Impressing Your Boss at the GIS Office

If you are looking to impress your boss at your internship DO NOT resort to flattery.  Instead, look to these few key actions you can take to ensure you will be looked at in a positive way.  We’re not talking about just dressing the part and showing up to work on time but working intuitively on the tasks assigned to you (which as an intern is most likely data intensive.)   

Reducing data to only that which you need to complete your tasks.  Remember that tons of information can be useful but not always relevant.  Don’t use an entire image of your county as a refernce layer when all you need is one region, town or city.  Instead, clip it to the area you need to speed up your loading time between zooming and panning through ArcMap. 

Renaming your layers so that not only you understand them but an outside user can as well.  This means changing layer names in ArcMap to illustrate exactly what you are looking at.  It’s all about preferences but I’ve found that using simple names in ArcMap not only cleans up the appearance of the documents in the map document but also makes it easy for anyone to understand what they are looking at.

Remembering the end user.  Your boss will love you.  After all, someone is going to look at the data and maps you create and either get it or not.  In the map industry, as in all industries, we do not want the latter.  The objective of a map is to be as cogent as possible delivering relevant information to solve a problem or complete a task. 

As an intern, your immediate customer may be only your boss.  You may not see projects reach the public eye.  Nontheless, be prepared to explain to your supervisor the reasons for your decisions and link them to the customer.  After all the key component of GIS is the end user.

Using folders in ArcCatalog for easy referencing.  ArcCatalog is just that… a catalog!  Keep it organized.  Even if your GIS data is limited it will only get bigger.  Database organization is an art finding just the right amount of folders and subfolders.  How you organize your data will depend on how much and what kind of data you have.  If you are unsure where data should be saved in your employer’s database… ask them.  There is nothing worse than investing time into creating or editing shapefiles only to have them be floating somewhere where they shouldn’t be.

3 Steps to Land the Perfect GIS Internship

1)    Venture out on your own:  Always be on the look out for positions not only around your college campus but also back home.  If your home for the summer you’ll want your internship to be close.  College Career Services will typically have networking connections to local agencies but may not look far outside the immediate area limiting the results they can give you.

2)  Know Your Skills:  You may feel you don’t have any yet… that’s why you are pursuing an internship.  Keep a log of everything you do in and out of the classroom.  Recall the skills learned in your introductory classes, what you excelled at and what you have training in.  Include skills or topics covered in your college classes that can be related to your internship search, your activities, your minimum wage part-time job; anything that can be used as material to demonstrate your worth as an employee. 

Employers know that your education is limited as an undergraduate but will still hire you if you can demonstrate in words that you are hardworking, know the basics, work well with others and are willing to learn more about their company.

3)   Email, Email, Email:  Some employers may not advertise that they want an intern or may not have thought about it before.  An email is your chance to explain (in a professional way) that you would like to know if internships are available. 

For example:      

I am a college student enrolled at _______ University earning a degree in _________.  I have experience with ________ and would like to learn more about your company.  Do you have the need for an intern with my skills?

The example above should be re-worded to sound more professional and create a solid first impression but the essential information is there.  If you are unsure what a professional sounding email should look like have an advisor or english professor critique your correspondence first.  First impressions matter and begin at first contact even if it is just an inquiry.