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In two and half years I will have my Urban and Regional Planning degree from Cal Poly Pomona. I am thinking two years and a half is not long enough for the housing market to pick up. I am NOT going to leave California under any condition for a job. So in California, what other type of things can I do with my planning degree? I heard if I minor in GIS I can get a GIS job in many places. Is their anything else I can do with a city and regional planning degree? My dad suggested maybe working at a power plant doing something.
Try a private environmental planning firm--the kind of company that does things like prepare environmental impact reports or environmental impact studies. They're good places for internships too. Definitely take a GIS minor, GIS is going to matter more and more as time goes on.
Yeah, it's a bit like wanting to be a doctor but fainting at the sight of blood. the city is basically a walking Zen koan, he is made of amazing contradictions.
There's not enough jobs for planners in the larger cities anyways. How is GIS? Is it something I could truly do for a long time? Are GIS specialists in demand?
Pretty much anything computer-related becomes obsolete in a few years, so if your plan is to learn how to do one thing and do it for the rest of your life, GIS will not work for you. If you want a step above spare-changing, try repeating, "Would you like fries with that?"
You need to do some on the ground investigation of jobs available in the area you want to work. I'm nowhere near California so I can't help with that but I can tell you that GIS is bigger than city planning or even a single software package. I've spent more of my career tracking wildlife populations than siting retail. It's used in all fields that need to track geographically related data. Utilities, shipping companies, the DOT, the Parks Service, the Dept. of Agriculture, etc. etc. It's not like the Corps of Engineers was planning cities when they wrote GRASS.
An introductory ESRI course won't get you very far but if you have some other relevant coursework and a much better idea of what you're looking for you can target entry level positions where you can get some more useful experience. One of your biggest problems will be that due to the current budget nightmare just about everywhere a lot of the low-level government foot-in-the-door jobs aren't going to be there for awhile. And you really can't go indy without several years experience, some good connections and more knowledge of GIS than just how to operate a software package. If you can narrow down what you'd like to do and find a relevant summer intern gig or two it will help you a lot long-term.
My background is in geology and environmental science, not planning, but I've worked with people with planning backgrounds employed by civil engineering consulting firms, public utilities and the Dept. of Transportation. Here there are also regional planning offices in rural areas that coordinate utilities, transportation, growth plans, federal emergency management grants, etc., etc., for a multi-county area so you might also check and see if something like that exists in an area you'd like to work.
Good luck, cities aren't for everyone. No shame in it.
You need to do some on the ground investigation of jobs available in the area you want to work. I'm nowhere near California so I can't help with that but I can tell you that GIS is bigger than city planning or even a single software package. I've spent more of my career tracking wildlife populations than siting retail. It's used in all fields that need to track geographically related data. Utilities, shipping companies, the DOT, the Parks Service, the Dept. of Agriculture, etc. etc. It's not like the Corps of Engineers was planning cities when they wrote GRASS.
An introductory ESRI course won't get you very far but if you have some other relevant coursework and a much better idea of what you're looking for you can target entry level positions where you can get some more useful experience. One of your biggest problems will be that due to the current budget nightmare just about everywhere a lot of the low-level government foot-in-the-door jobs aren't going to be there for awhile. And you really can't go indy without several years experience, some good connections and more knowledge of GIS than just how to operate a software package. If you can narrow down what you'd like to do and find a relevant summer intern gig or two it will help you a lot long-term.
My background is in geology and environmental science, not planning, but I've worked with people with planning backgrounds employed by civil engineering consulting firms, public utilities and the Dept. of Transportation. Here there are also regional planning offices in rural areas that coordinate utilities, transportation, growth plans, federal emergency management grants, etc., etc., for a multi-county area so you might also check and see if something like that exists in an area you'd like to work.
Good luck, cities aren't for everyone. No shame in it.
When you become a GIS specialist is using GIS all the time all that you do?
If I got into the right company could it be a secure job?
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