Everyone knows more or less about the present situation of GIS education. I made a simple investigation, elaboration and analysis in the first issue of Beginners of GIS, Investigation Report on the Learning Situation of GIS Undergraduates in China. Because there are too many resistance factors, teaching reform can't be accomplished overnight, so confused friends, don't expect the school to feed you well. As an adult, you should have your own thoughts and will and go your own way.
To choose a path, you must first know where you are and where you want to go-that is, to locate your position and destination. There is nothing wrong with the location. Almost all people who can be admitted to the university have a certain understanding of their knowledge and skills, quality and ability, and personality, but the accuracy is different. The location of the destination is a big problem. Most people can only talk about finding a job, studying or starting a business in general, and it is difficult to have a clearer view. I think this is an important aspect that many people are confused about. At the beginning, I loved maps since I was a child, and I enthusiastically applied for GIS major, but I didn't know what I really wanted to do, so I wasted two years of good time (although I was quite successful by the traditional standard of measuring "good students"), plus one postgraduate entrance examination, one * * * was three years of youth flowing east, and now I always feel sad when I think about it. On the occasion of graduation, I sorted out my thoughts, hoping to make a navigation for my confused friends.
Direction 1: development engineer
Friends who want to find jobs after graduation should consider what jobs they have and what jobs they like. At present, the situation of GIS employment market is oversupply, so it is better to consider the market demand.
According to the article "Investigation Report on the Living Conditions of GIS Talents in China" in the sixth issue of GIS Developer, "among many GIS units, their main business is mostly engineering development or software development and sales. The proportion of units engaged in data processing is also 18%. " The most demanding units are senior developers, followed by programmers and project managers. It can also be seen that if you want to engage in GIS industry, strong programming ability is the' passport'. "Open the recruitment boards of major forums, and you can also see that almost every unit is recruiting developers. The following is a typical job advertisement:
Position: GIS development engineer
Requirements: Proficient in using C #/C++; Familiar with the use of ArcGIS Engine 9.0 or above; Experience in combining C#/C++ with engine projects is preferred;
This notice is simple and clear, with three requirements: language, components and experience. Objectively speaking, the requirements for candidates are still very low. I think an ordinary high school graduate should be able to do it by self-study for one year. And the "excellent" undergraduate graduates step by step may not be able to meet these requirements. First, the school basically only teaches two basic teaching languages, VB and C, with the goal of passing Grade Two or Three. However, the requirements for programming in the exam are completely different from those in the work, not in the same direction. Secondly, MapX and MO, once popular GIS components, are withdrawing from the social stage, but they are still the mainstay in the classroom. Third, there are too few students with development experience. Many schools do not teach secondary development at all. Even if there is, the requirements for students are not high. Simply browsing and querying is enough, which is not the project experience at all. Therefore, friends who want to engage in development work must learn by themselves on campus. Personally, I think that if you take part in the development group competition organized by ESRI or SuperMap seriously, you can meet the requirements of ordinary companies. Let's look at a more demanding question:
1, bachelor degree or above in computer or GIS;
2. Master C/C++ language, Java, JSP, C# and other languages, and be familiar with VC++ and JBuilder programming environment;
3. Familiar with design patterns and UML, able to use modeling tools such as Rose to build system models;
4. Master the mainstream gis platforms and secondary development technologies such as Supermap and Arcgis, have the underlying development background of GIS software platforms, be familiar with common GIS algorithms, and have a deep understanding of the technical architecture, performance and security of Web Gis systems;
5. Familiar with SQLServer and Oracle database development.
6. Good teamwork spirit, good communication skills, and experience in cross-platform software development or embedded software development is preferred;
Some netizens say that no one can do this job with a salary below 5,000 yuan, and some say that such experts can't afford it 10K. But in fact, four years of serious self-study is more than enough to meet these requirements. Self-study computer basics, languages (except VB or C, C#, C++, Java and VB.NET) and network development in one year, study desktop software and component development of commercial GIS in one semester (it is recommended to participate in the competition), study large databases and distributed systems in one semester, study software engineering, system analysis and architecture in one semester, and study open source GIS software and practice bottom development in one year (the technical content is higher than that of secondary development, so it is necessary to learn algorithms and data structures. Many schools have offered these courses, but one is that they are not closely integrated with GIS, and the other is that the theory is not grasped enough in practice. ), spend a semester learning about cutting-edge technologies such as cross-platform, embedded system and virtual reality.
Some people will certainly accuse such a plan. On the one hand, it is overemphasized while learning and mathematics are neglected. On the other hand, learning it is too idealistic for anyone. On the other hand, there are schools. Under normal circumstances, there should be a few people who will be cynical or swear. Below I "plan ahead" and answer them one by one in advance. First, the above is only for people who want to engage in development work. For developers, computer technology is the most important. For Giser, as long as the basic knowledge and divergent thinking of G can be introduced into IS, it will be very good. There is a specialization in the industry. As for the other roads, we will discuss them below. Second, nothing is difficult in the world. If you do, difficult people will become easier. If you don't do it, it will be difficult for easy people. For those who lack perseverance, are too arrogant and talk without practice, this is really too idealistic. In addition, the contents listed above are only guiding directions, and do not require all of them to be mastered. Moreover, the school is not a job after all, and it is not necessary to study everything in depth. Third, for those who want to go in this direction, schools are really of little use except the fig leaf of degree certificates. Judging from the curriculum and teaching content, most schools seem to want to train scientific research talents-of course, the training methods need to be improved. Not only GIS majors, but also many disciplines have problems such as theory divorced from reality, teaching divorced from reality, and campus divorced from society. Why do you want to follow blindly? Your grades can shine, you can earn bonuses, but you can't find a good job-do you think that the recruitment requirements of a GIS company say "those with excellent grades will be admitted first" Of course, when everyone's ability is not good, those with good grades will become short-term.
To sum up, this road leads to a development engineer. You can become a project manager when you are well developed. What needs to be added here is that development is not only programming, but also requirement analysis and software architecture. If these tasks are not done well, the programming will be chaotic and the robustness of the system will not be easy. People who are unwilling to program, such as girls, can consider going in this direction, but it is best to have some contact with GIS programming.
Direction 2: 3D Engineer
In fact, it should also belong to development, but I think many beginners are more interested in three-dimensional, so I list it separately. Let's look at a job advertisement first:
Job description: under the guidance of senior development engineer/system engineer, design and develop geoscience 3D related modules;
Job requirements:
1. Bachelor degree or above in computer, geographic information system, applied mathematics or related major;
2. Master VC development skills, be familiar with c/c++ programming, and have a certain understanding of OpenGL or D3D technology;
3. Good English level, no barriers to reading English technical materials;
4. Strong logical analysis ability, learning ability, innovation ability and teamwork ability;
5. Experience in 3D simulation and game engine development is preferred.
This should be beyond the expectation of many beginners: you should be able to program in three dimensions! Yes, 3D development can be simply divided into two parts: modeling and programming. The ground model established by GIS software and the ground model established by 3DMAX software are static and need to be dynamically controlled by programming. For example, the bridge has been deformed under the force of wind and cars. In order to understand the deformation situation, some GPS can be installed on the bridge to obtain the position information in real time, and the bridge model can be established by software. By programming, the GPS data is associated with the bridge model and exaggerated, so that whenever the GPS data changes, the bridge on the model will undergo corresponding observable deformation.
If you want to do this kind of work, you should learn 3DMAX or MAYA by yourself on the computer, study OpenGL technology development with C++ in programming, and pay attention to DEM and virtual reality in GIS. These lessons are rarely involved and must be taught by yourself.
Direction 3: Data Engineer
Data is the blood of GIS, and a large part of a project's funds are injected into data collection, production and maintenance, so this is also a relatively big direction. Let's look at a job advertisement first:
Job requirements:
1. Bachelor degree in related major, or this year.
2. Have good professional knowledge and be familiar with the operation of ARCGIS software.
3. Experience in map digitization and database operation.
4. Have enthusiasm for GIS work and good team spirit.
Job description: Production and maintenance of GIS data.
My feeling is that this is a very hard work with the lowest technical content. Some time ago, I visited the Jiangsu Basic Geographic Information Center and saw that the data processing place was like a factory workshop, spacious and lined with computers. Everyone took stereoscopes and vectorized the remote sensing images in ArcGIS according to the mapping map, and entered them into the spatial database. Vectorization is our specialty, so I won't go into details here. This kind of work can also be done in general secondary school students' training.
Then remote sensing and aerial survey data processing. I have taken courses in remote sensing and photogrammetry, and I can use ERDAS or ENVI or ER MAPPER and VirtuoZO.
Of course, with the rise of GPS navigation, navigation data and electronic maps have become hot spots. I haven't been exposed to this kind of thing, so I can't give my opinion. You can search for job advertisements of some navigation companies.
Direction 4: Sales/Marketing/Planning
Pay more and more attention to the requirements of work experience. I don't know much.
Direction 5: Software Testing/Technical Support
Can a small company set up such a position?
Direction 6: Project Management/Documentation
Solid writing skills, comprehensive professional knowledge and insight into the industry.
Direction 7: Provide solutions or decision support services.
Do not develop the system, only use desktop software for spatial analysis, and provide customers with solutions or decision-making services. For example, do you need a special system for supermarket location? There is no need, just write a program in ArcMap with VBA, get the optimal solution, and write a report.
My tutor here uses GIS as an auxiliary tool for regional planning, conducts spatial analysis in ArcGIS, and provides auxiliary decision-making services for the land department. But is there such a company?
- -
Direction 8: Turn to the application industry.
A large number of people in colleges and universities who go in 7 directions have turned to work in related application fields, using GIS as a tool to deal with this field, rather than being a pure GIS scientist. For example, those who apply for land enter the Bureau of Land and Resources, those who apply for forestry enter the Forestry Bureau, and those who apply for water conservancy enter the Water Conservancy Bureau ... After all, if GIS is used as a technology, she can only fully show her charm in a broad application field, and those who study GIS need to focus on applying this technology to a certain field.
My tutor once said: When GIS is integrated into the mainstream of IT, it is both lucky and unfortunate. For those friends who can't toss and turn in the IT tide, it may be a wise choice not to pay attention to the technology itself, but to devote themselves to the application.
Yes, this bureau and that bureau in big cities rarely recruit undergraduates (not related). What about a small place? Or other fields? Why can't we go to areas where GIS hasn't set foot yet? Compared with others, you have an unprofessional advantage. For example, as a village head, you have at least one more high-tech means than an academic graduate majoring in administration. With pirated software, villages can be scientifically managed by GIS. As for how to use it, I won't be able to blow it out for a while, but 80% of human information is related to spatial location, and there must be something you can dig out. When you think and work with GIS, as long as you have the will, you will certainly find places where GIS can be used in your work, only unexpected and impossible. After use, as long as it has an effect (or blowout effect), isn't it a typical example of building a new countryside and an innovative country?
GIS needs our promotion!
-Beginners of GIS in China, unite! -
Direction 9: Further research
More and more people are taking the postgraduate entrance examination. According to the seventh issue of GIS Developer, "Do you want to take the postgraduate entrance examination?" What kind of research is it? ",the vast majority is to escape the employment pressure. But graduate students have to work after graduation, which is nothing more than the above roads. As we all know, the current postgraduate education is not so good. Some people just "do" a few meaningless papers and then graduate. Compared with the students who graduated from the undergraduate course that year, they have an extra layer of fig leaf, but they have less three years of work experience. Smart business owners will not value academic qualifications, so the employment situation of graduate students is not optimistic. Some people say that Bao Yan: The cost of wasting three years has earned the qualification to continue wasting three years. Of course, excellent graduate students still have more opportunities than undergraduates, especially colleges and universities pay more attention to academic qualifications.
Graduate school, the first year of class, the second year of "free activities", the third year (or the last half year) to do graduation thesis. During postgraduate study, besides graduation thesis, some papers need to be published in journals, and the requirements for the quantity and quality of papers vary from school to school. The rest of the time is mainly to be a tutor's project and recharge myself. Projects are usually divided into "vertical projects" and "horizontal projects". Vertical projects, commonly known as "state funding", are projects supported by various research funds established by the government for a long time, focusing on cutting-edge topics; The horizontal project, commonly known as "social money", is a project of some topics entrusted by enterprises or other units. So there are actually two ways to choose here: I want to take the road of scientific research and choose a tutor based on vertical projects; If you don't want to take the road of scientific research, choose a tutor who focuses on horizontal projects.
So what does GIS research mainly do? Personally, it can be divided into four ways: basic theory, realization technology, deep application and new application. Basic theory is the core and soul of the whole discipline. The following are several research directions: the precision research of spatial database; Spatial relational language research; Research on various expressions of spatial data; Study on the use and value of geographic information; Research on the structure system of massive spatial database: standardization of map drawing: sharing of geographic information data; Research on the relationship between time and space in GIS-GIS and spatial analysis: the relationship between law, information policy and spatial database: the interoperability of geographic information system: the standardization model of geographic world. Several scientific research directions to realize this technology are given: spatial decision support system; Visualization of spatial information: research on integration of remote sensing and GIS: research on GIS user interface: research on cooperative formation of spatial decision-making system. Give more scientific research directions for deep application: research on the role of GIS in global change; How to express people, space and environment in GIS under the social background. As for the new application, it is to let GIS technology penetrate into all aspects of production and life, such as the above-mentioned village head GIS, and the genealogy GIS mentioned in the article "Interview with Hu, a student of Nanjing Normal University" in the first issue of "Beginners of GIS".
It is the lowest and most difficult to make a basic theoretical estimate. Of course, only by taking this road can you become an academician, a scientist and a core leader and promoter of the industry. Those who want to take this road should lay a solid foundation during their undergraduate years, especially have a deep foundation in mathematics, not only advanced mathematics, linear algebra and probability statistics, but also need to teach themselves discrete mathematics, numerical analysis and topology. You need to have a certain understanding of C++, algorithms and data structures, database principles, computer graphics and digital image processing, and be proficient in using commonly used scientific research software such as Matlab and IDL. In GIS, we should pay more attention to the understanding of basic theories and read more GIS books on the basis of having certain practical ability. In the postgraduate stage, I will choose my own direction roughly according to the situation of the school and tutor, and further lay a good foundation. In this way, it is expected to make innovations and breakthroughs during the doctoral period.
The realization technology is not as abstract as the basic theory, but the requirements for computers may be higher, and mathematics is still very important. I have seen books with commonly used algorithms and implementation codes in bookstores, and I think it is more suitable for undergraduates to learn.
Only in application can GIS show its vitality, and deep application can best show the power of GIS. People who want to take this road can choose one or two application directions during their college years, such as logistics and minerals, and read more papers on the application of GIS in this field. In the postgraduate stage, I only focused on the application of one field.
Personally, I hope to be a person who can expand the application field of GIS in the future, which requires understanding various technologies, but there is no need to delve into them. More importantly, I will think with the idea of GIS. I use active thinking and fiery enthusiasm to guide my study, which may be more suitable for this direction. I also think of a sentence by Professor Lu Guonian: "Be a scholar, not a student".
-Independence! * * * Yes! -
Direction 10: complete career change.
Really not interested in GIS, it is better to change careers completely. Be willing. But please don't insult GIS.
label
This paper is equivalent to a demand analysis, expounds the future trend of GIS students, and briefly talks about what to do when choosing different roads during college. I know that many people switch to GIS major, and you don't know whether you like this major or not, so I suggest that your reasonable judgment is based on full reading and thinking. Make full use of network resources.
There are still two sentences that cannot be ignored: everything is difficult at the beginning; GIS is an opportunity for diligent people, but a nightmare for lazy people. Lack of perseverance is a prominent problem of our generation (not all of us, of course). In this fast-paced, materialistic era, how many people can not be impetuous? Persistence in the end is victory, which is the simplest and most profound truth. Here are three poems to describe the three stages of GIS learning (cycle after cycle, even endless), hoping to help everyone:
Last night, the west wind faded, and I climbed a tall building alone and looked at the end of the world. -Find your way through the chaos
I don't regret that my belt is getting wider and wider, which makes people haggard for Iraq. -In the darkness of faith
Looking for her in the crowd, suddenly looking back, the man was in the dim light. -A breakthrough in reflection
Finally, I am a senior in an ordinary school and have worked in the laboratory of a graduate tutor for nearly two months. Personally, I think I started to learn GIS in three-quarters of my junior year and these two months, and my level is very low. In practice, I have been exposed to VB secondary development, C#, ASP, SuperMap Objects, ArcEngine and Rose, and I have learned very little. In addition, personal experience and social experience are superficial, so there are inevitably a lot of subjective assumptions in the article, which may mislead everyone. Therefore, I appeal to readers to write down their feelings, whether positive or negative, rational or emotional. I will calibrate my thinking according to your opinions, and the optimized article will meet you in the fifth issue of Beginners of GIS.
In addition, there are some discussions in the "GIS Beginners" edition of the GIS University Forum, which may be helpful to you. Beginners of GIS are also eager for your contribution, especially practical articles. Little by little learning, the emergence and solution of a small problem and a classroom experiment will benefit readers a lot, thus promoting our GIS education. Thank you! Sincerely bless you and wish us progress together.