A light hearted look at what it means to be a GIS consultant in the private industry.

Most of us would know that the majority of GIS professionals in Australia are employed in the public sector. This is the story of that slightly different breed that work for a private company.

As GIS consultants we generally have to juggle a number of different projects at one time, each with its own set deadline and cost. This means we need to complete the job within the set amount of hours and get it right first time, otherwise it could mean working late nights and hiding from stressed project managers.

Estimating hours required to complete a task and interpreting client’s needs, even when they don’t really know what they want, become critical skills of the trade. Overestimate the hours and you may not win the job, underestimate and those late nights become a regular occurrence. And if you’re not able to interpret the client, it could mean spending hours on end producing something the client can’t actually use.

We will share the details of these challenges as well as some other intricate aspects of a GIS consultant’s job, including overcoming the technology challenges of working on large national projects and begging data custodians to supply data within 60 minutes of the initial request. Hopefully by the end of this presentation you will know what makes a GIS consultant tick and understand why we actually enjoy this sort of thing.