GIS Technician vs GIS Analyst vs GIS Developer

My thoughts on the differences between a GIS Technician, GIS Analyst and GIS Developer.
________________________________________________________________________
GitHub - github.com/franchyze923/
Instagram - / franchyze923
Twitter - / franchyze923
Discord - / discord
0:00 Introduction
0:52 GIS TECHNICIAN
3:45 GIS ANALYST
5:40 GIS DEVELOPER

[@EstevanDrummer]

Thank you, as someone said earlier, one of the problems we face is that even though we are many times making GIS developer solutions for massive data processing/analysis, too often we still get paid as a GIS tecnhician... Cheers from Colombia.

[@Franchyze923]

Agreed

[@mhwahla]

you have said it, agreed.

[@lobomalsano]

Hey man, greetings from Bucaramanga, Colombia. I have a bachelor in environmental engineering and have skills in webDev, you think I have a shot in the GIS field? Also, can you recommend some companies to apply for an entry level position?

[@marycamp8708]

Great video! It feels like these titles can be all over the place and expectations in job descriptions often don't align with the actual title (at least in my limited experience), so this clarification was incredibly helpful! Cheers from Hungary.

[@Koeppen1]

Currently majoring in GIS in University, this is incredibly helpful and informative! Thank you!

[@bc4198]

Yes, that was helpful, thank you! I would love to hear more.

[@avalonzion]

Excellent comparison! Great job!!!

[@jimivie]

i mapped floodplains for FEMA in my first GIS role....every day...all day.

[@joshyfrott]

Thanks man, this video cleared some of my confusion.

[@haydenlepore3924]

Great video!! I learned a lot about the different GIS titles which I think is very helpful for me in knowing what direction I want to go with this career path. I have an AA degree in interdisciplinary studies and I took two ArcGIS Pro classes with Liberty University which I enjoyed very much. Keep up the good work!!

[@EASOUL]

Well said Franchyze923! I have worked through all these roles and now running a full Esri Enterprise Solution. I find these positions sort've like the structure of a University: GIS technician being your 1st year and discovering then GIS Analyst is your specialization and the GIS Developer being your Masters. I would like to share something I've gone through with valuing your self worth and skills while going up the ladder. A lot of employers don't understand the monetary value in each of these skill sets, unfortunately I am running an enterprise solution while being valued as a Technician and this is on me and I know it but want to share that you should never under value your skills. Cheers.

[@Franchyze923]

Agreed! I've found that as my skill set has developed, a lot of the skills I'm providing to a company are outside of GIS entirely. Skills like Programming, System Administration, DevOps, Cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP) etc. are skills someone working in GIS long enough may pick up. It's important to know the value of these skills.

[@Ayridha]

Hey I am an urban planning student. Any tips for the future?

[@dwmedi21]

Thanks for the helpful info!

[@Franchyze923]

You’re welcome!! Thanks for watching

[@beforeyourimmigrants8471]

Great video!

[@WanjohiKibui]

Well put.

[@intelligentman7195]

Hi bro I am a Mechanical Engineer from India right now working as Gis Telecom Designer we use Spatial Net , AutoCAD, Small World PNI

[@soumyapradhan5819]

Are you currently A FTTX engineer In GIS OR Switch Your carrer To A Developer

[@mohammadreza-cb2fk]

Thank you it was very helpfull. ❤❤🎉🎉

[@Franchyze923]

Glad it was helpful!

[@mohammadreza-cb2fk]

@@Franchyze923 sure it was. I am going to start learning GIS at 35 years old. Ha Ha. Wish me luck. And tell me if you have any advise as a starter.

[@franciscallan2729]

Thankyou im studying this now as a second career im half way through I 55 years old is this too old to begin a new career in GIS. I guess what I’m asking is how long do I have to be in the field to gain valuable experience or the jobs come right away

[@nicolasseydoux5985]

Nice explained. So yes as a GIS dev it's quite funky with all the languages , my experience was typically QGIS/python & postgis , arcgis/unity/server side maths & algorithms/csharp , web/js/js and uhm.. POSTGIS( so database language)... , finally a bit C++ indeed with GDAL suite . But in my experience, i come from the dev world not the GIS world, i could not develop anything if i had not tried the GIS technician part to understand the data handling logic, and I had to pierce a few GIS analyst brains ( AND topographs, AND geologists, the analyst customers in my case) in order to look how they analyse spatial data thingies. My conclusion would be it can only be a plus if you have a little touch of all the different roles you brightly described , plus don't forget to delve seriously in some languages if you go GIS dev...

[@geoserg6176]

Thank you for such a clear explanation! But I am not sure where I can put myself on this scheme. Since I've mastered programming in Python several years ago, my job was mostly to write plugins or scripts for my collegues to solve many simple tasks we have. Usually it was a task for a week or two and I had no time for making it well. And, at least for the first year, I had no knowledge, either. Can I call myself a GIS Developer if nothing I made is published anywhere out of the company? (Quite an important question when I start looking for a new job!)

[@Franchyze923]

You're welcome! and absolutely you can call yourself a GIS Developer! Publishing code outside of work is certainly not a requirement to be considered a developer. I would say most developers probably don't publish anything outside of their company. The important part is being able to discuss and articulate some of those simple tasks you solved. In interviews most are interested in understanding your thought process and how you would break a problem/workflow down.

[@boyanzafirov8868]

That was interesting to hear, it sounds nice to do just one of these, as a freelancer I do all three at the same time. Digitize something, use remote sensing data, make the analysis and build a web app. It was very similar at one of my previous jobs, I was expected to do everything. Perhaps that counts for very small companies that cant afford to have an employee in each of these departments yet.

[@Franchyze923]

That's a very good point that I should have mentioned in the video. This has been my experience with relatively large companies in one industry (Defense). I'm sure experiences differ in different size companies and industries.

[@balagur7908]

Hi from Moscow! I really liked your summary. Do you have a video or maybe be do you now a resourse/roadmap that describes what skillset must know GIS Analyst and GIS Developer? I have a bahelor degree in geoinformatics and I've been working as a GIS specialist for almost two years. I am already creating small scripts to automize some routine during processing data in my company. I wanted to get a masters degree in data science but discovered that it is to much for GIS (analyst). I feel that I definetly need something new to learn but I don't know where to start. Can you give an advise? Thanks for the video!

[@Franchyze923]

I have another video where I talk about going from GIS Tech to GIS Developer. It might be helpful - kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJq1oYVjp6eWjas Work on automating whatever you can at your current role.

[@TheRestedOne]

What would you recommend for entry/lower level positions whose automation tasks are too complex to solve without very knowledgeable programming expertise? Are we doomed to manually enter data?

[@Franchyze923]

No you're not doomed! I would say it's still worth the time investment to learn programming (even if it can't automate your work tasks). Can you break up your work tasks into smaller pieces and automate one piece of it?

[@kholoud6872]

Does anyone know what assistant GIS means? What kind of work they do

[@elakaipoueisai-qm4cl]

what do you think, could AI replace GIS technician in the near future?

[@DGER81]

What about senior GIS analyst?

[@faizanfaizi8639]

I need a complete road map to become a full stack gis devaloper...Sir please help me out...

[@bew4459]

Check out Krishna Lodha KZbin channel. He's an acclaimed Web GIS developer!

[@sabbahamunandar3996]

hello, what is your educational background ?

[@I_Realism_]

I have completed my undergraduate Master's degree in Geography, and currently I'm taking up 1 year course in GIS and Remote sensing and I'm glad I'm watching this video sharing valuable self experience stories 🤝

[@darthblob10]

Who are you taking the 1 year course from?

[@R91210]

Do You think I can switch careers at 30? From a completely different field that has nothing to do with GIS?

[@Franchyze923]

Yea I don’t see why not!

[@ganeshvlogs6016]

HI, I have seen all your videos... i got a offer in GIS domain in software company with wfh ...I am a graduated in mech (but intersted in IT) with 2 years career gap. so my major doubt is is this GIS domain really growth and career aspects how it is. So could u plz help me ....i'm in trouble to finalize the decision' so plz hlep .. for suppse if i select GIS domains jobs ............how is the career growth.. ur feedback is most important to me...

[@Franchyze923]

It really depends on what you want to do. There are tons of different paths and specializations, so plenty of room for growth. And down the road, you can explore other adjacent career areas like software, IT, devops etc.

[@ganeshvlogs6016]

@@Franchyze923 Thank YOU !!!! as of i dont have offers ....so that's why i'm thinking .. for suppose if continue this role . can i shift to another domain while doing this job.. is it possible....

[@781alam]

Oh Sorry, I thought Gas insulated switchgear,

[@Daniyoyo]

Is a degree worth it ? I’m considering

[@Franchyze923]

That's a good question. A degree definitely helps open doors, but most of the skills I use today I didn't learn from my degree. It will most likely be easier to start out if you have a degree. I think the most important skill I picked up from college is "learning how to learn".

[@7Karis]

In my school’s geography department (Texas A&M University) they offer GIST degrees, but they make you pick from 3 different tracks, which you focus on statistics, computer science or business/finance. In turn you come out with a “specialization”. I got a BS in geography and i minored and GIST and Sociology. Once I got my resume together nice and linked my individual/group projects, I had a lot of employers calling from all different fields - mainly as GIS/Data Analyst positions. I chose a private telecommunications consulting and construction company as an analyst and I am extremely happy with choice!!

[@Regimented]

@@7Karis Does Texas A&M offer this as a masters degree? question from someone who wants to apply as an international student.

[@thepikachuoftexas3871]

@@Regimented Yes

[@randulah]

Very informative, nice video - curious though if you often see previous military members enter this career field? In my current job I deal a lot with similar applications on a daily basis. @franchyze923

[@Franchyze923]

Yea I see a lot of veterans in GIS