A recent job ad for a cartographer listed the requirements for the perfect candidate. In this bulleted list were 6 items pertaining to software development knowledge such as processes and specific technologies. One item pertained to design. Not a single item pertained to an applicant’s ability to manipulate data in meaningful ways. Unfortunately, the lack of emphasis on data and design probably stems from the fact that the firm is primarily made up of software developers. Naturally they are going to get specific about those things which they know the most about like particular IDEs, languages, and so on, and not so specific about design and data, which they know less about.
What they really need is someone who is very strong in data and design because these are obviously the areas they need the most help with. The candidate only needs to be so-so with programming, since this is already an in-house expertise. If they can get someone who is strong on all three counts then they need to throw a party, because there really aren’t that many candidates, currently, that have expert level knowledge of all three areas.
But we need to change that.
The diagram shown above explains how the software development aspect is a “new” component of the core knowledge areas that a cartographer needs to be an expert on in 2012. Students, in particular, need to realize that they will have to take classes from several different departments in order to gain enough skill in all three areas. Professionals need to make sure that they are actively improving on whichever skill they are weakest in.
Those professionals coming from the sciences, GIS, and cartography camps need to increase their software development skills: HTML 5, JavaScript, and Python to start. Take Harvard’s free, online CS50 course. Learn Python at learnpython.org. Watch Julie Powell’s ArcGIS viewer for Flex tutorials. Download some data and build a free map with TileMill and a free MapBox account and learn the basics of CSS while you’re at it.
Those coming from computer sciences need to be improving their design and data skills.* Read Nathan Yau’s popular book Visualize This. Learn the difference between choropleth maps and heat maps, how and when to normalize, scale factors, and myriad other topics in the cartography literature. Read Cartographic Perspectives.
*Hello to normalizing by population density!
#1 by sheilagh on October 17, 2012 - 2:52 pm
Thanks Gretchen!
#2 by LeighH on October 17, 2012 - 3:21 pm
In order to get a job as a cartographer, you need to have 3 years experience as a cartographer and know 5 different programming languages.
#3 by M. Adan on October 23, 2012 - 11:18 pm
Gretchen, thank you for the great advice. For the data aspect of cartography, does it mean that we have to be skilled in statistical software (spss, r, etc..)?
Thanks
#4 by Gretchen on October 24, 2012 - 7:49 am
R and spss are good to know. However, the data portion really refers to more fundamental theory type of things such as knowing your data inside and out, knowing about correlation/causation, how to break up your data into categories (quantile vs. natural breaks for example), and so on.
This is speaking just for the cartography profession in particular. If you are also a spatial analyst then it is good to know one of the data manipulation packages.