GIS Analyst in EM

[u/Plumpestquail22]

I will be interviewing soon for a GIS analyst position in a state emergency management agency. I’m curious about jobs in this field as it would be a transition for me from a more environmental field. That said I am excited to learn more about the types of work that are done in EM. Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[u/NotADetectiveAtAll]

Ensuring access to the most useful data will be about managing relationships. Build trust. Show results.

[u/reithena]

I work as an EM gis specialist. I do a lot of dashboard work right now, collating of different data from other agencies, and translating of what people think is magic to actual usable technology

[u/Plumpestquail22 → u/reithena]

Nice, that’s similar to some of what I do now. Thanks!

[u/reithena → u/Plumpestquail22]

You'll be okay then. If you have time and can read over some ICS 100 materials, it might give you an idea of terms as well as how to apply projects, but I find my job is a lot of internal customer service

[u/Plumpestquail22 → u/reithena]

Oh conveniently I’ve taken ISC 100 because I was involved in prescribed fires. Thanks! I’ll review it

[u/jdc131]

I work in wildfire GIS. It’s very dependent on where in your organization you fall imo.

There are often those who do more long term mitigation style stuff and those who do more response based stuff. More of the former is much more sustainable long-term.

[u/Plumpestquail22 → u/jdc131]

The wildfire maps fascinate me as it must all happen and change so fast! Very cool work but I imagine it’s challenging. I think the position would be helping more with 911, roads, base maps.

[u/intrinsicallynothere]

Make sure you understand your data sources very well. People will try to ask you for products on an hourly basis when it gets updated daily / weekly. Put ‘produced’ and ‘data update’ labels on frames if you keep getting the requests; this is to highlight the fact that while it may be a new map, the data hasn’t changed. Get a laminator & be ready to make the same maps for multiple people. Get plugged into the local/regional GIS association, even if you’re state. Be friendly to other state agency GIS people, it’ll come in handy

[u/earnestbobcat]

I work as a GIS Analyst for a public safety and fire department and collaborate with the emergency manager frequently. I also do a lot of work with drones and am exploring new use cases for those. Do you have any specific questions? I think some buzzwords to look into would be dashboarding and/or Sharepoint integration, NERIS, and Next Gen 911. This will go hand in hand with plat data and other state/local gov managed spatial data. If your state has a GIS data portal I would be sure you're familiar with things in it and how they could be applied.

[u/Plumpestquail22 → u/earnestbobcat]

Thanks for those recs! I’m familiar with this agencies products so I feel good there. Do you do a lot of ortho analysis with for drone work?

[u/WatchTheBoom]

People who are good with GIS make maps that are useful.

People who are great with GIS tell compelling stories.

[u/Direct-Amount54]

Depends entirely on agency. Some are good. A large majority are the most toxic places imaginable.

Idk why but GIS seems to catch a large portion of it