Reed 
Tomlinson
geo business starter

Lauren 
Herwehe
globetrotter & student

Mike 
Colosimo
geo business starter

Sam 
Zuhlke
nat geo 
educator

Learn about Sam's Geo Journey in a 5 minute clip.

"Geography is important to me because it's a tool for understanding—it provides a means to analyze and interpret, and to create a better world around us.  It gives me an edge because it allows me to see the whole picture.  It's a little bit of everything, very holistic, and I love keeping that larger picture in mind as I move through the day-to-day."

"Communicating clearly helped me land my current job.  Being able to talk about what I do and what I want to do has opened a lot of doors for me and has been invaluable.  I don't know what I want to do with the rest of my life... But I do know what I want to do right now and how to express it."

"There's almost nothing more important than exercising good judgement, both personally and professionally.  It's important to learn how to distinguish between opportunities to pursue and which ones to let go."

"People who pursue their passions inspire me.  It doesn't matter what that passion is for - geography, photography, animals, cooking, etc..  People who have identified what they're supposed to do, and are doing it - that's inspiring!"

Part 1
Reed Tomlinson
geo business starter

Part 2
Lauren Herwehe
globetrotter & geo student

Part 3
Mike Colosimo
geo business starter

Learn about Lauren's Geo Journey in a 5 minute clip.

"I have geography to thank for all of my adventures.  It really opened up the world to me and allowed me to do incredible things.  I didn’t actually start traveling until I went to college.  Almost all of the traveling I’ve done was for coursework and research. Geography is about studying people and places; it encourages you to explore the world."

"Traveling to so many countries has helped me see that there is more than one “right” way to live life.  Americans tend to keep themselves so busy working, there is no left time for family and friends.  The biggest take-away I gained from other cultures is to make time for people in my life.  It makes me more productive and more creative if I give myself time to reboot."

"I’ve been all over the map, literally.  I spent a year in Tajikistan as a Fulbright Scholar studying farmers' access to water.  Before that, I was an intern at the American Geological Institute in Washington, D.C., where I attended congressional hearings and summarized proposed bills for their website.  I was also a Research Assistant with the German Academic Exchange Service.  My job was to test soil samples for a project studying landscape development and climate change."

"Part of my job as an intern at the American Geological Institute was to write about current events.  I was really excited to cover a high-profile event during my short time there.  My big chance came with the BP Oil Spill.  I wrote a great story about it, starting with the sentence, “BP spilled 4.8 billion barrels of water into the Gulf of Mexico.”  No one caught the error and it got published prominently on their website! I’m glad I could provide everyone with a good laugh."

Part 1
Reed Tomlinson
geo business starter

Part 3
Mike Colosimo
geo business starter

Part 4
Sam Zuhlke
geo educator

The same is true for your geo-journey.  It's a lot less intimidating if you have access to advice and friendly faces from the geo-community. 

Introducing...GeoPivot Magazine.  

Join our crew, where we laugh at snafus, share personal stories, and meet up with other job-seeking geo-peeps.

Sometimes you have to JUMP OUT of your comfort zone to move forward!  Read on to find out how you can get started today:

A while ago, I was hired to be a GIS intern for a research institute run by a big university. I was excited about the opportunity to work on a bunch of different projects with a bunch of different people of varying expertise. I started my job in the winter, just after the Christmas holiday, and I arrived nicely dressed in brand new clothes, ready to take on some new challenges. 

My first assignment? Take down the Christmas decorations. Shortly after that, I was recruited to move a bunch of furniture and dusty old boxes from an office on the first floor to an office on the second floor using a tiny freight elevator. So much for the nice new clothes!

-Annonymous

Urvashi Banerjea, Undergrad Student. 

Kelly,

Yes, you can and should include GIS projects you've completed as a student when you are first getting started in the GIS field.  As you gain work experience, you can reduce the number of student projects featured in your portfolio.  

Check out the examples below, which show 5 portfolios from different stages in my geo-journey when I had 0, 3, 4, 8, and 10 years GIS work experience.  The timeline starts at present day and works back to 2003, when I was an undergraduate trying to land my first job out of school.  ​

My journey to the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting began with a very determined professor.  

He informed me and three classmates in my senior capstone class that we were going to Los Angeles to present our work. 

At first I was apprehensive because I wasn’t sure what to expect from the conference, or what other attendees would expect from my presentation. 

I’d been to one geography conference before, but I'd never shared my own work. 

David Parr, a friend from Texas State University, recently asked me to be a guest speaker for his undergraduate GIS classes. 

He thought I could help shed light on the seemingly mysterious process of getting a job out of school, as I had landed my first GIS position at a state agency the prior year.  

Here’s what I wish someone had told me...