Author Topic: ESRI  (Read 5500 times)

Andrew928

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ESRI
« on: September 23, 2015, 12:10:58 PM »
My university has a strong ties with the mapping company ESRI here in California and because of this we are allowed to take their week long certification courses on their company campus for GIS for free which can cost thousands of dollars. Does anyone have any experience with ESRI?

eudaimonia

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Re: ESRI
« Reply #1 on: September 23, 2015, 12:20:12 PM »
Yes, I am an environmental planner who uses their GIS software. They are pretty much the defacto industry standard GIS software if you are in the planning/environmental industry.

ShoulderThingThatGoesUp

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Re: ESRI
« Reply #2 on: September 23, 2015, 12:30:52 PM »
Yes. Do it.

nereo

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Re: ESRI
« Reply #3 on: September 23, 2015, 12:31:43 PM »
Do you need to use GIS?  Would it help your career?
If so, take the course. As eudaimondia said, ESRI is the de-facto industry standard.

But... be aware that learning GIS involves a steep learning curve.  It's incredibly powerful (especially with spatial statistics) but it's not like opening up Google Earth.  It takes dozens (hundreds) of hours to become a "GIS wizard".

Andrew928

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Re: ESRI
« Reply #4 on: September 23, 2015, 12:34:03 PM »
As of right now I will not be using it in my current profession but it is something that would interest me and I can put on my resume, the company is also constantly opening new offices slowly spreading east, could help with that as I climb the ladder?

nereo

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Re: ESRI
« Reply #5 on: September 23, 2015, 12:37:29 PM »
As of right now I will not be using it in my current profession but it is something that would interest me and I can put on my resume, the company is also constantly opening new offices slowly spreading east, could help with that as I climb the ladder?
"the company" being ESRI?  As we've said, ESRI is the industry standard... they're the only company that you think about when someone says "GIS".  They're like Adobe for photo-editing (photoshop).
It's free - if you want to learn GIS or it will help your career, go for it. 

Andrew928

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Re: ESRI
« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2015, 12:40:15 PM »
The company that I currently work at, not ESRI

nereo

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Re: ESRI
« Reply #7 on: September 23, 2015, 12:50:26 PM »
The company that I currently work at, not ESRI
Got it.  Well, even if you jump companies, everyone who works with GIS will recognize ESRI and having some basic training can only be good for you.  You won't be a master after a 1 week course.

Andrew928

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Re: ESRI
« Reply #8 on: September 23, 2015, 06:45:35 PM »
Thank you for the replies everyone.

SwordGuy

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Re: ESRI
« Reply #9 on: September 23, 2015, 06:50:11 PM »
For free?  Do it even if you can't think of a way it will help your career.   Because it will.

Andrew928

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Re: ESRI
« Reply #10 on: September 23, 2015, 06:58:41 PM »
I am pretty over school as of late but figure it would be a good opportunity to better myself.

SwordGuy

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Re: ESRI
« Reply #11 on: September 23, 2015, 07:38:45 PM »
Commercial software training courses aren't like college classes.
They are focused on immediate results.

"Here's how the darn stuff works.  Ok, got that?  Then we're done."

No research papers, etc.

wenchsenior

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Re: ESRI
« Reply #12 on: September 24, 2015, 08:26:11 AM »
Opportunity for training in the industry standard for GIS? If you think you might ever use it, DO IT.

hyla

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Re: ESRI
« Reply #13 on: September 24, 2015, 01:49:54 PM »
Sounds like a good opportunity, but be aware that ESRI software is insanely pricey, so it may be difficult to afford ArcMap software for your computer and keep the skills you learn current and learn new things.  You can probably get cheaper student licenses while you are in school.  ESRI also offers 1 month trial ArcMap licenses if you need to update a project and can do it quickly.  I've also heard of folks purchasing (and repurchasing) GIS textbooks even if they don't need the book cause some textbooks come with a trial version of ArcMap and it's a relatively affordable way to get your hands on the software.

mlejw6

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Re: ESRI
« Reply #14 on: September 24, 2015, 02:15:17 PM »
Adding in my 2 cents. ESRI is like the Google of geographic analysis. They have the industry influence; everyone knows their software, even if they use QGIS (opensource GIS). I would take whatever free classes you can take. If you find you don't really enjoy it, you can quit.

forummm

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Re: ESRI
« Reply #15 on: September 24, 2015, 02:17:05 PM »
GIS is a very nice tool. IME people who use GIS do it full time or regularly because it takes effort to be and stay good at it.

I'm curious to hear how it would apply to the bail bonds industry though.

nereo

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Re: ESRI
« Reply #16 on: September 25, 2015, 05:43:48 AM »
I'm curious to hear how it would apply to the bail bonds industry though.
... Well, I suppose one could fairly easily enter in all the known home and work addresses of the bail-bond clients, plus the home and work addresses of immediate family members.  Then combine that with an overlay of average incomes across the city.  From that you could (i suppose) create a "heat-map/kreging plot" that should show the areas of the city where potential 'clients' are most likely to be found should they ...ahem... skip out on the check.  One could even adjust for attributes like "strip-clubs" or "pool-halls" if the client is known to frequent such institutions.
People are creatures of habit and tend to stay close to areas they know.

just a hypothetical...

monstermonster

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Re: ESRI
« Reply #17 on: September 25, 2015, 09:21:19 AM »
Learn ARCgis. Even if you don't master it, knowing the basics of how it functions is great. You can use open source GrassGIS and other platforms to keep up - or you can use the "developer credits" that ESRI gives to essentially get free access to the software (not good for extended research, great for running regressions/analysis for a few projects a year.)

Source: did a thesis using ARC, SO works for ESRI