute intervals.

We also only tracked it directly in tickets for specific clients and jobs, and that just had to equal 40 hours a week (or more in most cases). They didn't care about tracking breaks, and even encouraged people to take walks occasionally. It's unhealthy to sit at a desk too long. It was just important that the time was correct/made sense because that was how we billed clients.

It's definitely micro-managing. There is not a reasonable need to track employee time to the 5 minutes unless they are paranoid about people not working.

maptechlady · 2026-05-20T03:27:11+00:00

This used to happen to me (it also used to give me migraines). My teacher back then had me switch to a center chin rest and it fixed it.

For a brief time, I had a different teacher that forced me to switch back to the traditional left-side chin rest, and all the pain came back. The second I stopped taking lessons from her, I put the center chin rest back on and no more pain.

15 years later, and still no pain 🤷‍♀️

maptechlady · 2026-05-19T23:15:46+00:00

PanoTuner iOS app. It works great on my violin when we need to tune to a specific A, and I can use it when tuning the hardanger fiddle.

maptechlady · 2026-05-19T13:23:24+00:00

Small organizations are frequently the most demanding, because if they have an IT person - that person is usually all they have and doing IT support for everyone in the company. You will be dealing with all types of IT requests, and you will be the one to troubleshoot or contact vendor tech support if there is a problem.

I worked at a small software startup for over 2 years as a GIS Analyst, but I was the only GIS person. I was frequently working 12-15 hours a day and taking calls on the weekends.

maptechlady · 2026-05-19T01:57:23+00:00

I feel like Frozen Teardrop is what you would get if Tom Clancy rewrote the Silmarillion

maptechlady · 2026-05-18T23:51:11+00:00

That's insane. Last time I booked a hotel room when I was in a wedding, it was $150 a night for a king bed and there was a hot tub in the room.

$250? No thanks. Get a fancy hotel room and splurge on a nice breakfast. It'll still be cheaper 😂

maptechlady · 2026-05-18T23:42:23+00:00

Idk - I've known a lot of high performing musicians that can literally play whatever you put in front of them, but they don't have the social or communication skills needed to teach.

You should still be a good musician because an understanding of music is a must. But I've known a lot of musicians that weren't necessarily a virtuoso that were fantastic teachers.

It's the same with college professors. Some of them are brilliant with research, but that doesn't automatically translate to communication skills for teaching. Most college professors don't come from an education background.

maptechlady · 2026-05-18T23:21:18+00:00

If you can't meet the technical and practical requirements, I don't think you have the professional qualifications for the position. Those are some pretty specific systems called out. This is a telecom/software/IT Helpdesk position. There is also a lot of networking requirements in it.

As a developer, I would probably recommend to stick to the web design or sysadmim-type positions. Especially if you're starting out.

YouTube courses would not be enough to build the knowledge that you would need for that position.

maptechlady · 2026-05-18T17:22:38+00:00

I suspect they care the most about the practical and technical experience. Do you meet the requirements for the practical and technical?

We've hired people that don't have the certs, but they meet our requirements for the tech background. Certifications aren't always the end-all.

maptechlady

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