From a hole in the Ozone Layer to a career in GIS

Image source: nasa

Do you remember the ‘hole’ in the ozone layer? Basically, after finding out CFCs were bad we made the change to non-aerosol.  It was a defining moment in my early school days. At the time, I thought the world was doomed.  Then I won the Premier’s Science Award for my year 6 science project – an educational board game about the ozone layer. Coincidently, the game featured points on an image of the globe with associated attributes (trivia) that facilitated a path to save the earth. The message was clear: collect and share information and you will save the Earth!

This poignant moment came to mind while reflecting with colleagues around the coffee machine this week.  While we all agreed we hadn’t planned for a career in GIS back in our school days, there was a sense of naïve grandeur in our aspirations*. Mine just happened to be saving the world with a board game.

Fast forward to now and I am a university graduate with a Bachelor of Environmental Science, Natural Resource Management. Following graduation, I was selected to be an Academic Demonstrator for Introduction to GIS with the School of Environmental Science and Engineering. I really enjoyed this experience. With a Certificate IV Training and Assessment up my sleeve I set my sites on a career in GIS.

As a Graduate Consultant with Esri Australia based in Brisbane I have the opportunity to work in Professional Services with mentors to guide me during this journey. This invaluable experience sees me working with Support and Training, gaining Technical and Comp TIA CTT+ Certification and investigating a specific ArcGIS project topic.

My aspiration is to develop a career with Esri Australia that utilises and builds on my technical abilities in ArcGIS to provide GIS information and solutions for our clients’ success. I truly believe in the power of the ArcGIS Online platform and the unlimited future the industry has… Oh and of course collaboratively saving the world with ArcGIS!

Dagmar P

Graduate Consultant

*credit to Martyn who was going to be a park ranger and Nick who thought he would be a helicopter pilot.

* ‘65% of children starting school this year will end up doing jobs that haven’t even been invented yet’ (Davidson, cited in Heffernan, 2011).