Stuff to Do

At some point in the last two months I opened the last Jobspage post to identify stuff to do.  Then I grabbed the notes from the resume folder.  My notes in there say that I have a variety of resumes but they can be seen as either short or long one.  I had a long resume that I would like to rebuild as a short one.  This newest version places the education elements on the top because I recently graduated.

I had identified what kinds of terms and formats I should use to list my MA.  While it seems that Job seekers use simple postings because education is less important than employment, the academic listings showed a little more.  First degrees should be written as initials and there should be a minimal note of specialization, concentration or emphasis.  I may add publications or recent conferences.  I should also have a section where I describe my background supervising classes, caring for equipment and coordination.  I should also have a section on skills, techniques, interests, training or research.  I noticed that resumes listed skills (GIS, surveys, English) as a narrative or in a special section and I shouldn’t list my certificates (GIS, TESL) but may discuss qualifications.

Next, my review showed I found that experiences referred to work.

In the employment section I have a single entry that lists my four years of projects with PG&E.

Things that I focused on in a reread in the jobs areas were companies, departments, projects.  I noted that each job comes with benefits.  However, I am not certain what I meant by this.  I think that each job come with things that you may do that you can’t do at other jobs and not medical or etc benefits.  I noted that I would need to list out how these are referenced.

Announcements

On 100814 I believe I wrote that I wanted to make an analysis of jobs offered and an analysis of jobs received.  I think it would be good to collect announcements and do a context analysis and then list out objectives and then produce an open coded categorization.  Then the analysis could interview or survey the employed and ask if the objectives were achieved and how to further develop the open coded categories.

A Reboot of My Job Search

While rewriting my job search notes I have hit on a lot of the necessities in making my job search work.  I reviewed the folder where I keep everything regarding work.  It has the principle tools for my job search and serves as a directory of my work history.  It covers jobs in general, state agencies, jobs to which I have applied and more than one type of group with which I have worked.  There were several items and I have reorganized them, there are mostly two types: Jobsearch and the jobs folders.

The jobsearch folder holds specific search tools, like my Resource Bib.  This is the material record of my job search and lists out categories of places where I learned about jobs.  These include recruiters, aggregators, government, corporate, non-profits and other types.  For instance, I have lately been thinking about contacting a specific recruiter that called me a few times with opportunities.  I have also been interested in looking a little deeper into the GIS exam with the State of California.  I have an email from Steve at Wildlife saying that the Research Program Specialist and the Research Analyst I/II exams would open sometime this summer.  I recently emailed Gabriel at Fire and Karen at Wildlife to inquire about them.  Meanwhile, I have learned that I should not be using my employer’s internal site to find a job there and use the “external site” instead.  I have noted several times that I need to return to the process of changing my profile for many of these resources but must be ware since my present employer may happen upon it when visiting the aggregating and integrating jobs sites.  Finally, I want to more thoroughly investigate my email labelling since I should find ways to integrate the nonprofits into my research.

My work folder also has a place for my resume, which may take various forms (as CV or Cover Letters).  I am presently interested in completing my long form resume and comparing it to older versions so that I can produce a new short form resume.  I have also been considering how to reboot my two-every-other-day process, where I make day to day steps in reviewing my resource list.

Meanwhile, my Jobspage blog has four different keywords Bib, Correspondence, Interview and Notes.  The bib keywords cover my bibliography notes: Recruiters and Aggregators.  One of them got a lot of views because I posted it on social media.  I also posted a couple of resources about the Academy of Sciences and I also made a post about CalOpps.  The Correspondence keyword had numerous posts.  These are mostly reposts of my emails to people and their responses.  There were several for GIS positions that got as many as six views.  However, there were two posts that got more than that and they were more about planning.  I also posted several things pertaining to interviews that I have had.  I tend to write about my interactions in the process of getting a job.  In some cases these posts get a lot of views but generally they only garner three or four hits.  Finally, I have a few posts called notes but they didn’t get very many views at all.

The Aggregators

About six months ago I went through each of the job sites that list jobs that I knew of and collected a bit of information about each.  I was specifically looking for GIS jobs in the Bay Area but I think the list is a good one.  I wanted to do more with the list but I recently got a job and my research on this subject has slowed.  However, I am happy to share it with you.

I look for resources—websites mostly but also email lists and personal contacts—that provide me with a lead on how to get a job.  For instance there are three websites in particular that I spend a lot of time looking at and learning about and they are the ones I have used the most.  I have been calling these sites integrators: Craigslist, Monster and Career Builder.  This group I call the aggregators because they really only aggregate job listings.  I suggest looking only at the top ten in this list because the ones at the bottom are likely just fakes.

The information I collected for each site is broad.  I identified where I learned about the resource and with what it is affiliated.  This is important for aggregating those that seem to be disassociated.  For instance Beyond is an easy example but there are several that don’t have an easy description.  Also, some websites are just dummies that are only the last step in a set of emailed links.  I tried to identify what the site says.  This is simply an extension of what I have been doing already.  Many markers, like a log in and a search filed are common but every site has something different.  To continue with this process I then used the search field and described what it did.  Sometimes the websites I am looking at don’t have this option at first but if you look hard enough it is usually there.  I think that there is one site that didn’t.

Finally, I have been using two sites, Website Informer and Alexa, to figure out each sites ranking and ownership.  The list has 36 aggregators and one might note that every entry in the list below is ranked based upon the Alexa website.  This tactic has been invaluable in identifying which sites are even worth looking at.  I went each entry and made a simple description

186: Rank        Indeed.com is similar to Bright but the site is ranked 187 meaning it is possibly the best site available.  It has grown considerably in popularity over the last few years.  It says it has 500,000 job listings and SF GIS produced 135 jobs—many of which I had seen or had applied for. There is also an especially useful review element on this site.

762: Rank        Glassdoor.com was surprisingly popular.  It is in my email alerts from Beyond.  It trolls websites to list about 100,000 jobs of which 3500 of which are in the Bay Area and about 80 are in SF.  Most of the jobs are located on the site, which has a lot to offer such as membership and browsing in addition to worthwhile advice on interviews and statistics.  I found that it is comparable to Careerbuilder

1922: Rank      Simplyhired.com is a weaker version of Indeed but is still worth tracking as it is ranked well.  It has a way to post a resume and/or a job as well as a list of trending jobs and a set of categories.  The site says it has 1.5 million jobs and searching for SF GIS returns 342.  Each listing identifies the primary poster.

4003: Rank      Dice.com is an older tech oriented site and has maintained a better position than Beyond or Bright.  The number of jobs is not huge but the number is actually big when one considers that the site only lists tech jobs.  Paring the number of jobs down to GIS and SF worked well.

5657: Rank.     Beyond.com started showing up in my email somehow.  There are about 12 sites associated with this one via the Career network and the profiles are all the same.  While this primary site is the only one worth anything, I did have to shut off the alert.  This site has a lot of jobs on it many of which are familiar.

5930: Rank.     Bright.com is comparable to Beyond and I am considering joining it.  It may not necessarily have many results for GIS in SF but it does have a lot of jobs.

6148: Rank      Governmentjobs.com has a pretty straight forward name with around 8000 job listings but SF GIS returns only one.  There are categories on the bottom of the page and Alexa shows the site changes rank from 6000 to 12000.  There is the possibility for a log in.

10801: Rank.   Bullhornreach.com uses the leading social networks to provide its offerings and seems to be for recruiters and employers.  There is a way to search for jobs but you can’t search by location and there aren’t a lot of GIS jobs.  Its rank and position makes it worth watching though it did dip when Glassdoor jumped.

11582: Rank.   Action Without Borders or idealist.org is a non-profit/volunteer oriented site with only a few job listings that is more oriented towards networking.  I have found that it is really good for promoting my own content and I don’t have to be a member to search for jobs or organizations.

25459: Rank    JobsRadar.com says that there are 20,000 listings on the site for the Bay Area. I found that searching for SF GIS returned around 50 jobs.  However, all of the listings are from the other sites documented in this list.  It’s Alexa ranking seems pretty high because it is low quality.  The comparison shows that it is on par with Dice and Beyond.  It did have a drop that coincided with Beyond’s.

35974: Rank.   Americasjobexchange.com is not a good site in my own estimation.  There were only about 20 jobs listed for GIS and many were from Indeed or Beyond.

47464: Rank.   ARCA24.com doesn’t seem to have a lot of listings and seems to be an international service.  You can post a resume and search for a job but it is hard to say how many jobs are available.  There were only a few jobs available for me to review.  Its recent activity is weak.

57454: Rank    Postjobfree.com seems to be for both recruiters and candidates and offers a free job alert and apparently has 25000 jobs.  The search button is broken but Placing SF GIS returns 6 leads.  Alexa has ranks this site as not changing much over the past two years.

62295: Rank    Tweetmyjobs.com, from CareerArc, has a lot of jobs but its subscriptions are all made via Twitter.  The problem that I have with this site is that it doesn’t allow a person to pick and choose what the streams contain because they depend upon specific categorizations.  The site’s position tracks the rise of Beyond and Bright but at a much lower level.

118761: Rank  iHire.com hives searches off to a group of niche sites.  Typing GIS in the field returns a selection of these sites.  This seems inefficient since it requires that I visit several sites for one categories of job.  These sites also misleadingly request personal data.  There are location based links.  For the past two years the site has barely shown a blip on the radar.

120000: Rank  NetTemps.com has a member form as a splash page with a “no thanks” link.  There may be about 20,000 items on this site but it there isn’t any way to know.  Searching for SF GIS produces 15,000 and both produces 40 and all the leads are in-house items.  Alexa ranked this site around 120,000 but I think it recently fell out of Alexa’s rankings.

128091: Rank  Planetizen.com is an online magazine for planners with blogs, literature and directories.  There is a membership.  There are no more than 75 jobs listed on this site at any one time.  At times the site tops 80,000 at times.

137308: Rank  Localhires.com came from a subscription with my college and was related to nationalcareerfairs.com, which has a login and a search tool.  There is no indication that these sites are related to Localhires.com which has a search tool with 10,000 listings, around 80 of which are SF GIS jobs.  These opportunities returned listings at known sites.

268641: Rank  Justjobs.com never produced any leads that I hadn’t found through other sites.  It is related to Internet Inc, LatPro (a site for Latinos) and Jobs in Geography.  None seem to offer a membership.

395044: Rank  Jooble-us.com provides SEO for jobs from sites like Indeed or Monster with advertisements and is generally unpopular.  The advanced search returns 1.2 million jobs, 2500 for GIS and 65 for SF GIS.  It has few of its own listings and a lot of repetition.

1142942: Rank            Jobserious.com is a spammer site that came unbidden to my email.  There is no immediate way to search for jobs but it does have a place to give your information.  In this and other examples clicking on the email link shows that I am logged in.

1577377: Rank            Jobsvianet.com is a poorly blocked, advertising heavy site with around 48,000 leads listed in house.  SF GIS produced around 300 results.  This site is slow but the listings are real and worthwhile with a lot of repetition.

1759153: Rank            GetGISJobs.com is a spammer that I had to unsubscribe from and the way that it was optimized implies that it used a resume from years ago.  The search field for this site provides poor estimates and leads and returns intermediary sites.  The newsletter page doesn’t provide an opt-out.

2102372: Rank            Employer-Network.com is a spammer site that came unbidden to my email.  When I most recently looked at it the rank was around 17 million but now it is around 2.  This site is poor.  The emails drive traffic to zipalerts and this implies that the site is more for marketing rather than jobs development.

The Recruiters

On 022614 I received a bunch of calls from recruiters between 9 in the morning and 6 at night.  While two were for other jobs in the tech/mapping industry, eight of them were for a job that I had heard about for months.  It was variously described to me as an architect/analyst job and they all provided me with the same description (see below).  It was for client job order/requisition 6020, an IT GIS Specialist/Analyst.  Most of them identified the client as PG&E at their location in downtown San Francisco.  The 6 month contract was 40 hours a week and the pay rate was more than $70 an hour on a W2.

Each of the recruiters had found my resume on Career Builder or Monster.  However, many of these recruiters had actually saved my resume from these websites in the last year.  Each one of them sent both an email and made as many as two calls and in every case they wanted a “right to represent” form from me in addition to my newest resume and a competed application.  They often wanted my availability, availability and an explanation of any “gaps” in my resume.

The thing that has always struck me about these postings and recruiters is how uncoordinated they are.  They generally seem to be four or five person teams with a sheaf of announcements that they must fill.  I have noticed that often the same people call me for months at a time and then they are replaced by a new set of recruiters or recruitment groups.  While many of these agencies do seem to disappear over time, I have also found that there is a subset that persists.  They have a well-organized staff and require that each of their candidates go through an introductory interview before receiving new opportunities.  At this point it would seem that these groups are taking a greater stake in the projects for which they are recruiting and bear a closer to firms rather than recruiters.  However, I am reluctant to include them in my lists for firms because the manner through which I have learned about them is via the recruitment process.

  

These were the qualifications directly from the announcements:

The ideal candidate should have experience with Experience with ArcFM AutoUpdaters and ArcFM configuration, Demonstrated ability to support business end users and production issues. Should have good understanding in data management in a relational database; 5-7 years of GIS Analyst experience utilizing the principles and practices of GIS is required. - Knowledge of multi-faceted disciplines which contribute to the implementation of the GIS application. - Some experience and exposure in GIS application development utilizing (asp.net, C#, Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Flex) - Knowledge of Structured Query Language (SQL) scripting language to retrieve data from relational database management systems in MS SQL Server; - Familiarity with ArcObjects/VBA/Python scripting and programming - Considerable knowledge and experience with the core ESRI GIS software products, specifically ArcGIS Desktop, Arc/Info, ArcSDE, and relational databases within MS SQL Server. - Knowledge of methods, procedure

These were the responsibilities from the announcements:

Staff members in this labor category provide database development support in creating cartographic and digital data products. These staff members have expertise that includes the performance of hard copy to digital data conversion tasks, data migration, and translation activities utilizing advanced processing techniques in ArcGIS. These individuals design, develop, and implement efficient production tools and workflows in accordance with approved project plans and design parameters.

Phone call with Marcus

I spoke to Ravi at Collabera and we confirmed my phone call with Marcus at 930.  When called the number I ended up on a conference call with Marcus, Steve, Gordon and Vikram.  Steve apparently was an associate that I remember speaking with before.

I wrote that the team I had applied for a job with did support for the development of GIS software.  Marcus asked some questions for the team saying that the project I was applying for was phase two of the project and that they had a query tool that created tables, used GRASS and identified buffered areas.  He called it an ETl tool that does data visualization, where if the data doesn’t pass inspection it may not be used.

I described some of my previous experience and then Steve explained that Phase Two would be provide further integration with existing software.  He called it regression testing to see if data was displayed correctly and then described how the day to day activity was meant to query the db and verify that it make the correct outputs and if not then we would have to make the new data.  The team then explained that they were looking at what changes affect the front end tool correctly, saying that Gordon defines the requirements in liaison with the group and that everyone has to meet with him occasionally.  They said there were also general requests from other teams as well.

I told Marcus I wasn’t certain what a Feature Manipulation Engine (FME) was.  However, once they explained that it was a buffer tool which turned routes into events I told them that I had experience with tools like this.  They said it was an ETL tool and that was crucial to interface with the FME developer to understand what manual changes were necessary.

Marcus indicated that I needed to know about shp and geodatabase exports but Steven explained that a lot of that was peripheral.  Marcus also asked me what I had done in the GIS area.  Here I explained that my GIS background covered many years and that I was quite capable with the environment that they had described.  I also indicated that the specific types of buffering and manipulation were like second nature to me especially when it comes to tracking changes and testing.

I’m competent at data export/import and that once the tool is made then a lot of the work was already done.  I also noted that scripts need to be watched every time the process changes—especially if you make a new data source.  Steve then said we wouldn’t be building anything but that interfacing with the team was important.  He also said that I would be checking the source of the data and making certain that the front end tool was correct.

Vikram then went on to say that the process was just as complicated as my last position with the company.  He then asked me to explain how my previous experience coincided with what they explained.  I explained the process of moving data from sharepoint to access to the engineers and finally to the uploaders group.  I made certain to name all the principle actors as a reference as well.

I told them that the data Ihad been using didn’t use shapefiles and explained the lag between each teams procedures.  I said that we used Access to query and then send data to the engineers and that I also knew how to upload data.  I described the process of loading and then sending the data to the testers and went on to explain our “Linear Match” tool for addressing buffering issues.

Steve went on to say that they use Model Builder and I said that I had experience with it.  He then said that they used a testing model for testing which only needed my feedback.  I explained that a model is easy to understand if you have access to the source data to see what is going on with it.

I said that from the description I understood the job well.  I then confirmed the location and asked how many people were on the team and sounded like there were around 10 with 4 developers and a couple of testers.

Within an hour Ravi called to tell me I had landed the job and that the HR guy would call me.  He called a half hour later to confirm that I had received the job.  He then asked if I would accept it.  He said that the contract was 6 months with the possibility of more.  He then confirmed my compensation and said he would send me the details.

GIS at Stanford

I had an interview for a transportation planning position with technical expertise in GIS at Stanford.  I opened up Google Hangouts and received a call from a guy there named Ramses.  We talked about the Hangouts a bit and then he told me that this was the first of several interview rounds and I was one of ten being interviewed.  He said that he had a bunch of questions that he would go through that that this would provide a guide for his evaluation.  I asked about the job and we talked about the UCLA Professor Don Shoup a bit with whom Ramses said that he had consulted.

He said that the job is a data focused job and wanted to evaluate my skills.  The first questions were about Data Management, table production and visualization.  I went over my experience with SQL here.  I recounted my experience with Cartography and ESRI’s GIS and then my experience with MS Access.  I discussed how easy it is to learn the tools if you understand these things.  Ramses described the products his office uses: “R” plug-ins and data mining tools.

He asked about my experience with Java and Python—scripting, programming and command line.  I explained that I had taken classes and built things on my own webpage.  He then asked if I would be able to edit xml or if I had had experience with a debugger or a command line.  To this I explained that I was competent.  I gave him some examples of my modeling experience and I indicated that solving some of his problems might involve several iterations of scripting and a lot of time for the processing and development.  I made it clear that I was a capable GIS analyst with cartographic and network analysis skills pertaining to route optimization, scripting and online tools.

He then asked about my survey experiences.  Here I went into depth with examples I knew: my thesis and helping with the parking office at my university.  He explained that every year his office collects a representative survey from a population of 60000 campus users.  He said the successful candidate would be instrumental in the process of moving data from the survey to analysis.  I explained that my project management experience began with my experiences at Grad School and continued through to the last two jobs I had had.  He then asked me to explain to him why I should get the job and I said that this is the position that I wanted (my “dream job”) and that he had essentially gone over a long list of things that I was well qualified to do.

I asked about the environment in the office and turnover.  He indicated that there wasn’t a huge emphasis on punctuality and that working from home was occasionally possible.  He also said that there wasn’t a lot of turnover in the job and that a lot of people are around for years before they even consider moving on to something better.  He was taking over from his boss who was moving to the Airport.  When we wrapped things up Ramses mentioned that the next round of interviews would be in Stanford proper.

One Avenue

I had just come home from a great weekend camping trip to Marin when I sat down with my father to talk about my career search.  My dad believes that I need to go down to the employers and present myself.  Meanwhile, I kept trying to explain that I need a reason—specifically a relationship—upon which to base this kind of visit.  He said that he would let me know when next he spoke to his friends or associates.

The next day I found myself on the phone with a man who works as a consultant to the company from which he had retired.  I told him that I had previously worked as a consultant at the same company and that I wanted to talk to him about my attempts to get hired there.  He said he had worked for many years as a union employee and that one avenue might be to speak with the unions.  I explained to him that this was an avenue that many had suggested to me.

I then went on to explain that I had been using the company’s web-based job application system.  I noted that while they had actually responded to me I have always been rejected for positions for which I am fully qualified.  I then described some of my experiences as a consultant with the company and asked about the work environment.  He then described what the company’s consultants do in his office.

I told him that I wanted to get on the radar of someone at that office.  I then told him that so many potential employers don’t see that my most recent employer’s background made him a good connection.  He explained that the company keeps on reorganizing its services but that he it could use a little investigation.  This call has made me reconsider my concept of this type of job.  Up to now I had always been under the impression that I would land a job and then join the union.

Fwd: ArcFM

Hey Kevin,

 

Good to hear from you, thanks for sharing your insight!  SFSU does not teach ArcFM, and very few students have experience with enterprise GIS platform, so I doubt any of our graduates will qualify. I have never used ArcFM, I wonder how reliable it is. I have been teaching utility network analyst in my geodatabase class, and have to say every time I use it I keep my fingers crossed. I heard that PG&E invested a lot of money on GIS in the past few years, especially after the San Bruno gas explosion. The previous CEO always believed in lobbying instead of technology. Now finally they are paying attention to technology. Is this position something you are interested in? If so, good luck with it. My guess it would be fairly challenging for them to find a highly qualified candidate unless they open up the search to nationwide.

 

xiaohang

Fwd: ArcFM

Dear Xiao Hang Liu,

I saw the listing for an ArcFM position at PG&E Nancy Forworded from Sarah and thought I would email you.  I interviewed for this last month at Insight Global.  The recruiter had no idea what ArcFM is and needed information.  I could tell she was looking for the "right" candidate.  I told her about my experiences with Enterprise GIS platforms like this.  This week I got calls from 12 recruiters for the same position and even supplied my information to some of them.  I have never seen PG&E send out so many inquiries.

ArcFM is similar to many Enterprise solutions I have seen out there.  I used one that PG&E Gas Transmission uses.  ArcFM seems new though.  It is clearly used for electricity networks.  I am wondering how typical it is and if it might be common for your students to use it?

Thanks,

Kevin Flaherty