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