It’s been a pretty good week for us at Zekiah. We announced two new contract wins and I’m pleased to say that we’re not done yet. After final paperwork is done, we should be able to announce a couple more. These are the things that make small-business ownership worthwhile: doing good work, building relationships with our customers and then leveraging our track record to be able to work with new customers. Project execution and business development help us build the foundation necessary to be a good place for our employees to work and we try hard every day to make sure that we are such a place.
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A #LazyWeb Compendium of Python Resources for Beginners
A friend who is in the midst of a career change and moving into the GIS world asked me for some pointers to resources for getting started with Python. I threw the question out to Twitter (with a similar variation also posted to Google+):
Can anyone recommend any good online Python training sources for beginners? Asking for a friend in the midst of a career change.
— Bill Dollins (@billdollins) March 17, 2013
I got a couple of requests to summarize any information I received, which seemed reasonable. I got quite a few responses and here are some links:
Read moreA #LazyWeb Compendium of Python Resources for Beginners
Yes, You Need to Code
Over the past year, I’ve been involved in searching for GIS analysts a number of times. As a result, I’ve noticed a few patterns:
- There are a lot of analysts out there looking for jobs. Every time I run an ad, I get at least 100 resumes from people of various levels of experience and education.
- The vast majority of those that I call to pre-screen have not done any meaningful coding of any kind. This includes Python, which has been shipping with ArcGIS for several versions now.
- Of those that do have some coding experience, many do not show it on their resumes. I find this particularly interesting as I can’t imagine why a person would choose not to list all relevant skills or experience.
I am very publicly on the record that I think some form of coding skill is essential for any GIS analyst entering the workforce today. My reasoning here is fairly straightforward.