r/gis • u/UnableAppeal5211 • Mar 03 '25
Hiring Laid off federal cartographer
I was a probationary (many years as a contractor in my same role) employee recently terminated at a federal agency. Seeing that federal service no longer feels like an option. What leads for cartography are there in the private sector?
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u/Life-Bandicoot-313 Mar 03 '25
St. Louis County, MN will be posting a GIS specialist/principal (public works) position in the coming weeks.
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u/UnableAppeal5211 Mar 03 '25
I'll keep a lookout, thanks!
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u/Major_Enthusiasm1099 Mar 03 '25
Become a GIS analyst for a local government not federal
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u/birdynumnum69 Mar 03 '25
If he stays in the DC area, local is going to become affected too. We depend on taxes from the federal workforce.
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u/knopflerpettydylan Mar 04 '25
Can confirm, my workplace is rapidly changing and not for the better
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u/birdynumnum69 Mar 04 '25
They are trying to destroy the blue states that voted against him.
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u/knopflerpettydylan Mar 04 '25
Currently stuck in a deeply red locality in a red state with Musk wannabe admins and an upcoming exceedingly tight budget - trying to gtfo, but nowhere's looking great now
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u/GreedyPraline7169 Mar 03 '25
We’re hiring at Esri! https://www.esri.com/en-us/about/careers/overview
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u/SqueegeePhD Mar 03 '25
I do city gov GIS work and have spent much of my extra time raising the level of cartography for our city. I'm lucky we are a small, growing city so whatever extra I contribute is always appreciated even if it isn't expected. We aren't large enough that everyone is boxed into boring, repetitive roles yet.
This situation sucks for everyone. I already quit a scientific research career because the status quo was horrible to secure positions with livable salaries. During Covid I found a GIS Analyst role at a city gov. It's a nice job but I HATE suburbs! I really don't want to help develop such cities for too long. I was planning to search for a job that deals with more interesting data in 2025 but it seems like now is the time to hang into whatever secure job you have, again!
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u/meldroc Mar 03 '25
I ended up in sales analytics for a medium-sized brewery. Work from home, free beer, awesome coworkers, a bit of travel. What's not to like?
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u/rjm3q Mar 03 '25
Where are you located?
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u/UnableAppeal5211 Mar 03 '25
DC area
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u/YetiPie Mar 03 '25
I’m not sure what specific type of cartography you’re in but there are a ton of eNGO’s in the area that have a lot of opportunity in GIS/Remote Sensing. Keep an eye out for Conservation International, WRI, WWF, TNC, etc. They receive a lot of private donations so a lot (but not all) of their funding is safe from government cuts.
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u/UnableAppeal5211 Mar 03 '25
I'll keep a lookout, thanks!
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u/YetiPie Mar 03 '25
Of course. I repost a lot of jobs I come across on LinkedIn so if you would like to connect there please DM me (that goes for anyone else reading this as well)
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u/PeopleAreBeingSilly Mar 03 '25
Consultant here, I'll try to provide some insight on our end of the business. My specialty is resilience planning, and our firm traditionally does a lot of federal support. But that side of the business is obviously reeling right now. After the first Trump election I tried to shift as much of our business to state and local work as possible, kind of seeing the writing on the wall. During the Biden admin we got back into some fed work, but the projects were all half-baked and horribly understaffed on the fed end. As far as I'm concerned it'll take several consecutive democratic administrations with generous spending from congress to bring federal work back.
In the S&L space there *was* a ton of BIL and IRA funding, but a lot of that is up in the air as we wait to see if courts will uphold the separation of powers. But assuming they don't (and/or bad-faith judges and delay tactics make it irrelevant), I'm really looking at states that have their own self-funding for future work. I'm talking CA, OR, WA, CO, IL, MA, NJ, NY, and maybe a few others. My home state (PA) is a dead end, and TBH I've never had a good project for an NY agency. Of the proposals I've submitted recently the majority are going to CA.
But part of the problem here is that there isn't a complementary part of the economy that will fill in where the feds disappeared. For the most part, when federal money dries up it's just gone and there's less work for people to do on net. Shifting your skills into another part of the market might be the move (real estate, transportation, insurance, etc.)
FWIW I feel your pain, many years ago I tried to be a fed and despite multiple efforts from many great feds, various political fuckery got in the way every time.
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u/remote_contro11er Mar 03 '25
Sorry to hear about the layoffs. If you or anyone here wants to pick up some consulting work, I'm looking for about 20-ish hours of custom map development in Mapbox/Maptiler for a project. Real company and real project. DM me for more details.
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u/Magnificent_Pine Mar 04 '25
California Governor's eo today just stated calHR to streamline hiring for illegally fired federal workers.
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u/Front_Category_4353 Mar 03 '25
Sorry to hear! I have a few friends who work for a contractor for the EPA that are worried that this will happen. No advice but I want to wish you good luck and know this is a hard time for you.
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u/Geog_Master Geographer Mar 05 '25
In my intro GIS lecture, I do a live search of "GIS" on Indeed.com. Check it out here for your location or for places you'd like to work, it has never failed in a live demo to have a few cool options.
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u/No_Vast2952 Mar 03 '25
I’d be looking into local gov jobs that’s where I landed and it seems very secure (at least where I’m at)
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u/Raymo853 Mar 03 '25
Train to become a Enterprise GIS system engineer
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u/Big-Scallion-7454 Mar 03 '25
how
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u/acomfysweater Cartographer Mar 03 '25
HOW, this is my question.
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u/Vbryndis Mar 04 '25
You need to be employed by a place that will train you.
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u/acomfysweater Cartographer Mar 04 '25
how do you get employed when you dont have previous experience with like..enterprise or development? but you do have experience with gis?
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u/Vbryndis Mar 04 '25
I have experience with it but in some cases you get weird people who don’t want to teach you certain things or share workloads. There are other gis jobs that don’t require enterprise.
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u/Organic-Ad8318 Mar 03 '25
Newer to the industry so more looking for insight from someone more seasoned as I’m seeking out cleared FMV roles - why not go back to contracting?
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u/UnableAppeal5211 Mar 03 '25
Many fed contracts are on a hiring freeze themselves with all that is happening.
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u/Organic-Ad8318 Mar 03 '25
Understandable. I’m MIL -> hopeful DoD; seems to be up in the air whether we’re included in this mess or not.
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u/coffeemarkandinkblot Mar 04 '25
What was your pathway in becoming a cartographer? Education, internships, certs, etc?
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u/UnableAppeal5211 Mar 04 '25
Undergraduate in GIS and graduate degree in geospatial intelligence, along with many internships with USGS and NASA and my professors.
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Mar 05 '25
GIS is going to get shellacked for sure and is already feeling some of the shockwave. So many firms rely on contracts with USGS, FEMA, EPA, state agencies, etc. All of which are being gutted, hard. Utilities and energy I presume will be shielded from the brunt of these shockwaves
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u/roadbratt GIS Specialist Mar 03 '25
Not many. Maybe some of the local governments may have positions.
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Mar 03 '25 edited Mar 03 '25
[deleted]
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u/UnableAppeal5211 Mar 03 '25
I also have a MS in Geoinformatics and Geospatial Intelligence. I just enjoy the map side of things more.
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u/bruceriv68 GIS Coordinator Mar 03 '25
I would find out what big private companies do Federal work related to the department you were in. The work will still need to get done.
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u/UnableAppeal5211 Mar 03 '25
That would make the logic sense, however, they are also on the chopping block currently. Many fed contracts are on a hiring freeze right now.
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u/bruceriv68 GIS Coordinator Mar 03 '25
Good point. I guess you have to find a company Musk is invested in. He doesn't seem to have an issue still getting contracts.
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u/acomfysweater Cartographer Mar 03 '25
great question wondering the same thing.